Ph.D

The public thesis defense of Maryam Naghibi scheduled for Monday 24 January at 5:00 p.m. will take place in the form of a video conference. Her Ph.D. thesis titled “Intervention Model on Leftover Spaces to Promote Socio-Ecologically Resilience in Urban Landscape” was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Mohsen Faizi, Dr. Ahmad Ekhlassi, and the advisory of Prof. Mostafa Behzadfar.
Abstract:
 
Urban space is the result of interaction between the built environment, urban processes, and individual experience. Many spaces are constantly being challenged and rebuilt, including spaces that appear to be "abandoned." Rapid urbanization causes problems of urban development and construction. Considering cities from a landscape perspective, they are highly fragmented lands consisting of built and vacant lands, developed and derelict buildings, and infrastructure. Over the past few decades, urban shrinking, decentralization, population decline in cities, and deindustrialization have caused many residual spaces. While vacant lands are associated with slumps, crime, and unsightly spaces, they can use as an ecological, economic, and social resource.
A large body of literature recognizes that negative connotations of residual spaces can overshadow positive aspects. However, studies show that vacancy can also be a valuable resource for communities, economies, and environments. Therefore, there has been an increase in transforming these informal spaces into formal spaces in the landscape. Such transformations could improve sustainability by increasing the balance among different aspects of social well-being, environmental protection, and economic development and providing opportunities for urban redevelopment.
Leftover spaces are part of the infrastructure that can improve social situations and ecological conditions and presents an alternative to contemporary public spaces. In addition, a better appreciation of the public value of urban vacant land is vital for any effort to identify a stronger understanding of its value in terms of the ecological and social benefits. They are latent places with special qualities that should be understood and respected to create predictable designs.
In order to convert these abounded areas to opportunities for enhancing the social-ecological systems, there is still a need for research on how to intervene in the social and environmental conditions, management practices, land uses, and vacant land type. In this regard, a comprehensive review of the literature and case studies on the reuse/revitalization of vacant lands to better understand the ecological and social opportunities is essential. Thus, the knowledge of architects and urban planners about the role of vacant lands in healthy, habitable, and sustainable cities can be improved.
In recent decades, planning and intervention in small-scale areas have been used as a new tool to manage public affairs, urban development, and policies. These programs have increased public participation. Therefore, planning and intervention in small areas can facilitate the programs in metropolitan cities. In addition, urban planning is sometimes prolonged and challenging. Therefore, strategies such as acupuncture can be a response to enhance the city's quality through small interventions at critical parts of the city.
The current study seeks to identify the typology of vacant lots and their roles as green infrastructure in providing socio-ecological aspects in the urban landscape. The current study seeks to identify the typology of vacant lots and their roles as green infrastructure in providing socio-ecological aspects in the urban landscape. Recognizing a set of indicators to address urban form scale is an important subject, which will be part of a broader effort to develop a new approach to designing flexible space and the quantitative and qualitative monitoring of the urban landscape. This study was conducted in urban landscapes to promote landscape resilience and knowledge of the intervention process in abandoned spaces after enhancing the adaptability of abandoned spaces. Applying urban acupuncture as an intervention approach, this study is one of the first attempts in Iran to improve social and ecological resilience criteria simultaneously. According to abandoned spaces, resilience, and urban acupuncture, the literature review was done to explore the creation of abandoned spaces, typology, and potential values. After determining the initial characteristics and components of the leftover spaces, Twenty-two specialists were invited from several domains and disciplines (architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, and urban design). The data were statistically analyzed in MICMAC to examine the inter-relationships between characteristics for the resilience landscape of residual spaces. Experts were invited to identify the main research variables and sub-criteria in the next stage and reduce the research variables. Based on the most relevant attributes and levels identified from the previous section, a questionnaire was conducted, and Sixteen experts have prioritized the research variables. After determining the key components (flexibility, diversity, and density of trees, type of activity, Connectivity, and water), scenarios were designed. According to the literature review, five types of leftover spaces have been selected. In order to find users' opinions, a Choice-based conjoint questionnaire was distributed among the residents in Tehran. The best scenario is applied to selected types of leftover spaces. Finally, both people's perceptions and preferences were evaluated by questionnaires and brain waves. After processing the signals, the extracted features are investigated with artificial intelligence. Statistical and spectral characteristics of EEG data were analyzed for two cases: emotion recognition and events. The importance of EEG bands and brain lobes employ machine learning techniques such as a Support Vector Machine (SVM).
Most of the critical variables for the future were located in the planning area. The second level of hierarchal structure is related to the environmental and ecological areas, and Economic and aesthetic levels are seen at the third level. Variables such as modularity, redundancy, and diversity are located here. This study also refers to the social area at the fourth level of intervention engaging with the activity, Connectivity, accessibility, maintenance, and efficiency. Flexibility has the most direct influences, following the Activity connectivity, accessibility, and efficiency. Followed by the identification of interventions, the principles were applied to the five types of leftover spaces. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the principles in all scenarios. The classification by artificial intelligence implies a high accuracy in distinguishing signals between leftover spaces and designed types. Also, the signals recorded indicate the differentiation of people's perceptions in different types of designed spaces.
 
Keywords: leftover spaces, Urban landscape, Socio-ecological resilience, Urban acupuncture, Intervention, Artificial intelligence, Neuroscience