In spite of its influential history of saffron production and carpet weaving, as well as its notable urban historic fabric, the historic city of Birjand, Iran, has lost its original appeal due to various social, cultural, economic, and physical problems. This research investigates the potential for heritage tourism to help regenerate a declining historic city by utilizing urban cultural capital. This case study utilizes a conceptual framework of current trends in urban renewal and cultural assets, as well as a SWOT-ANP approach to understand the primary ways in which a declining urban destination can utilize its cultural heritage to regenerate physically, socially and economically. Findings suggest that successful implementation or urban regeneration through heritage tourism occurs when a city makes maximum use of opportunities in four areas: cultural policy-making, holding cultural events, participatory management, and enhancement of public urban spaces through competitive/pro-action, diversification, revision and defence strategies.

Blue and green spaces contribute to the quality of cities in various ways—ranging from providing air corridors and visual amenities to positively affecting public psychological health and wellbeing. Urban blue and green spaces had geopolitical and agricultural functions in the past. These functions are still evident in many cities. They also provide ecological qualities for the surrounding (sub)urban neighborhoods. While in recent decades, many studies have explored the features and characteristics of urban blue and green spaces that are associated with positive health benefits, the healthy lifestyle promoting role of artificial water canals has received little attention. This case report investigates the canals in Isfahan from Iran that branch off from the Zayandeh Rood River and provide blue and green corridors to the city. The aim of this case report study is to explore the health aspects of urban water canals in physical, mental, and social dimensions based on the residents’ experiences. The study develops a framework for assessing the quality of therapeutic effect of canals in Isfahan, Iran. The paper employs qualitative content analysis as the methodological approach. In total, 200 people from the residential neighborhoods of the Niasarm Canal participated in semi-structured interviews in early 2018. The results of this research reveal that the canal—with ‘upgrade of active life’, ‘sense of rehabilitation, relaxation and concentration along with the canal’, ‘promotion of social life’, and ‘place identity’ characteristics—plays an important therapeutic role on the physical, psychological, and social health conditions of local residents.

Background: “Active aging” is an inclusive term and has been defined from a variety of aspects in different domains throughout the literature. The aim of this review was to identify those aspects that play significant roles in building this concept using an ecological approach.Methods: In this study, seven online databases, including JSTOR, Pub-Med, Web of Science, Google Scholar, ProQuest, EBSCO, and Scopus, were searched from 2002 to 2018 for both qualitative and quantitative articles published in English. Two reviewers independently found the related articles using the search terms “active aging” and “built environment” and included both “ageing” and “aging”.Results: Of 1500 records which passed the screening stage, 92 were eligible for inclusion in the review. A total of 15 subthemes were derived: (1) personal characteristics, (2) behavioral attitude, (3) land use, (4) access, (5) physical form, (6) cityscape/city image, (7) public open spaces, (8) housing, (9) social environment, (10) cultural Environment, (11) economic environment, (12) good governance, (13) physical health, (14) mental health, and (15) social health. Ecological themes of active aging can be defined as the 5P model: person, processes, place, prime, and policymaking.Conclusions: The results of this study can shed light on different aspects of active aging. Also, the results emphasized the significance of the multidimensional nature of active aging, micro (person), meso (process), and macro systems (place and policymaking), based on health (prime) environments. Moreover, the results were based on the relationships between the person and the environment at the individual, interpersonal, and environmental levels, which can be used to conduct future studies and develop policies on aging populations.

Urban resilience is one of the most debated concepts that confronts environmental, socioeconomic, and political uncertainty and risk. Decision-makers cannot deploy substantial principles of resilience in urban design practice unless they have a vivid operational definition. To form a clear definition for Resilient Urban Design (RUD) in practice, this research connects the approach of urban resilience and urban design principles. This framework includes extracted attributes from urban resilience criteria through morphological, perceptual, functional, social, economic, governance, and ecological urban design dimensions. Then, 10 academic experts in urban design and planning conducted stages of screening, validation, and analysis using the Delphi technique and Shannon method. Results reveal that criteria of Good Governance, Innovation, Diversity, Adaptive Design, Redundancy, Robustness, Social Learning, Connectivity, Legibility, Identity, and Social Capital are all incorporated in the formation of the concept of RUD. These elements imply a more profound basis to make decisions, affecting resilient built environments.

Introduction: Aging is an inevitable process that leads to changes in various dimensions of older adult life, including physical, psychological, and social aspects. Unfortunately, older adults are more susceptible to health problems caused by adverse experiences such as the Corona outbreak.Aim: The current study examines the lived experience of older adults in facing the conditions of the Corona epidemic to see how green spaces at various scales can influence the physical and mental health of this group.Method: Relevant articles published, from 2019 to February 17, 2023, were searched using in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Eligible studies published in English and all studies passed a quality evaluation.Result: In the final search, 40 articles were selected and analyzed. The majority of studies conducted during the pandemic categorized the impact of green spaces on the health of older adults into three main categories: Place-based attribute, Process, and Function.Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrated that people were using private green spaces (gardens, balconies, etc.), small local green public spaces, sitting and gathering spaces in the neighborhood, nearby open spaces, and urban green-blue spaces throughout the epidemic era. They visited green spaces outside the city and urban areas, including urban gardens, agricultural areas, forestlands, and pastures. In this research, we investigated the characteristics of these spaces and classified them into four physical categories: urban landscape, land use, activity, movement, and accessibility. The results showed that exposure to nature or green space improved physical and mental health and increased attention and decision-making quality in older people. We have proposed design implications recommendations for crises to improve safety, security, and social capital by increasing the safe access of older adults to diverse and high-quality green spaces on different scales, which will ultimately enhance the physical and mental health of people in different age groups.