Analysis and Assessment of Housing Stability in the City of Bandar Anzali

The sustainability of human constructions and activities is one of the things that should be considered at the top of urban plans. There are countless constructions and developments created by man, one of which is housing. Considering the importance of the role of housing in the lives of residents, achieving sustainable housing is considered important in order to increase and improve the quality of life of the current and future generations, because today, with the ever-increasing population growth, the need to build housing is increasing day by day. Therefore, to achieve sustainable urban development, paying attention to sustainable housing can play a constructive role. But unfortunately, in our country, buildings, especially residential buildings, are built without regard to sustainable urban development. The city of Bandar Anzali is not excluded from this category. This led to the analysis and investigation of the stability of the residential units of Bandar Anzali city according to the indicators of sustainable housing in this article. The research method in this research is descriptive-analytical and based on documentary sources and field investigations. The data obtained from the field and documentary surveys have been analyzed by SPSS software. In this way, the level of sustainability of residential units in Bandar Anzali city was determined in different dimensions. The findings of the research show that most of the houses in Bandar Anzali are stable. Although this stability has been different in the dimensions of housing stability. In this way, in the social dimension, the houses of Bandar Anzali are more stable, and from the environmental point of view, the houses of the city do not have favorable stability. Finally, solutions have been provided for the sustainability of the city's housing, especially in the environmental aspect.
 
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Today, various factors such as population growth, the occurrence of the industrial revolution, urbanization, and the development of cities have significantly influenced the Earth's natural resources and environment. Consequently, in different parts of the world, resources such as water, soil, energy, and natural landscapes have been undergoing constant changes due to the activities of cities and their residents. As a result, the theory of sustainable urban development has been introduced considering the negative effects of urban growth and has proposed solutions to minimize urban issues. Among these solutions, efforts have been made to increase the sustainability in urban housing. Housing constitutes a large portion of urban land use in cities, and consumes a significant amount of energy and natural resources, defines the quality of life and well-being of people, and affects how housing is designed and constructed in the environment, society, culture, economy, as well as on people's daily lives, health, and security. Therefore, housing sustainability is a significant step towards achieving sustainable urban development in various social, economic, physical, and environmental dimensions. So, the approach to sustainable housing design has become an important topic in urban planning literature in recent years, especially in the field of housing planning. The concept of housing sustainability, given the increasing urban population growth worldwide and the consequent need for more housing construction, any shortcomings in this area will have severe consequences related to the depletion of existing resources. Iran, as one of the countries that has witnessed rapid urbanization in recent decades, is no exception to this rule, and its major cities require studies in this field. Bandar Anzali is one of the coastal and northern cities of the country that faces challenges in the housing sector, especially in terms of environmental sustainability. This research aimed to investigate housing sustainability in various social, economic, physical, and environmental dimensions at the city of Bandar Anzali and sought to identify the potential differences in the dimensions of housing sustainability within the city.
Methodology
The research method was descriptive-analytical based on documentary, library, field, and direct observations. Field information was obtained through questionnaires, and the reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α= 0.97). The statistical population consisted of residential units in the city of Bandar Anzali, from among them 400 residential units were selected through Stratified random sampling using the Cochran formula. Chi-Square, Kruskal-Wallis, and Friedman were used for data analysis.
Discussion
Since the 1970s, the discussion of sustainable development and sustainability has arisen in response to environmental issues and challenges. The concepts of sustainability and unsustainability are rooted in the nature and form of interactions between social groups and their natural environment. Given that housing constitutes more than half of urban land use, housing and its residents can play a crucial role in urban sustainable development. Therefore, it is important to make housing sustainable to address contemporary challenges, considering the increasing urban population growth, its associated pollution, and the problems related to the scarcity of renewable energy sources in today's world. Thus, considering the importance of sustainable housing, this research focused on sustainable housing and its characteristics and indicators. In this study, various factors have been examined to assess the status of housing sustainability in the city of Bandar Anzali. The overall investigations related to the examined indicators at four levels - physical, social, economic, and environmental - contain valuable insights regarding housing sustainability in Bandar Anzali. At the physical level, Bandar Anzali exhibits a favorable condition, with orderly housing structures, unlike some other large and even small cities in the country, where issues like irregular housing developments, such as slums, are more prevalent. Approximately half of the units in the city have low-quality housing, which has led the city to have relatively good indicators of housing sustainability in relation to contemporary urban planning issues. Consequently, most of the studied units fall into the category of durable, newly built, and maintainable units. On the social level, Bandar Anzali exhibits favorable indicators in terms of household density and population per residential unit. Additionally, people in the city have a higher sense of security than the average, and the presence of relatively good accessibilities and reasonable land use arrangements has led to the citizens' relative comfort. On the other two levels, economic and environmental, high housing costs, non-compliance with energy-saving standards, lack of water-saving in households, etc., are observed, which have somewhat diminished the overall level of housing sustainability in the city.
Conclusion
The results of the studies in the city of Bandar Anzali indicated that the city has relatively favorable conditions in some housing sustainability indicators, such as social, economic, and physical indicators. However, in environmental indicators, due to the construction of housing without consideration for energy-related aspects, it does not exhibit a favorable condition. The results of the Chi-Square and Kruskal-Wallis tests showed that at a 95% confidence level, there was a significant difference between the mean values of housing sustainability indicators in Bandar Anzali. Furthermore, from the results of these tests and the Friedman test, it was evident that the average ranking of social indicators ranked the highest among the various areas in the city, with an average ranking of 3.08, followed by physical indicators with an average ranking of 2.90, economic indicators with an average ranking of 2.24 in the third place, and finally, environmental indicators with an average ranking of 1.78 in the fourth place.