scholarly journals The impact of potted street gardens on depression levels in a dense residential neighborhood: case of Beni-Makada, Tangier

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdellah Afrad ◽  
Yoshiyuki Kawazoe

<p>The data used is from a face-to-face survey (N=388) we conducted in January 2019, in the Beni-Makada district of Tangier, Morocco. The neighborhood is one of the most disadvantaged (World Bank. 2012), with the smallest per-capita green space of 0.27m2 in the city (OPEMH, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung foundation, 2016).<br></p><p>The district is famous for the abundance of street potted gardens, widely mediatized during the 22<sup>nd</sup> conference of parties (COP22) organized in 2016 in Morocco. It houses more than 40% of Tangier’s population, mostly middle-low to low-income, living in individual houses (Modern Moroccan houses) built directly to the property line, 65% of urban families in Morocco live in the same housing type (RGPH 2014). All SPGs observed in the study area were present in the public domain, the vast majority were back to back with owners’ houses, except for two narrow streets where SPGs were at the center to barre access to cars.<br>The questionnaire was tested and verified with focus groups in Arabic before being conducted in Morocco. The final version was composed of four parts and 36 questions. </p><div>Part one inquired about PSGs size, age, maintenance, in addition to recreational activities done next to it. </div><div>Part two had eighteen questions measuring neighborhood satisfaction, cleanliness, safety, noise annoyance social capital, neighborhood life quality, and belonging pride perception. </div><div>In part three, we measured depression levels using the Arabic version of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).</div><div>And in part four, we had demographic questions.</div><div>The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS 25.</div>

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdellah Afrad ◽  
Yoshiyuki Kawazoe

<p>The data used is from a face-to-face survey (N=388) we conducted in January 2019, in the Beni-Makada district of Tangier, Morocco. The neighborhood is one of the most disadvantaged (World Bank. 2012), with the smallest per-capita green space of 0.27m2 in the city (OPEMH, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung foundation, 2016).<br></p><p>The district is famous for the abundance of street potted gardens, widely mediatized during the 22<sup>nd</sup> conference of parties (COP22) organized in 2016 in Morocco. It houses more than 40% of Tangier’s population, mostly middle-low to low-income, living in individual houses (Modern Moroccan houses) built directly to the property line, 65% of urban families in Morocco live in the same housing type (RGPH 2014). All SPGs observed in the study area were present in the public domain, the vast majority were back to back with owners’ houses, except for two narrow streets where SPGs were at the center to barre access to cars.<br>The questionnaire was tested and verified with focus groups in Arabic before being conducted in Morocco. The final version was composed of four parts and 36 questions. </p><div>Part one inquired about PSGs size, age, maintenance, in addition to recreational activities done next to it. </div><div>Part two had eighteen questions measuring neighborhood satisfaction, cleanliness, safety, noise annoyance social capital, neighborhood life quality, and belonging pride perception. </div><div>In part three, we measured depression levels using the Arabic version of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).</div><div>And in part four, we had demographic questions.</div><div>The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS 25.</div>


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdellah Afrad ◽  
Yoshiyuki Kawazoe

<p>The data used is from a face-to-face survey (N=388) we conducted in January 2019, in the Beni-Makada district of Tangier, Morocco. The neighborhood is one of the most disadvantaged (World Bank. 2012), with the smallest per-capita green space of 0.27m2 in the city (OPEMH, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung foundation, 2016).<br></p><p>The district is famous for the abundance of street potted gardens, widely mediatized during the 22<sup>nd</sup> conference of parties (COP22) organized in 2016 in Morocco. It houses more than 40% of Tangier’s population, mostly middle-low to low-income, living in individual houses (Modern Moroccan houses) built directly to the property line, 65% of urban families in Morocco live in the same housing type (RGPH 2014). All SPGs observed in the study area were present in the public domain, the vast majority were back to back with owners’ houses, except for two narrow streets where SPGs were at the center to barre access to cars.<br>The questionnaire was tested and verified with focus groups in Arabic before being conducted in Morocco. The final version was composed of four parts and 36 questions. </p><div>Part one inquired about PSGs size, age, maintenance, in addition to recreational activities done next to it. </div><div>Part two had eighteen questions measuring neighborhood satisfaction, cleanliness, safety, noise annoyance social capital, neighborhood life quality, and belonging pride perception. </div><div>In part three, we measured depression levels using the Arabic version of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).</div><div>And in part four, we had demographic questions.</div><div>The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS 25.</div>


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4105
Author(s):  
Yupei Jiang ◽  
Honghu Sun

Leisure walking has been an important topic in space-time behavior and public health research. However, prior studies pay little attention to the integration and the characterization of diverse and multilevel demands of leisure walking. This study constructs a theoretical framework of leisure walking behavior demands from three different dimensions and levels of activity participation, space-time opportunity, and health benefit. On this basis, through a face-to-face survey in Nanjing, China (N = 1168, 2017–2018 data), this study quantitatively analyzes the characteristics of leisure walking demands, as well as the impact of the built environment and individual factors on it. The results show that residents have a high demand for participation and health benefits of leisure walking. The residential neighborhood provides more space opportunities for leisure walking, but there is a certain constraint on the choice of walking time. Residential neighborhood with medium or large parks is more likely to satisfy residents’ demands for engaging in leisure walking and obtaining high health benefits, while neighborhood with a high density of walking paths tends to limit the satisfaction of demands for space opportunity and health benefit. For residents aged 36 and above, married, or retired, their diverse demands for leisure walking are more likely to be fulfilled, while those with high education, medium-high individual income, general and above health status, or children (<18 years) are less likely to be fulfilled. These finding that can have important implications for the healthy neighborhood by fully considering diverse and multilevel demands of leisure walking behavior.


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-67
Author(s):  
Dijana Alic

On 6 april 1992, the european union (eu) recognised bosnia and hercegovina as a new independent state, no longer a part of the socialist federal republic of Yugoslavia. The event marked the start of the siege of sarajevo, which lasted nearly four years, until late february 1996. It became the longest siege in the history of modern warfare, outlasting the leningrad enclosure by a year. During its 1425 days, more than 11,500 people were killed. The attacks left a trail of destruction across the city, which began to transform it in ways not experienced before. This paper explores how the physical transformation of sarajevo affected the ways in which meaning and significance were assigned to its built fabric. I argue that the changes imposed by war and the daily destruction of the city challenged long-established relationships between the built fabric and those who inhabited the city, introducing new modes of thinking and interpreting the city. Loosely placing the discussion within the framework of ‘Thirdspace', established by urban theorist and cultural geographer edward soja, i discuss the relationship that emerged between the historicality, sociality and spatiality of war-torn sarajevo. Whether responding to the impacts of physical destruction or dramatic social change, the nexus of time, space and being shows that the concept of spatiality is essential to comprehending the world and to adjusting to and resisting the impact of extraordinary circumstances. Recognising the continuation of daily life as essential to survival sheds light on processes of renewal and change in a war-affected landscape. These shattered urban spaces also show the ways in which people make a sense of place in relation to specific socio-historical environments and political contexts.


Spatium ◽  
2007 ◽  
pp. 28-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Horatio Ikgopoleng ◽  
Branko Cavric

Botswana like other developing countries faces a problem of acute shortage of housing, particularly for low-income urban families. The current housing problems are the outcomes of the economic, demographic and social changes which the country has experienced since independence in 1966. In particular the urbanization process which surfaced in the early 1980?s. The government has sought to cope with the problem of low-income urban housing by establishing a Self-Help Housing (SHHA) program in the main urban centers. The evaluation findings reveal that, on the whole, the impact of the SHHA approach on the improvement of low-income urban housing has been unsuccessful. The major problems of the scheme are lack of serviced land and inadequate finances for plot development. This has been exacerbated by the high urban development standards which are out of the reach of low-income urban families. The evaluation study also reveals that, there are some indications of non low-income urban households living in SHHA areas. The available evidence reveals that the number of those people in SHHA areas is not as big as has been speculated by most people in the country. However this paper calls for more investigation in this issue and a need for more tight measures to control this illicit practice. The major conclusions are that housing policies in Botswana are not supportive of the general housing conditions in low-income urban areas. Therefore there is a need for urban planners and policy makers of Botswana to take more positive action towards the improvement of low-income urban areas. This would require pragmatic policies geared towards the improvement of those areas. .


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolien van Breen ◽  
Maja Kutlaca ◽  
Yasin Koc ◽  
Bertus F. Jeronimus ◽  
Anne Margit Reitsema ◽  
...  

In this work, we study how social contacts and feelings of solidarity shape experiences of loneliness during the COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020. We draw on cross-national data, collected across four time points between mid-March until early May 2020. We situate our work within the public debate on these issues and discuss to what extent the public understanding of the impact of lockdown is borne out in the data. Results show, first, that although online contacts are beneficial in combating feelings of loneliness, people who feel more lonely are less likely to make use of this strategy. Second, online contacts do not function as a substitute to face-to-face contacts - in fact, more frequent online contacts in earlier weeks predicted an increase in face-to-face contacts in later weeks. Finally, solidarity played only a small role in shaping people’s feelings of loneliness during lockdown. In sum, our findings suggest that we must look beyond the current focus on online contact and solidarity, if we want to help people address their feelings of loneliness. We hope that this work will be instrumental not only in understanding the impact of the lockdown in early 2020, but also in preparing for possible future lockdown periods.


Author(s):  
Vitalii Naumov ◽  
Laura Bekmagambetova ◽  
Zukhra Bitileuova ◽  
Zhumazhan Zhanbirov ◽  
Igor Taran

One of the main problems to be solved by the transport operators is the substantiation of the vehicle models servicing the transport lines. A gametheoretical approach is proposed in this paper to justify the bus model choice based on the passengers’ preferences and the structure of the passenger flows. To estimate the customers’ preferences, the membership functions for fuzzy sets of the optimal vehicle models were defined. The simulation experiment aiming to estimate the city fleet structure in terms of the vehicles’ capacity was conducted for the Talas city (Kazakhstan) based on the proposed approach with use of the corresponding software implementation of the developed mathematical models. As a result of the experimental studies, the impact of the passengers’ flow structure and the number of carriers on the rational structure of the city bus fleet was studied in the paper.


Author(s):  
Sean Parson

Chapter 4 discusses Mayor Frank Jordan’s (1992–1995) revanchist Matrix Quality of Life Program, which sought to enforce a broken-windows policing system in San Francisco. The impact of the policy was felt largely by the visible homeless in downtown San Francisco, who were regularly harassed and arrested by the police and forced out of the city. Because quality-of-life policing desires to sanitize the public space of disruptive and asocial behaviour, the public meals of Food Not Bombs near City Hall resisted the city’s attempt to criminalize homelessness. This chapter argues that the city attempted to construct the homeless as anti-citizens and exclude them from the political and physical spaces of the city.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 752-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej Szarata ◽  
Katarzyna Nosal ◽  
Urszula Duda-Wiertel ◽  
Lukasz Franek

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shany Payes

This article examines the impact of contact-based educational encounter strategies of shared learning on Jewish–Arab relations in Israel. It analyses a programme of education for shared life that takes place in a mixed (75% Jewish/25% Arab) city at the centre of Israel since 2012. The programme aims to mitigate Jewish–Arab relations in the city amidst tensions resulting from the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, unequal power relations and hostilities between the groups. Uniquely, it assimilates shared life education into the generally separate educational system in the city, and uses methods of shared learning – adopted and adjusted in part from an educational approach developed in Northern Ireland. Given the inequalities between Jews and Arabs in Israel, in education as well as more generally in socioeconomic parameters, this article studies the prospects of success in achieving educational and social cohesion goals through face-to-face contact and shared learning. The research is based on over 25 interviews as well as observations throughout the programme’s activities.


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