Enhancing the sustainability of the visual scenery elements of urbanism to achieve quality-of-life standards

The quality of life for urban areas is an idea that has recently been discussed in various studies as a response to the many problems facing cities around the world as well as in Egypt. As the city is the product of a reflection of its identity and cultural and civilised heritage that is growing and changing, and enhancing the sustainability of the elements of the visual image of the city is one of the changes that, in turn, seeks to create a suitable urban environment for the population and reach the highest rates of environmental comfort and complete well-being for them, the research is divided into three parts. In Part 1, the concept, dimensions, and standards of quality of life were monitored and analyzed using the descriptive analytical approach. Part two deals with the elements of urban formation and the elements of sustainability of the visual image as one of the important tools in urban rehabilitation to achieve quality of life standards using the comparative analytical approach. Part three, the presentation of one of the experiments, deals with rehabilitating and enhancing the sustainability of the elements of the visual image of the city's urbanisation to achieve the standards of quality of life using the deductive approach. Finaly we found that the statement of the importance of integrating the criteria of quality of life with the elements of the visual image of the city helps to create a sustainable urban environment, which is represented by the quality of environmental life, physical urbanism, quality of life for transport and movement


I. INTRODUCTION
The concept of quality of life is widely understood and contains several definitions, and it can be said, indeed, that the concept of Quality of Life measures the level of satisfaction concerning the most important aspects in the life of the individual, but this definition remains relatively to the extent.
In order to get to understand specifically the quality of life, we conducted a discussion of the program in order to recognize the general characteristics, i.e. indicators, and to identify the most common definitions.The initial research identified a set of global indicators that measure the quality of life from different aspects, and each indicator was examined in detail to determine the common elements.[1]

Definition of Quality of Life:
The research was conducted based on six of the most important and globally known global indicators as basic references: [2] transportation, health, economy, education, housing, residential neighborhoods, environment, community participation, and equity in opportunities.

Urban Quality of Life Dimensions
The quality of urban life is a multi-disciplinary and complex concept that consists of a network of different dimensions.The quality of urban development is a result of the cross-relation of such dimensions, which basically consists of seven dimensions that contribute to achieving the urban quality of life, world-widely known as follows: the environmental dimension, urban dimension, movement and transport dimension, social dimension, psychological dimension, economic dimension, and political dimension.[3] -Environmental urban quality refers to the natural aspects related to a neighborhood or a city.
-Landscape Urban quality refers to utilities, landscape and infrastructure, and services and facilities.
-The urban quality of transport and movement measures the accessibility, traffic and transport issues and possibilities.
-Social urban quality refers to the social dimension of a neighborhood, i.e. challenges regarding individual choices and citizen participation.
-Urban Psychological Quality discusses various issues related to citizens' feelings and lives, such as the whereabouts of their identity and heritage.
-Economic urban quality refers to the value of a neighborhood as a place of economic activities.
Urban political quality refers to city policies that support the concept of urban quality of life and the extent to which these policies are implemented.

Quality of Life Criteria and Environmental Sustainability
Sustainability is basically concerned with meeting the needs of present generations without compromising the future needs of forthcoming generations.
One finds that the basic idea of environmental sustainability is to relinquish Earth in a better shape for future generations without harming it while meeting the needs of current generations.
Consequently, any sustainable direction can be initially evaluated based on its efficiency in providing the current needs and its impact on the ability to provide basic future needs.Hence, we find the importance of sustainable development with a focus on the quality of life.
A set of standards and foundations that achieve the quality of life were derived by the European

Urban design and visual image elements
The urban formation is defined as the product of the cross-interaction of a group of elements and components operating within an urban space, governed by a set of spatial relations, functions and activities of such components that represent the core of the formation of the urban identity of cities and neighborhoods through the formation of the physical environment for living and arranging and improving the general appearance according to the function.Kevin Lynch believes that urban formation can be defined by the spatial distribution of human activities with the urban and natural elements constituting the city and the field, in which, these activities are dealt with, in addition to the social and mental aspects that these elements are linked to each other.

Buildings and Services
The building is the most obvious element in urban design, where the good design of inter-connected buildings with each other helps to feel the place in addition to giving an identity and architectural character to the neighborhood or the city, whether classic or modern buildings or buildings that combine authenticity and contemporary.Such diversity, in terms of the character of buildings, along with different building uses give the urban space a distinctive urban style in the process of urban formation.

 Open Spaces
Public spaces represent the living room in the city, where people gather to enjoy the place and get acquainted with each other to initiate and consolidate social relations.The main function of public spaces is to make a life of highquality in a public space, whether squares, open spaces or gardens in all its forms according to its location and function.A set of criteria must be fulfilled to achieve the humanization of cities to achieve the quality of life, see figure 2.

 Streets
Streets and roads are the main means of communication between public spaces and places.From the point of view of a city, streets and roads are considered public spaces that give character to the city, whereas unclear streets fade the city's character.Each street style has its own definition that draws a certain impression to the visitor and strengthens the sense of space and helps to consolidate the visual image of the city.

 Public Transportation
Transportation systems help in connecting the farreaching parts of a city with each other and enable massmobility around the city with ease and convenience.These include roads, railways, and bicycle and pedestrian lanes, which together form the overall traffic system of a city.The balance of these systems works together to determine both the quality and nature of a city, making them either environmentally-and pedestrian-friendly.The best cities are those that promote pedestrians in addition to maximize the use of public means of transportation while minimizing the dominance of private cars.

 Landscape Elements
Landscape design, i.e., landscaping, or landscape architecture is the art and science of designing external sites and improving their attractiveness and enhancing their functionality to enjoy the quality of life of both the users and visitors.The elements of site coordination are essential to the development of urban formation systems, some of these elements are afforestation and agriculture works, tiling, lighting, sitting places, signage, ... etc.

Visual image elements
Urban formation consists of spaces and shapes, and the formation of a city depends on the geometric inter-and cross-connection between its various components such as streets, shops, offices, houses, pedestrian areas, squares and public parks.
The urban formation is also known as the spatial formation of a set of things that make up the city's architecture, such as buildings, streets, utilities, hills, rivers, ... etc.In the sixties, Kevin Lynch came up with a set of urban elements [5], that form a clear visual and mental image of the place.Nowadays, these elements have increased [10] to be as follows:  Paths: The roads network and passages emphasizing their differences.Areas that are similar in their urban components, so that their identity can be recognized, distinguished and differentiated.Figure (4).The city gate is the first thing that affects people's conception, which strengthens the city's visual image .Figure (7).There are other elements that we can be called "structural elements", which are specific vocabularies that clarify and explain the urban structure and could be perceived through their impact and importance, as follows:  The formation and nature of the land: The nature and features of the land are the first determinants of the formation of the city visually and functionally. Figure.
It is expressed by the horizontal view, i.e. plan, of the city highlighting the movement and flow network. Volume, Area, and Density: Volume, synonym to "size" in the same context, is measured by the number of population, where the density can be calculated via the relationship of such a size and the city area, which inversely impacts the process of perceiving the city.

 Urban fabric:
It is a relationship between streets and spaces that affects the mental image of the city conceived by the visitor.Moreover, it explains the different relationships such as the height and the area of a block, which gives a long-lasting impression if the area is homogeneous or not Figure (12).The head of the Armed Forces Engineering Authority confirmed the construction of a recreational park for the citadel, in addition to the renovation works included in the master Development Project plan.In addition to the above-mentioned monuments, many places will successively receive rehabilitation works, after the completion of the priority phase, such as:  From the analysis of the interrelationship between the urban formation elements and quality of life standards, we find the following -The elements of the urban formation, e.g., buildings, tracks, spaces, transport and movement, elements of site coordination, representing one of the essential tools that contributed to achieving 75% of the quality of life standards as follows: -In order to fulfil the urbanization satisfaction standards through the urban formation elements, the latter must be as follows: -Buildings: -Distinctive urban character, which suits the local environment as well as the privacy of the place.
-The use of local materials in the creation of building blocks.
-Performing environmental treatments of buildings in order to achieve the environmental quality standards.
-Apply the concepts and foundations of green architecture.
-Mixed use of buildings.
-Diversify the architectural nature of the various uses of buildings between housing and services.
-Open spaces: - - -Landscape: -Designing a system of green areas at both levels of neighborhoods and city -Design of coordination elements for streets, spaces and gardens regardless of the different characters and identities.
-Using sustainable landscaping and coordination elements -Taking into account the privacy of the place and the environment in the selection of green areas and agricultural works.
- By analyzing the interrelationship between urban formation elements and quality of life standards, we find the following: -The elements of the urban formation, e.g., buildings, tracks, spaces, transport and movement, elements of site coordination, representing one of the essential tools that contributed to achieving 75% of the quality of life standards as follows: -There must be a set of factors that clarify and distinguish the elements of the visual image to achieve the pleasure of the visitor and the user and enjoy the standards of quality of life, including: • Differentiation Differences through observation, where the differences of the characteristics built up side by side help to perceive the mental image, where such differences can be perceived by: -Contrast or antithesis: such as the differences in terms of colours and/or heights.
-Uniqueness: Having a unique unrepeated building like a tower.
-Control: The control of a large item due to its size over the rest of the smaller-sized similar items.
-Visual separation: A strong element that draws attention in comparison to its surroundings.
• Exposure The greater the exposure of the elements built in front of the viewers, the clearer it is to the mental map.With the increase in the number of viewers and the time of viewing, the degree of exposure varies and got affected by the lighting at different times, the frequency of vision, the axis of vision, and its presence on more than one axis of movement, where the exposure is accomplished via: -Quantity: The element is measured by the number of viewers and the distance of view.
-Panorama: is the view of a wide, high element from all directions.
-Surprise: The sudden appearance of an element that draws all the attention to it.
-View Overlap: Seeing different composite elements one behind the other.
• Structure: It is the connection of the city elements so that they represent simple relationships that can be perceived.The easier the elements are linked, the easier it will be realized by: -Hierarchy: It is the progression in showing the areas of elements.
-Simplicity: The primitiveness of existing relationships as of network configuration and explicit geometry.
-Sequence: Always on the same line or street and it can be perceived through time which is translated into distances, where different elements arranged along the way could be visualized.The diversity of gathering points between recreational, cultural, commercial, residential and services, ...etc.

Figure ( 2 )
Figure (2) Formation of urban spaces to meet the quality of life standards.

Figure ( 3 )
Figure (3) path as a visual image Elements of the city

Figure ( 4 ) 5 )Figure ( 5 )
Figure (4) Districts as a visual image Elements of the city

Figure ( 6 )
Figure (6) Landmarks as a visual image Elements of the city

Figure ( 7 )
Figure (7) Entrances/Gates as a visual image Elements of the city

Figure ( 8 )
Figure (8) Borders/Edges as a visual image Elements of the city

Figure ( 9
Figure (9 Furniture Elements as a visual image Elements of the city

Figure ( 10 )
Figure (10) path as a visual image Elements of the city

Figure ( 11 )
Figure(11) Emphasize the hierarchy of paths and spaces as a visual image Elements of the city.

Figure ( 12 )
Figure (12) Space formation and urban fabrics.Identity/character:Character is defined as a set of general qualities that characterize a particular period of time or a certain form/shape.It can be considered as an expression used in most urban-related fields that are dominated by additions or man-made elements and it includes the interaction between space, buildings and activities, which is also known as the appearance of urbanism, the overall image of the city, and the distinct local urbanism, as shown in Figure(13).

Figure ( 13 )
Figure (13) Architectural character and urban style  Activities and their distribution:

Figure ( 16 )Figure ( 17 )Figure
Figure (16) Elements of visual image implemented to improve the quality of life

Figure--
Figure (18) Distinctive optical axes to improve the quality of life

Figure ( 21 )
Figure (21 ) Improving and developing the facade of the main axis [18] • Al-Azhar Mosque; • Ain Al-Sira lake; • Al Sayeda garden; • Al Mawardi; • The Citadel; • Sultan Hassan; • Mosque of Ibn Tulun 4. The reciprocity relation of the urban formation elements and the visual image with the standards of quality of life.Tabhe (1),(2) The hierarchy of urban spaces in neighborhoods, strict, and cities. -Designing unique spaces that meet the requirements of users.-The diversity of urban spaces between recreational, cultural, marketing, residential, and service, ... etc. -The possibility to access public spaces and their relation with pedestrian paths and parking.-Security, safety and comfort for users of urban spaces.-Design spaces to perform as an urban interface for users and visitors.-Elements of space furniture should be characterized by modern technologies to create smart open spaces.
• Meaning -It is to find a functional, social or economic meaning to the element -to achieve the standards of urbanization satisfaction where the visual image elements must be as follows: -Distracts: -Neighborhoods with a distinctive architectural character and a distinctive urban style in comparison with each other.-The use of high-intensity neighborhoods and mixed uses.-Gathering Points (Nodes): -The hierarchy of gathering points in neighborhoods and cities. -Designing unique gathering points that meet the requirements of users.-

Table No .
(2)shows the correlation between the visual image elements and the quality of life standards.