The role of Urban Natural Elements on citizens’ mental well-being: study of Isfahan’s Nazhvan park

According to many researches, city life accompanied by rapid urbanization, deprived people from accessing to nature while force them to a sedentary lifestyle, which contribute to serious health problems. conversely, the association between health and natural environmental features has been shown by many studies. The aim of this research is to evaluate the most important natural environment affecting mental health in the city from a scope review of the valuable complete researches, and investigate them in the Iranian context. This paper presents the findings from a review of the theoretical literature on the links between natural built environment and mental health. A pragmatic approach was employed, with iterative stages of searching and synthesis with the help of scope review and checklist evaluating of space.Survey investigation of literature shows that seven major features in urban natural spaces have the most effect on mental health, and among all these features, Green space, Noise quality, and blue spaces are the most prominent features.According to our results, it is showed that Nazhvan area with having great potential of one of the best public natural spaces in the Isfahan province, have almost all natural aspects of suitable space. Great features have been seen in the area affecting mental health of space user’s although some suggestion may be required to make this space more sustainable. In this regard, improving the accessibility of public natural space, and making these areas more reachable especially with the help of active and public transportation, could make for more restorative environments. Despite consideration of accessibility, it is also required to work on the noise reduction in Nazhvan space and also consider a best approach to work on a sustainable blue space program in the area considering the drying up of the Zayanderood River.

Keywords:

Mental well-being , Natural environment , urban design , Natural elements , Nazhvan