The Role of Beach Sports and community participation in Investigating the sustainability criteria in historic centers of AL-Hilla city

Babylon city (18-6 B.C.) located on Euphrates river which represents the First nucleus of the historic centers in the province of Babylon. The river coast has been an important part for thousands of years ago, as a socio-cultural activity. In (1101 A.C) historic downtown was found in AL-Hilla city south of Babylon city. The beach continued to be used for cultural and social activities similar to the past. Recently, these historic centers with their river coast are suffering from neglect, decay, and depreciation, as a result of, random urban planning. This paper is an attempt to adopt an analytical descriptive curriculum to develop and revival the two historic centers, through employment beach sports, as well as depending on community participation in design decision, to harmonize sustainability thought and achieving human well-being in Babylon city. Its discussed the role of the beach sports to configuration river coast in the two historic centers and downtown, in another word, how can the establishment of beach sports play a basic role in Investigating the sustainability criteria in Al-Hillah city through community participation?. The conclusions show that the establishment beach sport activates in the city today achieve (57.3%)of the overall sustainability criteria, and it contributed in development of two historic centers in another word, beach sports activities establishment will be supported the sustainable criteria, as well as, the reason of the low achievement of the current sustainable criteria is environmental degradation.


Introduction
Today, the sports activities are considered community activities and civilization phenomenon, characterized by economic, cultural, and social dimensions in this city. [17, p:430-431] [18, p194]. furthermore, it has a historical depth and association with monuments and heritage in AL-Hilla city, in another side, no research evidence of its potential to achieve the sustainability concept With no investment of its potential to achieve sustainability concept in the city and the river spaces and harmony with modern thought and achieve the well-being of humanity in this city. Shatt Al-Hillah represented the First nucleus for the appearance of historic centers in the Babylon Province, such as, historic centers which go back to the (1101 A.C) and Babylonian city, which go back to the (18-6 B.C) [1, p10]. These two centers together contributed to the formation of the city's river spaces, and methodologies were different to develop the city's river spaces according to the philosophy which dominated in the different time period of the city history and how to deal with requirements and humanitarian needs. Since then The reign of the Babylonians and through the Islamic era until the end of the twentieth century the configuration of the river coast has been expressed of the 2 philosophies (the ideal rational philosophy and positivism and pragmatism) and it was the living application of these philosophies. As a result of, random urban planning (see Fig. 1) these centers with their river coast are suffering from neglect, decay. The research is an attempt to adopt a scientific Curriculum which contributes to the development of the city and revival of urban centers these historic centers with their river spaces in especially, In line with, the thought of sustainability And achieve Human well-being through Public Community participation. The public problematic of this paper ( there is a lack of beach sports in Al-Hillah city, don't achieve Human needs, and never exploitation the river coast, which is a negative effect on the city's growth), and public problem how can the beach sports play a basic role in determining the sustainability criteria and configure the river beach spaces in the city?. there are set of research goals linked with the fields of sport and urban design, such as Studying the suitability of beach sports with historical depth in determining the sustainable criteria of AL-Hilla river spaces through community participation, furthermore, Detection the activating role of beach sports rooted in history to achieve the urban development of the city economically, socially and environmentally through community acceptance of these events. At the sports field level, the goals are to Detection the possible degree of modernistic Community interaction with beach sports which have a historical depth in harmony with current thought and applied dimensions, to determine the bases and rules of these games.to achieve the research goals the researchers adopted a descriptive-analytical curriculum contain tow axis( theoretical axis and The application axis ) The research conclusions show the establishment of the beach sport in the city now achieve (59.3%) of the overall sustainability criteria. these activations contribute significantly to urban development (economically, socially, and environmentally ), and its investment and financing(private and self), furthermore, there is a weak relationship between the community and historical depth of sport, also community sports continues with modern activities and there is a negative correlation (-.378-) is significant at the (0.05) level between achieving sustainable criteria and sample age, also there is a strong negative correlation (-.538-) is significant at the (0.01) level between achieving Environmental criterion and sample age, whereas the weak Correlation and is not significant at the (0.05) among other factors.

Literature Review
Sustainability is a difficult term to define, it has multiple definitions. In general, sustainability requires a balance between three dimensions; economic, environmental, and social. this definition means the indicators which utilized to measure sustainability must be calculated of these dimensions [3, p:2] [19,p:3] [20,p:8]. The sports activities contribute to social and cultural development through ) language, celebrations, national and regional identity, education, social norms as well as traditions and beliefs ( , wherever is characterized as follows:-A. Sports events are featuring highly popular, as well as, its very interaction of all communities (Careers, age, And sex) in AL-Hilla society with these activates. furthermore, It has a high health and culture benefits. In another hand, it Supports and encourages the cooperation spirit, coexistence, and peace among the all society member, also it Supports the democracy thought and popular participation, as well as, it contributes significantly to support the national feeling and strengthen the link between human and the land. [4, p:7][5,p:5][21,p:2-3] B. The sport is characterized by thought and philosophical dimension, which is developed through the history stages development of the city, and the transition from classical philosophy (rationalism and experimentalism) to modern philosophy in the 20th century. the sport is a branch of philosophy that tries to create a concept of analysis of sports fields as a human activity. [6, p:4] [22,p:45-48]. Since the period of Babylonians then Islamic then modernity periods and following period, the river spaces as an urban component reflected the applications and reflection of common philosophies [7, p:218]. The historical philosophical stages passed through three stages, and sports events were one of these areas affected by these philosophies as the follows:- Philosophically, Babylonian society was affected by an ideal rational philosophy, where religion played a major role in Mesopotamia thought and practice. Historically, the ancient Iraqis have known Gilgamesh Games -the Olympic Games -before appearing in Greece more than 1000 years ago where they moved to the Phoenicians [9]. the excavations on ancient Babylonian antiquities and drawings on the walls of Assyrian civilization refers to the human has known swimming since the beginning of his presence on the ground more than 6000 years ago, as well as, Existence of the fishing sport which is documented with sculptures decorating the palaces and temples of Assyria. In general, the games were played in this period are ( A.C).The river spaces were influenced by Islamic philosophy, which is an ideal rational philosophy, linking all concepts with the God and raise the value of Spirituality, so it has contributed to the development of river spaces and supported the games such us Swimming, Riding, hunting shooting Running Sport because it links these events with the ideas of protection, defense, strength, courage, nobility, and equestrian. 3) 3rd historic stage: -Philosophy of formulation river spaces in the 20th century, In this Period The river spaces were influenced by the ideas of modernism movement and adopted the ideal rational approach through the ideas of architects Pioneers, such as abstraction, simplicity, purity, utilitarianism, and other concepts. As a reflection of this modern movement thought, the sport has evolved in all its types and reached the top of its evolution in the 20th century.
The sports activities are featuring to support the development of the city economic, this dimension is linked to three fields as follows:-1) Urban development by raising the price of urban land and rents, and housing, also providing employment opportunities. 2) Marketing such us:-(rights of publicity and announcement marketing, television marketing, Tournaments and Games marketing, players marketing, Marketing of sports and social facilities, and Marketing internal and external services to the audience) 3) The investment is content two vectors:-Capital financing such us ( Government, private and self-principal), as well as, the operation such us (privatization and Convert clubs into joint stock companies) [

Methodology
to achieve the research goals the researchers adopted descriptive analytical curriculum contain tow axis (theoretical axis and the application axis) as a follows:-

Theoretical axis(Literature Review)
To establish a database based on them the main axes of research and investigation of scientific literature which dealt with the research subject )directly or indirectly(, and related with beach sports and sustainable criteria of river beach spaces in the city ,as well as, determining procedural definitions, solving the research problem, and defining goals.

The application axis
Contains the following stages:-

Suggested beach sports activities
According to the literature review and history of the city, the researchers elected and suggest the following activities as proposals for beach sports as follow:a) Swimming and games associated such as (beach volleyball, beach basketball, beach football, and Canoeing ). b) The marathons and games associated such as (Walkways and Bicycle race, Carts pulled by horses). c) Riding.

Participants and Case study
The researchers identified case study by conducting a survey testing through the Internet and election A random sample (820 samples) of AL-Hilla society, which represents all the community type such as (Careers, age, and sex). the questionnaire was prepared consist (4th group) based on literature review and using a Likert scale ( three degrees yes, no, and maybe or I don't know or some time ), then alpha coefficient(Cronbach's Alpha) for the present study Has been tested and equal(0.943). The questionnaire including (4th) group:-1. General information group:-includes questions about (Careers, Age, and Sex, Level of science). 2. Social dimension group:-includes questions about local society desires of beach sports activities in city's river spaces, which included (9) historical beach sports activities with. 3. Economic dimension group:-includes (7) questions about investments and funding from the private, public and self-sector, unemployment and job opportunities desired by citizens which related with proposed of the sports field. 4. Environmental dimension group:-includes (15) questions about the reality of sports activates in the city which contains visual and chemical pollution, and the environmental conditions in the areas where sports activities were established and related to urban development in the city through the identification of (waste volume, cleanliness, road network, quality of neighboring buildings, aesthetic level, urban land prices and Rentals).

The results
The results of the questionnaire of people distributed to most of the city's Neighborhoods were as follows:-

Results of the first group about the general information
AL-Hilla society were Interaction with the beach sports proposal from the researcher in river coast in the city and the results as indicated in the Table 4. Percentage of participants (20% female) and (80% males), in the same time, the rate of (47%)male youth ages (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29) years were the most active age groups. amount of participants who graduates of university education (56.4%) and postgraduate studies (29.3%), whereas, amount of participants who graduates of, Primary, Secondary and Intermediate (13.6%).The proportion of participants of the unemployed is (14.4%) and (19.5%) for free workers.

Results of sustainability criteria Dimensions
Include the following:-

Results of the second group (Social dimension group)
The results of the questionnaire about this group as follows:-1. The society accepting Beach Sports from recorded the highest percentage (28.3%) for beach football Sports , (14.7%) for swimming, (14.5%) for bicycle race , (12.5%) for beach volleyball, then Walkways and Canoeing, whereas the low percentage of community acceptance of Carts pulled by horses, Riding, and beach basketball, .also the results of the questionnaire found that ( 84.6% ) of the participants practiced different types of sports as habits with the high health criterion as shown in Table 5. 2. Only (10%) of the society is satisfied adequacy of the existing coastal activities in the city in exchange, on the other hand (89%) the majority of them are not convinced . also the practice of sport has strengthened their relationship with the family and supports communication with friends as shown in Table 6. 3. (20%) of society participate in social clubs, (50%) a café frequented (20.1%), smokers (18%) and drink alcohol(2.9%), finally (33.3%) from Of them believed that sports were caused by not going to cafes, smoking and drinking alcohol as shown in Table 6.

Results of the Third group (economical dimension group)
The results of the questionnaire about this group as follows:-1. (76%) of the sample are ready to work in the commercial, cultural and entertainment fields which associated with the beach sports establishment, (21.5%) are willing to invest their Private money in sports sector, in another hand the majority of them wanting to be established by specialized companies and government support, also (90.5%) of the society believes that the establishment of coastal sports projects achieve jobs, attract tourists and revive the national economy, As in Table 7. 2. (69.6%) Of respondents support that the State contributed to the establishment of sports activates in the city, (57.5%) was self-participation of athletes, and (88.4%) of them support that specialized investment companies give implement beach sports Projects in the city as shown in Table 7. 3. (92%) Of respondents think that the establishment of beach sports in the Hilla River will contribute to attracting tourism.

Results of the fourth group (Environmental dimension)
The results of the questionnaire about this group as follows:-1. The questionnaire results indicate that (18.9%) of beach activities on AL-Hilla river are Playgrounds and squares, furthermore (11%) are social centers. 2. (89.1%) Of participants confirmed that Sports activities are not enough in AL_ Hilla, (17.4%) of these events are squares and playgrounds, and ( 25.7% ) of them are serviced by transportation, also (10.4%) of those roads were established after the sporting events existing.in the same way, only (7.9%) the new buildings Allocated for sports service and( 75.3%) are converted buildings for sports use. as shown in Table 8. 3. (92.1%) of the society believe that the establishment of sports activities will positively affect the aesthetics of the city, through the exploitation of urban land by sporting events, clean up the rivers , beach plantations , compatibility with the city's heritage and historic ,Creating a healthy environment , create new architectural attractions , Providing entertainment venues , turn public ownership to private ownership, development of the surrounding physical environment and associated sports events of Recreational and commercial activities which will cause to the Urban development all the city furthermore , river coast . 4. The results of the participants answers that the establishment of sports activities in the city contributed to increasing of urban land prices by( 29.5%), raising the prices rents by (24%), As well as, raising prices of nearby residential units by (26.2%), and nearby residential complexes were established by (34.1%), furthermore commercial and cultural activities are available related to sports activities as shown in Tble 8. 5. (75.2%) of the participants confirmed the areas which dedicated to sports activities suffer from the waste. as well as, (18.4%) of them say Spread of the diseases in their neighborhoods, and (17.1%) of them confirmed they suffering from the diseases as shown in Table 7.

Results of the relationship among all groups
The results of the questionnaire Analysis by using (Independent sample T-Test) and identify Pearson correlation(r) factors and significant at the 0.05 level(sig) for Independent factors (Age, Careers, educational attainment) and depending factors(sustainable criterion achievement) as shown in Tables  10 and 11. Discuss the findings of the practical study by comparing the results of sustainable dimension criteria accruing from beach Sports activities today and their relationship with the (1st group) factors. The results indicate there is a correlation negative relation (-.378-) is significant at the (0.05) level between achieving sustainable criteria and sample age, also there is strong negative correlation (-.538-) is significant at the (0.01) level between achieving environmental criterion and sample age , whereas the weak correlation and is not significant at the ( 0.05) among other factors .in another site, there is strong positive correlation (.640 ) is significant at the (0.01 ) level between achieving Social criterion and sustainable criterion and supporting alternative hypothesis.

Conclusions
1-according to the results of the (1st) group, is shown that there is no relationship among sustainable criterion achieving, Careers, and Educational Achievement, whereas it was associated negative relationship with age, in another word, whenever age increased the community conviction decreased to achieve sustainable criterion. 2-according to the results of the (1st & 2nd) groups showed as follows:-A. sports activities in general and the beach sport especially attracted the majority of young people and both sexes, despite their different regions, origins, and cultures. B.
The society practices sport As a habit ,therefore the health index has risen in their psychologically and physically. The society conscious and they have convinced of the ability of these sporting Activities to create social communication at the family and community level. Also, improve the desired social habits of the whole of the Society. D.
the society has tendencies toward activities which have been associated with experimental philosophy rather than rational idealism, so this the implementation of these activities in harmony with the community, which ensures the success of urban development later and the establishment of beach sports support all kinds of society. 3-according to the results of the (3 rd ) group showed as follows:-A. The great convictions, preparations, and wishes of the society to work and support of these proposed activities. B. these activities can be invested and financed by the private sector and society participation C.
This is an indicator imposes On the urban designer determine the commercial use land In the region nearby Sports activities D. The achievement of a sustainable criterion is highly associated with the economic factor. 4-according to the results of the (4 th ) group showed as follows:-A. Sports activities will contribute to raising beauty levels and urban development in the city by improving the environment visually, reducing pollutants, raising real estate and urban land prices, and contribute to the revival of housing, Trade, transportation, and others sector. B.
The achievement of the sustainable criteria which a result of activating sports activities cause affect directly to achievement environmental criterion and urban development higher than its impact on social and economic criteria, where it is strongly related with environmental and urban development indicators 5-As a results of all the groups which showed and support the (main hypothesis) , despite the lack of establishment beach sport activates in the city today, but it achieve (57.3%)of the overall sustainability criteria, as well as , achieved the social criteria by(21.7% ), economic criteria by (25%) ,And(10.59%) to support the environmental criteria ,also it contributed to historic centers development in another word ,beach sports activities establishment will be supported the sustainable criteria 6-The reason for the low achievement of the current sustainable criteria is physical and environmental degradation

1-
To Spread Consciousness of the importance of the relationship between sports activities in general and beach sports in particular with the city history and investment in urban development. the establishment of peach sport in the area specified in master plan of the city (Plan No. (1) ( ,as well as , support the historical and philosophical development of the city , and the receiver repercussions during his daily movement within urban environment, through walking or cycling or canoe, also to achieve pleasure sensual of receiver by adding a (new act) changeable and developed within the river spaces and its implications of the urban development of the city.

2-
Set strategies by planners, Athletes, architects and the disciplines related to the development of programs to guide the groups wishing to invest their funds in the sports field, benefit Provide job opportunities, raising the criteria of living for other social groups and supporting the tourism in the city.

2-
Are you willing to invest your own money in the proposed beach sport?

3-
Do you support to give implement beach sports Projects to specialized investment companies?