Investigating the Role of Madi in Forming the Sense of Belonging of Inhabitants

Todaychr('39')s, the need to belong is one of the substantial basic human needs, in which the location dimension of this comprehensive need reveals the relationship between humans and location. Interest in nature and its elements could significantly affect the userschr('39') relationship with built environments and their sense of belonging. In this regard, the natural urban elements have long been known as signs. Here, such urban signs, physically or mentally, via impressive quality and features, can play an outstanding role in providing a memorable image of urban places. The Madi that move from the southwest to the northeast of Isfahan has affected the texture and the surrounding area and the historical, physical, and social characteristics of the location where they passed. The interaction of two factors, namely humans and the environment, represents their active and passive effect. Humans give meaning to locations and act based on their environmentschr('39') cultural values ​​following them. paper seeks to answer two main questions as follows: 1- What factors can be categorized as the physical-environmental elements of the Madi that affect the sense of belonging? 2- What is the effect of the functional and perceptual factors, a concept derived from Madischr('39')s physical-environmental factors, on the sense of belonging? Meanwhile, the proposed hypotheses are as follows: Hypothesis 1: Readability, uniqueness, the sense of calm, comfort, coziness, and familiarity are some of the physical-environmental components affecting the sense of belonging of inhabitants. Hypothesis 2: There is a significant relationship between the functional and perceptual factors, a concept derived from the physical-environmental factors of the Madi, and the sense of belonging of inhabitants. The field study was implemented by collecting data from the neighborhoods adjacent to the Madi using a questionnaire and a survey method. The studychr('39')s statistical population was then considered to the inhabitants adjacent to Isfahan Madi using the regular random sampling with a sample size of 100 people. The data achieved from the questionnaire were then analyzed by SPSS software in two parts: descriptive and inferential statistics. After estimating the path analysis model, it is found that the factor burden of physical-environmental effect can affect first on functional factors (0.905) via components of self-sufficiency and enjoyment of the active location, and secondly on perceptual factors (0.746) via components of satisfaction, desire, honor, humanitarianism, and compatibility are effective. Furthermore, according to the obtained results, it can be concluded that there is a direct relationship between the beautiful nature resulting from the existence of the Madi and four components including readability, uniqueness, sense of calm and comfort, coziness and familiarity, and functional and perceptual factors, which affects the userschr('39') relationship with the environment as well as increases the sense of belonging to the neighboring inhabitants of the Madi.