The impact of potted street gardens on depression levels in a dense
residential neighborhood: case of Beni-Makada, Tangier
Abstract
The data used is from a face-to-face survey (N=388) we conducted in
January 2019, in the Beni-Makada district of Tangier, Morocco. The
neighborhood is one of the most disadvantaged (World Bank. 2012), with
the smallest per-capita green space of 0.27m2 in the city (OPEMH,
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung foundation, 2016).
The district is famous for the abundance of street potted gardens,
widely mediatized during the 22nd conference of
parties (COP22) organized in 2016 in Morocco. It houses more than 40%
of Tangier’s population, mostly middle-low to low-income, living in
individual houses (Modern Moroccan houses) built directly to the
property line, 65% of urban families in Morocco live in the same
housing type (RGPH 2014). All SPGs observed in the study area were
present in the public domain, the vast majority were back to back with
owners’ houses, except for two narrow streets where SPGs were at the
center to barre access to cars.
The questionnaire was tested and verified with focus groups in Arabic
before being conducted in Morocco. The final version was composed of
four parts and 36 questions.
Part one inquired about PSGs size, age, maintenance, in addition to
recreational activities done next to it.
Part two had eighteen questions measuring neighborhood satisfaction,
cleanliness, safety, noise annoyance social capital, neighborhood life
quality, and belonging pride perception.
In part three, we measured depression levels using the Arabic version of
the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).
And in part four, we had demographic questions.
The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS 25.