Evaluation effective social Indicators on urban environment for the residents of Bandar Lange city

Subject Areas : environment planning

Zohreh Fani ¹ (proffesor Faculty member, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran)
Sadaf Sahraeian ² (Master of Geography and Urban Planning (Urban Environment Planning), Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran)
sajad saeedi ³ (Master of Geography and Urban Planning (Urban Environment Planning), Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran)

Received: 2023-01-30 Accepted : 2023-04-04 Published : 2023-04-21

Keywords: environment, behavior, Attitude, Bandar Lengeh, awareness,

Abstract :

Unbridled expansion of urban centers has increased environmental concerns for citizens. One of the solutions and methods to prevent the destruction of the urban environment is to increase the awareness, attitude and behavior of citizens towards naturalistic dimensions. The current research was conducted with the aim of investigating the social indicators effective in the emergence of environmental awareness, behavior and attitudes of the citizens of Bandarlenge city. The information is descriptive-analytical, using the Cochran sampling method, 374 people from the statistical population of Bandarlenge city have been selected as the research sample. Based on previous studies, the variables of this research included the components of environmental behavior (a set of people's actions towards environmental issues), environmental attitude (a set of beliefs and related to the environment) and environmental awareness (knowledge and literacy related to the environment). And the data collection was done by questionnaire method and the data was analyzed using spss software. In order to investigate the relationship between gender and the level of knowledge, attitude and behavior of people, the Mann-Whitney test was used, and the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to investigate the relationship between the level of education and the mentioned items. The most respondents in terms of gender are women in the age group of 25 to 40, and the most respondents in terms of education are people with bachelor's and master's degrees. The current research showed that despite the existence of proper awareness about the environment, the majority of people have a poor behavior in relation to the environment. Also, environmental awareness cannot guarantee the emergence of appropriate behavior and attitude of people because other conditions such as structural factors, individual ability, experience and habits are also influential in the formation of environmental behaviorsExtended AbstractIntroduction:       Concerns about the environment and the destructive effects that threaten it are increasing, and the unrestrained expansion of urban centers has caused an increase in environmental concerns for citizens, and this issue has become a global issue that has caused the preservation of And environmental protection is considered essential. One of the solutions to prevent damage to the environment and its destruction is to change human behavior in a direction that pays more attention to preserving and expanding nature. In this regard, awareness of environmental issues and individual naturalistic attitude of each person is usually considered a prerequisite for environmental concerns. The first condition is what causes social participation in the environment and how to obtain this awareness and attitude is very important. The current research was conducted with the aim of investigating the social indicators effective in the emergence of environmental awareness, behavior and attitudes of the citizens of Bandarlenge city.Methodology:      The present study was conducted in Bandarlenge city by descriptive-analytical method. The statistical population includes people in the age range of 15 to 65 years, with a population of 13,330 people and a history of more than 3 years of residence in Bandarlenge city. And by using Cochran's sampling method, with an error level of 5%, 374 people from this statistical population have been selected as the sample size of the research. Collecting data using a four-part questionnaire (individual characteristics, awareness, attitude, behavior) which was reviewed and collected through articles and library sources. Sampling is based on a random method. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests were used in the data analysis in SPSS software.Results and discussion:      According to the obtained information, it was found that the most respondents in terms of gender are women in the age group of 25 to 40, and the most respondents in terms of education are people with bachelor's and master's degrees. Also, the people of Bandarlenge city get most of their environmental information from mass media, especially television and radio, especially illiterate, low-educated, old and middle-aged people, and they get the least amount of information from environmental organizations. To check the environmental knowledge of women and men, the Mann-Whitney statistical test was used. Given that the significance level is higher than 0.05, the null hypothesis is confirmed in all three parts of environmental awareness, attitude and behavior, the significance level is higher than 0.05. and based on this, the obtained results show that men and women did not have significant differences in environmental awareness, attitude and behavior. Of course, in the knowledge section, the average score of women was slightly higher, in the attitude section, the average score of men was slightly higher, and in the behavior section, the average score of women was higher than men. For the difference in environmental awareness, attitude and behavior of citizens in different educational levels, the statistical method used to compare the four groups of sub-diploma, diploma and post-diploma, bachelor and post-graduate, Ph.D. is Cross-Cal-Wallis test. In the awareness section, considering that the level of significance was not significantly different from each other; The average is slightly higher in bachelor's and master's degrees. In the attitude section, considering that the level of significance did not have a significant difference with each other and the average was slightly higher in the bachelor's and master's degrees. In the behavior section, considering that the level of significance did not have a significant difference with each other; And the average was slightly higher in the sub-diploma level. The awareness of 15-18 year olds due to their young age and not having the necessary and sufficient education in the educational levels did not answer properly because the questions are challenging and require training in these fields; In the case of illiterates and primary education, this issue has been observed more strongly; But regarding post-diploma education and above, especially those who had units related to the environment in their academic and university units, they answered the questions of awareness correctly, so it can be concluded that awareness and knowledge about the environment is necessary and this awareness depends on individuals. They have knowledge of men in this field. It should be mentioned that questions related to awareness are questions that require environmental literacy. According to the findings, the attitude and behavior of the people of Bandarlenge city is estimated to be good, but there are some other important points, such as, it is true that some people (primary education and even illiterate) have less environmental literacy. But they have acted completely differently in the emergence of environmentalist behavior and attitude. In other words, it can be said that the elderly and illiterate people, compared to the educated and younger ones, had a better performance in preserving, maintaining, restoring and creating a better environment in the city, as well as being more enthusiastic and active and even using new methods in creating the city environment.Conclusion:      The present study showed that despite the awareness and appropriate attitude of the citizens of Bandarlenge towards the environmental situation, it has not led to environmental protection behaviors. Also, environmental awareness cannot guarantee the emergence of appropriate behavior and attitude of people because other conditions such as structural factors, individual ability, experience and habits are also influential in the formation of environmental behaviors and according to the information obtained, it was found that those who They have higher education, they do not necessarily have environmental attitude and behavior. It was also found that the elderly perform better in relation to the environment, which they knew due to their long years of experience and the information obtained from mass media, especially television and radio. Also, this performance was observed in students who worked much more and patiently to preserve the environment and considered maintaining and expanding a healthy environment as a priority. In order to improve the status of social indicators affecting the environmental conditions of Bandarlenge city and similar cities in the country, it is suggested to create a platform for residents to communicate and interact with each other and finally to interact with managers and planners and establish two-way communication between people and decision makers, as well as for Creating awareness and knowledge of the environment, which are effective factors on responsible behavior, should be done through public education for the use of mass communication tools and environmental conferences, which will provide grounds for compiling articles, proposals, compositions and scientific initiatives of students in the society.

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