Introduction 
In the last few decades, the expansion of vehicles, space and urban passages has distanced urban design and planning from human-centeredness and the special causes of Islamic Iranian characteristics. As a result, social and cultural interactions and the values of urban spaces have decreased. The continuation of such a flow has caused the urban life of its spaces and its civilization to face damage, as well as the quality of the city spaces. Therefore, urban and civil life reaches its peak that the presence of urban residents in public spaces, while providing comfort, will lead to the acquisition of knowledge and spiritual advancement and the excellence of their collective spirit and culture. which is a function of religious values and beliefs of Islamic history and culture in the public spaces of the city [11]. Sidewalks are the place where all urban residents are present and participate in social life. Therefore, their presence in the cities helps to improve people’s mental image of the city. Therefore, the existential philosophy of sidewalks is not just the physical and communicative manifestations, but rather strengthening and stabilizing some economic issues and expanding socio-cultural interactions and creating a human scale and uses in the public space [12]. In Iranian-Islamic cities, due to the predominance of the Islamic worldview, the privacy of people in private and semi-private spaces is of particular importance. In fact, privacy has been a personal right of individuals and induces concepts such as space, privacy, territory and sphere of influence. In favorable conditions, a network of privacy hierarchies encompasses the urban space. This hierarchy starts from the residential units as the most confidential and private space and ends with the most public central space of the city [9]. For this reason, in Iranian Islamic cities, in order to eliminate isolation, social connection is given special importance. In fact, these spaces are part of the open and public spaces of cities where collective life is going on. All people are allowed to access these spaces, and social interaction and confrontation is one of its most important features. Creating relaxation, entertainment, providing communication, socializing and the possibility of movement are other functions of urban public spaces. The existence of these spaces is very effective and necessary to prevent helplessness, depression, isolation and violence. In this way, these spaces can create a situation for the growth of creativity and be a constructive environment in an urban complex [2].
The urban development of today’s cities lacks spiritual and religious principles and values, as well as native and local features and characteristics. The lack of criteria based on theoretical foundations arising from Islamic-Iranian culture has prevailed in all the elements and parts of the city [13]. Among the issues that have been emphasized in the Holy Quran and Hadith in the creation of social life is the appearance that evokes the remembrance of God. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effective factors in improving the quality of pedestrian spaces with an emphasis on the Iranian Islamic cities of Behbahan city from the residents’ point of view and to answer the following questions.
1- What are the effective indicators in planning, design, and management of urban streets according to Islamic teachings and Iranian culture?
Therefore, the current research aims to determine the effective parameters for improving the quality of pedestrian spaces as research components with a systemic approach to evaluate and analyze the effective factors of strengthening the sidewalk with an Iranian-Islamic perspective in the city of Behbahan.
Materials and Methods
The current research is practical due to the analysis and investigation of the factors affecting the improvement of the quality of pedestrian spaces, with an emphasis on the Iranian Islamic cities of Behbahan from the perspective of the residents. Its general approach is quantitative. The data collection tool is a questionnaire that was designed to study the research and the theoretical foundations of the research. It was also designed by surveying experts with five indicators in the form of 30 items in the form of a five-point Likert scale. The analyzed indicators are: 1- traffic and access (4 items); 2- public security and traffic safety (7 items); 3- physical-visual (7 items); 4- Social-functional performance (7 items) and 5- Environment (5 items) (Table 1). SPSS26 and Excel software were used to analyze data and information. Depending on the measurement level of variables, suitable tests such as Pearson’s correlation coefficient test have been used. The statistical population of the current research includes all urban residents and residents of Behbahan City, located in Khuzestan province, according to the official census of population and housing in 2015, the population of this city was equal to 122,604 people. Therefore, the statistical sample of this research was obtained based on Cochran’s 386 formula. The calculated alpha value of 0.814 represents the reliability of the questionnaire.
Findings
Data screening
In order to check the assumptions of parametric statistics, as already stated, the data of the research was measured in an interval manner, and the probability sampling method was used to select the samples. Its dimensions are in the range of +2 and -2, which shows that the assumption of normality of distribution has been met. The T-test statistical method was used to investigate and analyze the research components. Analyses were performed using spss26 software, and the level of significance for the two-domain test was considered to be equal to 0.05.
The situational results of the quality of sidewalks in Behbahan City show that the calculated average score of the subjects is in the 95% confidence interval of the t-test and is in the low limit. Therefore, it can be concluded that the state of urban health in the studied area (Behbahan City) is in a suitable and favorable condition and is positive, and this finding is significant at the level (α=.01).
Conclusion
The emergence of urbanization problems and, as a result, the reduction of the quality of urban spaces has led experts to find a suitable way to adjust the conditions of urban spaces and improve their quality level. In the past, the architecture and urban planning of Iranian cities were in accordance with the culture of the people, their spirit, and the urban community, while today, in urban design, these features have been forgotten, and economic interests are mostly taken into account. As a result, urban streets and sidewalks are like showcases of cities, and the character of cities is largely focused on their existence. Some streets may even influence the identity and character of that city. As a result of the present research, it has investigated and studied the quality indicators of pedestrian spaces in Behbahan City with an emphasis on Iranian Islamic cities. The results of the t-test (at level α=.01) of indicators and variables of the quality of pedestrian spaces in Behbahan city show that: 1) traffic and access component with a coefficient (105/83); 2) public security and traffic safety component with coefficient (95/105); 3) physical-visual component with coefficient (369/116); 4) The social-functional performance component with the coefficient (335/128) and 5) the environmental component with the coefficient (461/90) are significant. The calculated average score of the subjects is in the 95% confidence interval of the t-test and is at its upper limit. This indicates that the quality of pedestrian spaces in Behbahan city is good and suitable.