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Evaluation of Service Quality of Tehran Urban Parks and Their Ranking Using Grey Relational Analysis Method: A Case Study of District 17
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Morteza Zangeneh *   |
| University of Guilan |
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Abstract: (3964 Views) |
Introduction
Today, services are considered an integral part of urban life. Tehran Municipality, as the custodian of green spaces in Tehran, pays special attention to the quantitative and qualitative development of green spaces in Tehran. Therefore, trying to identify the demands and expectations of the people of Tehran as customers of this organization, from the current services in the field of urban green spaces in order to improve the quality of services is necessary. In order to evaluate the quality of services of organizations, different methods and models have been used by researchers. The SERVQUAL model is one of the most important models used. Therefore, in this article, this model has been used due to its importance in research in the field of service quality evaluation. The general hypothesis of this research is based on the fact that the expectations of the citizens of Tehran's 17th district from the quality of green space services are significantly different from the current situation. To test the general hypothesis, the normality of the population was first examined using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and the Shapiro-Wilk test. The results of the study of the normality of the statistical population show that the level of significance of most dimensions is less than 0.05, so the null hypothesis is rejected and that population is not normal. Therfore, the Wilcoxon statistical test was selected to test the research hypotheses.
Materials and methods
This study was conducted in three parts. In the first part, using the SERVQUAL model, the quality of green spaces, which is a service from the municipality to the people, was examined and analyzed from the perspective of clients in the parks of District 17. Using SERVQUAL model, the quality of green space services was evaluated using 27 statements in five dimensions. Wilcoxon test was used to analyze the dimensions of service quality. According to the results of this test, there is a significant difference between the importance of factors affecting the quality of green spaces in the eyes of citizens and their satisfaction with these factors. In the second part of the study, the parks were evaluated in terms of two aspects of the physical appearance and the maintenance of the park. In order to evaluate each park, by surveying the parks, a score between zero and seven was assigned to each statement based on the Likert scale. A higher score means higher quality of the proposition. After collecting the scores of each park, the total score of each dimension of service quality was calculated. Then, using the Grey Relational Analysis method, the parks were ranked. In the third part, how the citizens use the parks of the region, including motivation, feeling, number of times, time and duration of the visit were studied. In this study, we tried to use most tangible quality statements to evaluate the quality of services and ranking of parks in District 17. However, in order to identify other citizens' expectations from the facilities and services of urban parks, another questionnaire was designed and completed using the interview method.
Results and discussion
The results of the first part of the research show that the lowest level of satisfaction is related to press kiosks, buffets, toilets, sportswear locker rooms, lighting facilities, cultural product booths and park security. The results of the second part showed that Abuzar, Jihad and Zamzam parks have the highest rank and carnation, sun and youth parks have the lowest rank. In the third part of the study, the study of citizens' motivation to visit the parks of the region showed that being with children and being next to nature is the most important motivation of citizens in the region to visit the parks. These two factors reflect two important facts about District 17. Due to the large population of the region, one of the most important gathering places for families and children and adolescents is the parks of the region. Also other expectations of citizens can be categorized as follows: increasing the facilities of parks, increasing children's play equipments, cleanliness, tidiness, security, creating changing rooms for sports fields, adapting sports facilities for the elderly, expanding the area of parks, creating special skating and cycling routes, installing electric play equipment, collecting annoying and addicted people, creating safe and comfortable places for women and children, creating a parking lot and increasing the safety of children's playground equipment, creating cultural facilities in parks.
Conclusion
The results of this study generally show that the quality of services in the parks of District 17 is not in a good condition. The results of the qualitative evaluation help the district managers to plan and take action to correct the propositions that have caused the most gaps in the SERVQUAL model by studying them. More citizen satisfaction can be achieved in this way. Using the ranking, the municipality of District 17 can effectively prioritize the allocation of funds to improve the quality of green space in the parks of the district. The results of this study can provide managers with a good understanding of the situation of citizens' use of park services in the region and help them to plan to increase the quality of use of park services.
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| Keywords: Quality, SERVQUAL, Services, Green Spaces, Satisfaction. |
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Full-Text [PDF 2056 kb]
(699 Downloads)
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Type of Study: Applicable |
Subject:
Special
Received: 2019/08/5 | Accepted: 2021/04/25 | Published: 2021/12/21
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