Journal of Spatial Planning
Year:2014 | Volume:18 | Issue:1|Papers Count:7

Land use planning is one of the most important parts of urban and regional master planning process. In cases where the study area is large and the number of land-uses and/or constraints are high, finding an optimal or near-optimal solution in a reasonable time and with acceptable computational costs without applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) based heuristic techniques is nearly impossible. Our first aim in this paper is to introduce a hybrid approach to mathematically model the land use planning problem. Secondly, we introduce a new hybrid algorithm to solve the aforementioned mathematical model. Then we apply this approach to a real land-use planning case study in which 600 hectares of undeveloped lands belonging to Persian Gulf Science and Technology Park must be allocated to 14 different land-uses. The objectives of the mathematical model include maximization of land suitability, minimization of traffic flows, and maximization of land-use compactness. Finally, we provide the best alternative chosen amongst more than 101,000 alternatives generated during the process of running the proposed algorithm. Due to its faster performance and providing a Decision Support System (DSS), this new approach can easily replace classical land-use and spatial planning approaches.

One of the ways to achieve a balanced urban development is equitable distribution of services indifferent areas of the city. Inequality in the distribution of services has a significant impact on the urban space and management costs. Therefore, the spatial planning and organization of space in order to optimize the management of urban space has made necessary equitable distribution of urban facilities and services. In the present research, the 8 regions of Ahwaz city in terms of development indicators have been studied. The research method is descriptive-analytical and by using of resource documents based on Multiple criteria decision making. Also AHP model (ELECTRE) was used based on 12 indicators of urban development for weighting the criteria. The results showed that the distribution of the resources and facilities was not proportionate with the population distribution of Ahwaz. Regions 3 and 4, in terms of development and having mentioned indicators of urban services, are ranked as developed and developing, respectively, and Region 5 has the development rate of 6 and is placed in the lowest rank. This has led to the dependence of the areas with low development level to the areas with high levels of development, and consequently, ended in social and economic gap in the urban system.

In the literature of information society, there is a direct relationship between the use and production of knowledge and development; however, this type of development is not a balanced development based on the international reports. In the study of every type of development, we need to measure the indicators and factors. In this study, after reviewing of the information community indexes, they were localized and allocated to the clustering of the information level in Khorasan Razavi Province. The main questions in this study are: I) "How the ranking of development is based on the information society's indicators?" and 2) "Is there any relationship between the given clustering and the development's ranking in Khorasan Razavi? The results of cluster analysis showed that Mashhad area alone is in the first cluster, and the rest areas are in the second cluster. So, if we remove the city of Mashhad from the analysis, we can group the rest areas into three clusters. On the other hand, clustering showed a proximate relationship with other indicators of development such as the level of social development, human development and infrastructure development. On the basis of total findings, we can conclude that Mashhad city, as the political center and the main pole of the province's development, has concentrated the majority of infrastructures and information society's indicators. Since the future comprehensive development of regions and cities are based on the information society, the authorities should double attention to the balanced development of this province.

The sophisticated ponds are the effective systems, which are used for controlling, recovering and quality enhancing of the streaming waters, control of floods as well as industrial, agricultural and mineral sewages, pollution control, managing the domestic and industrial sewages, creating the green space, supporting the life diversity, and developing the ecological perspectives. This research deals with spotting the sophisticated urban ponds in the northwest of Tehran using the fuzzy logic method. For the mentioned aim, after gathering the data, different map layers involving geology, height, slope, rainfall, temperature, the ground water depth, distance from drainage density, and distance from city were produced in the geographic information system (GIS). Then various weight maps in terms of sum and product were combined together in order to prepare the maps of gamma 0.6 and gamma 0.8. The results showed that in the map of gamma 0.6, very low potential regions for constructing sophisticated ponds are located in the north of the region just like the gamma 0.8 map, and highly potential regions in the gamma 0.6 map involve a fewer percentage of the region in comparison with the gamma 0.8 map. The gamma 0.6 map involves 8% of the region, while the gamma 0.8 map includes 19% of the region.

In recent decades, the development of tourism industry, as one of the main economic activities in developed and developing countries, has made the managers and planners to pay much more attention to enhancing the quality of tourism experience and trying to preserve the benefits of host societies. One of the most remarkable characteristics of Iran tourism industry, particularly in Mashhad, is the role of religious tourism. Since "shopping" has always been the most common activity in all places including religious cities, commercial centers, as the spatial symbols, are commonly considered of having high importance in these cities. Nowadays, due to having enough income and leisure time, tourists are able to spend more time and money on shopping. In this study, the most effective factors in the attraction of tourists to commercial-recreational centers, with emphasis on Almas-e-Shargh center in Mashhad, were assessed using library and field approaches (questionnaire) and analyzed by Factor Analysis Model and One-Way ANOY A. The results showed that physico-psychological and recreational features are the most effective elements in attraction of tourists. Also the results of ANOY A showed a significant difference among the seven factors obtained from the factor analysis model.

One of the most important variables in modeling of traffic networks is the existing congestion in the network routes. To apply a model that can help the network users to decide to choose the best route, taking into account network congestion and having the necessary sensitivity to its changes will lead to better modeling of a traffic network. In this regard, the Game Theory (GT) has a lot of capabilities in modeling different issues such as transportation and traffic. GT with problem modeling in the form of a game tries to find solutions and analyze it. In other words, this theory can be known as the decision one that assists game players to make optimal decisions. In this research, a game model (based on a normal form) is designed among the present drivers in a traffic network, and optimum routes and the quality and circumstances of making balance in the traffic network are specified by solving and finding Nash equilibrium of the game.In the following, combining the results obtained from the GT and Geographic Information System (GIS) provides a bed for network analysis, including optimum routing, so that decision makers can make the best decisions for better management and organization of traffic networks.

Among the fundamental problems in Iran cities that have always forced the city officials and urban planners to resort thoughts, is physical decline of old parts and problematic urban textures or lacking quality textures in urban space. Therefore, one of the main concerns of managers and planners and urban designers has been planning, improvement, renovation, and rehabilitation of such textures along the newer textures. In this paper, utilizing Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (F AHP) model in GIS, old textures of Zone 2 of Saqez city have been identified and prioritized. According to the study aim, this is a theoretical-functional research, and data analysis has been conducted by descriptive-survey method. Based on preliminary investigations, the old texture of the study area enjoys uncertain and unorganized development pattern, and also has a vague spatial organization. The study results have been presented in the form of a three-class map (first priority, low priority and without priority in terms of improvement and renovation), implying the efficiency of F AHP model for identifying the areas that have priority for intervention development.