Analyzing Citizens’ Perceptions of Climate Justice and Its Role in Enhancing the Performance of Climate-Oriented Urban Planning (Case Study: Jahrom City)

Introduction

In recent decades, climate change has become one of the central challenges of urban development, particularly in cities located in hot and arid climates, which experience some of the most severe impacts of global warming and temperature fluctuations. Rising air temperatures, frequent heat waves, and the decline in urban environmental quality have contributed to the emergence of new social and spatial inequalities that directly affect citizens’ well‑being and health. In this context, climate justice has emerged as a relatively new approach in urban studies, focusing on the fair distribution of resources, risks, and benefits associated with climate policies among different social groups and urban areas. Climate justice is not limited to distributive aspects; it also encompasses procedural and intergenerational dimensions. This implies that citizens’ participation in decision‑making processes and the protection of the rights of future generations in the face of climate change are integral components of achieving climate justice. Recent studies have shown that in many cities around the world, the impacts of climate change and access to heat‑mitigation facilities, such as green spaces and shading infrastructure, are unevenly distributed across neighborhoods. Such disparities contribute to a reduced sense of spatial justice among citizens. At the same time, research emphasizes that citizens’ perceptions of fairness in urban policies significantly influence their level of satisfaction with climate‑oriented urban planning initiatives.

Materials and Methods

This study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive–analytical in nature and method, conducted using a quantitative approach. The analysis is based on citizens’ perceptions of climate justice and their level of satisfaction with urban planning, and the data were collected through field surveys using a questionnaire. The statistical population of the study includes all citizens of Jahrom city, whose population, according to the latest national population and housing census in 2016, was 141,634. Considering the large size of the statistical population and in order to ensure the generalizability of the results, sampling was conducted among the city’s residents. The sample size was determined using Cochran’s formula, and with a confidence level of 95 percent and an allowable error of 0.05, the final sample consisted of 383 respondents. The sampling method was simple random sampling, and efforts were made to ensure that the respondents represented an appropriate distribution of the urban population of Jahrom. The main instrument for data collection was a researcher‑designed questionnaire developed based on the theoretical framework of the study and recent scholarly literature. The questionnaire included items related to the variables of climate justice, satisfaction with urban planning, and sustainable urban development, and it was structured using a five‑point Likert scale. The content validity of the instrument was confirmed through expert review, and its reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, which was calculated as 0.78. In this research, climate justice was considered the independent variable and was measured through four dimensions: distributive justice, access justice, procedural justice, and intergenerational justice. Satisfaction with urban planning was treated as the dependent variable and conceptually consisted of three dimensions: functional satisfaction, institutional satisfaction, and policy satisfaction. For data analysis, both descriptive and inferential statistical methods were employed. In the descriptive statistics section, indicators such as frequency and percentage were used to describe the status of the study’s descriptive variables. In the inferential statistics section, a one‑sample t‑test was first applied to evaluate the status of the dimensions of climate justice and the level of citizens’ satisfaction with urban planning in relation to the baseline value (theoretical mean), in order to determine the desirability or undesirability of each variable. Subsequently, to examine the magnitude and direction of the effects of climate justice dimensions on satisfaction with urban planning, multiple regression analysis was employed. This analysis made it possible to identify the contribution of each dimension of climate justice in explaining variations in citizens’ satisfaction with urban planning.

Findings



The findings of the study were evaluated in two sections: descriptive and inferential analysis. The results of the descriptive findings indicate that 56 percent of the respondents were male and 44 percent were female. In terms of marital status, 63 percent of the respondents were married, while 37 percent were single. Regarding age distribution, the highest frequency (27 percent) belonged to the 41–50 age group, whereas the lowest proportion (9 percent) was related to respondents aged over 60 years. In addition, with respect to educational attainment, the highest proportion of respondents (29 percent) held a bachelor’s degree, while the lowest proportion (8 percent) belonged to those with a doctoral degree.

Conclusion



The findings of this study indicate that citizens’ perceptions of climate justice in the city of Jahrom are generally at a fragile level and close to the moderate threshold. This situation suggests that although certain climate‑oriented initiatives have been implemented, decision‑making processes, resource distribution, and participatory mechanisms have not yet been able to generate a stable sense of fairness among citizens. This result is consistent with the theoretical foundations of the “Right to the City” and with the perspective of Meerow and Woodruff (2024), who argue that the realization of climate justice depends on transparency, accountability, and the genuine participation of stakeholders. Regarding satisfaction with urban planning, the results reveal an imbalance among its different dimensions. Although some physical interventions have created a certain degree of functional satisfaction, weaknesses in institutional and policy dimensions have prevented the formation of deep and sustainable satisfaction. This finding aligns with the results of Heidari and Habibi (2019), who emphasize the ineffectiveness of purely physical improvements in the absence of institutional reforms. The analysis of causal relationships demonstrates that climate justice plays a decisive role in shaping citizens’ satisfaction with the urban planning system. This finding suggests that public satisfaction is influenced less by the quantity of services and more by perceptions of fairness in the distribution and implementation of climate policies—an observation consistent with the arguments of Anguelovski et al. (2023) regarding the relationship between environmental justice and urban governance. Among the dimensions of climate justice, distributive justice had the greatest explanatory power in predicting citizens’ satisfaction.