Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

CITIZENS COLOR PREFERENCES IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE BASED ON PARTICIPATION-BASED APPROACH

Elham Zabetian, Ali Reza Sadeghi and Arsam Salahi Moghadam

Abstract

Color is an important element used in the urban landscaping that can highly affect the enhancement of the urban identity and social-environmental sustainability. This research aims at identifying and evaluating citizens’ feelings and color preferences in the urban landscape through their own participation and, therefore,effort has been made to analyze such preferences in a public urban space (a section of Nawab Safavi Highway as an example) through the VEP (Visitor Employed Photography) method that obtains people’s opinions about their perceptions of the colorful landscapes. For this purpose, the evaluation variables were extracted and the related pictorial questionnaires were designed. The statistical population of this research, determined through the cluster sampling method, included three groups of residents, workers, and pedestrians. The qualitative and quantitative analyses were carried out using such tools as the SPSS and Image Color Analyzer and the results were incorporated in the colorful landscape planning of the area under investigation to reflect the citizens’ color preferences. Based on the conclusions derived, some suggestions are: 1) sequencing the urban spaces and perception of color combinations in each sequence using color analyzing software programs, 2) determining dominant colors in each sequence and the needs to add or reduce colors considering their harmony pattern, 3) determining the dominant role and performance of each urban space and the color palette fitting its function, and 4) studying the city’s prevailing climate and extracting the principles required for its mitigation using a colored landscape.