ارزیابی تجربه شهر دوستدار کودک بم

Today’s children will be women and men of the future, and these children will play a key role in the future of every country. It should be noted that cities and urban spaces can be good or bad places for children’s growth and development. Cities and urban spaces have young and sharp users whose perception of urban spaces is substantially different from other age groups’ perceptions. Nevertheless, a large number of existing cities and urban spaces are just built according to adults’ features and perceptions, and children’s characteristics, needs, activities, and perceptions have been neglected in the design and planning of plenty of existing cities and urban spaces. As a result, these cities and urban spaces are not apt spaces for children’s growth, and in some cases they make children feel bored and behave abnormally; furthermore, they stifle children’s creativity. In effect, children as citizens of society have some rights, and they should not be overlooked in the creation of cities and urban spaces. Today, more attention is paid to children’s rights in society, and child-friendly cities are suitable places to achieve this important goal, and these cities are appropriate for children’s growth. In recent years, several cities in the world, including some cities in Iran, have sought to provide suitable conditions for children in the city spaces and become a child-friendly city. It should be mentioned that child-friendly cities are a fairly new concept in Iran, and the only Iranian city that has been recognized as a child-friendly city by UNICEF is Bam. After the devastating 2003 earthquake in Bam, UNICEF, the government of Iran, and other institutions launched the child-friendly city project in Bam. This research aims to evaluate the child-friendly city project in Bam and provide some policies to improve this project according to the indicators obtained from scholars’ opinions and global experience related to the research topic. It should be noted that this study is a descriptive-analytical research, and suses the content analysis method. Moreover, the required information in this study was collected through documentary research. To this should be added that results of this study show that safety and security, access to appropriate basic facilities and services, children’s participation, the existence of recreational and play environments for children, the existence of green and natural spaces, and proper access to them, traffic calming and the existence of appropriate public transportation and pedestrian routes and cycle lanes, and the existence of suitable facilities and environment for children’s learning and development are the most important indicators of a child-friendly city. In addition, the results of this study indicate that some of the child-friendly city indicators have been considered in the design, planning, and implementation of the child-friendly city project in Bam, some of which are: safety and security, access to appropriate basic facilities and services (health, educational, and sports facilities and services), the existence of recreational and play environments for children, the existence of creative spaces for children, the existence of right conditions for children’s learning and development, the existence of suitable housing and appropriate places of residence, children’s participation, interactions with the family and relatives and friends and society, protection of nature and the environment, sustainable environment, an increase in the awareness about children’s rights, the existence of green and natural spaces and proper access to them, and traffic calming and the existence of appropriate public transportation and pedestrian routes and cycle lanes. However, this project did not completely meet children’s needs and wills related to the indicators of the provision of public health, safety, and security, access to appropriate basic facilities and services, and the existence of green and natural spaces and proper access to them. Indeed, children were dissatisfied with the unsafe access routes to child-friendly spaces, the entrance of strangers into the children’s spaces, the small dimensions of tents and shelters, rain penetration into the tents and shelters, cold/hot air flow penetration into the tents, the odor of tents and shelters and toilets, the usage of dark tents for children, unhygienic and unsafe toilets, the absence of separate classes for different gender and age groups, the lack of suitable educational equipment, the usage of same educational equipment and curriculum for different age groups, the absence of appropriate educational equipment for disabled children, and the lack of green spaces in some areas. It should be noted that to improve this project, some policies, such as rebuilding access routes to child-friendly spaces, building some guard booths in some parts of children’s routes and spaces, considering climate factors in the design and using vernacular architecture in this regard, utilizing large waterproof tents, designing colorful tents emblazoned with children’s designs, separating classes by gender and age, separating toilets and improving toilet hygiene, constructing more toilets, providing adequate suitable educational equipment for different age groups, supplying appropriate educational equipment for children with disabilities, and creating more green spaces, should have been adopted in this project.