PUBLIC OPEN SPACES - LANDSCAPE SETTING: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO USER PARTICIPATION

Abstract

Urban landscape design has become an important part in our lives and played an important role in directing the people thoughts. One of the most discussed problems that residents didn’t find their comfort zone in their neighborhoods so they withdraw from it to find a well-designed recreational area. This withdrawal from their surrounding landscape happened due to the isolation process between the local inhabitants and their environments in the sense of a lacking interactivity between them. Thus, there is a direct relationship between residents and their surrounding environments. On one hand the environment gives individuals outline to fulfill their tangible needs. On the other hand, individuals must develop themselves to create a well-being surrounding environment.

The research aim of the research is to adapt appropriate landscape design with special entities of guidelines for the landscape process along with the concept of community participation.

In order to implement the above-mentioned stages, the study comprised two parts. Part one deals with the theoretical part of the study, which establishes the bases for the applied study, covered in the second part.

Chapter One: The first chapter implies the research introduction, problem definition, research objectives, research questions, research methodology, and research structure. Chapter Two: This chapter starts with providing a definition of urban landscape and discusses the importance of designing landscape (or open green space) as communication resource. Chapter Three: This chapter includes examples and discussion of practices and projects, including Theoretical applications, limitations, and barriers to the sustainable design of public open space. The second part of this chapter examines psycho-social effects of participatory techniques in landscape planning. This chapter shows the recreation need in urban green space and the advantages and disadvantages of citizen participation. Also, decides who needs to be involved in decision analysis, and clarify the steps of participation and the criteria of good participation. Chapter Four: will analyze three international selected in planned areas defined by participatory method that will output some principles for public participation methods in open spaces to be able to get out with from chapter four and literature. It will set different guidelines for creating for ideal participatory design in open spaces Chapter Five: The chapter provides detail of the practical study of community participation on selected case studies, and gets examples of participatory landscape projects and two surveys done Chapter Six: In this chapter the results and findings of the thesis from the previous chapters are analyzed and their validity and reliability are discussed then general recommendations for future research will also be discussed in this chapter. The study ends by drawing conclusions from both parts of the research – the theoretical and applied. It also offers recommendations for the current status and further research concerning the key issue of community participation, and the related public urban open spaces. The recommendations, collectively, focus on the importance of urban open spaces related to community participation.