TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING
Year:2022 | Volume:14 | Issue:1|Papers Count:12

As the distinguishing boundaries between upper and lower levels, regional plans and programs have an effective role in bringing about coordination between planning levels and improving their effectiveness and functioning. Due to the importance of planning and the results obtained from regional programs, the study at hand set out to examine plans at national, regional, and provincial levels based on regional approach with an emphasis on Gilan province plans. In this study, qualitative research method was used, and to classify the existing knowledge, the required data was divided into research analysis units, namely the plans and programs at the three foregoing levels. These were then analyzed using content analysis and document analysis methods in NVIVO 12 software. After data analysis, 96 open codes were achieved. The homogeneity of the open codes of each of the three levels led us to extract the main axial code titled “region-oriented approach in plans and programs at national, regional, and provincial levels” along with three other secondary axial codes, namely “holism and movement toward abstract and stereotypical concepts and issues, ” “regional plans following macro plans, ” and “lack of a regional decision making mechanism at the province level. ” It is noteworthy that the highest regional approach presence was found at province level with 49 open codes.

Despite having abundant wealth, power, and resources and making great efforts to bring about regional balance, there is a deviation from spatial equality in Iran’s structure, which has led to the establishment of center-periphery structure as the dominant model in Iran. This structure has been created due to many factors, forces, and currents. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to present a theoretical model of spatial inequality in Iran using Lynham’s theorizing method. There were five steps in the application of this method. In the first method, i. e., conceptualization, the theoretical model was developed using meta-synthesis method and MAXQDA software. The obtained model entailed a host of concepts and components. These included context-based theory-driven discourse, centralization and making the periphery dependent, the reverse results of development plans, unequal power relations, inequality of benefits and wealth (economic inequality), inappropriate policymaking and management, weak local and regional management as opposed to central power, unbalanced distribution of population and activity in geographical spaces, and unbalanced distribution of natural resources. These concepts, grouped into ideological, economic-political, and contextual discourses, have created spatial inequality and center-periphery relationship in Iran.

As one of the most important and influential urban planning approaches, comprehensive plans can be considered from the different and relevant dimensions and aspects such as the planning system, the content of plans, preparation-approval process, and execution procedure. Hence, this research focuses on the reasons for the inefficiency of comprehensive plans, especially concerning the nature and the substance of this urban planning approach. To this end, in addition to reviewing relevant theories and views, objective instances of the mentioned reasons have been pursued. Therefore, Nowshahr’s Comprehensive Plan was assayed for the ex-post evaluation of plan implementation to assess its efficiency and feasibility in certain aspects, including social and physical dimensions. Following a linear and one-way procedure, inflexibility and lack of realism, single vision and mostly physical solutions, providing too many details based on static and solid frameworks, and the impossibility of accurate predictions are the substantial critical reasons for the inefficiency of urban planning based on comprehensive plans approach. These factors are the challenges that Nowshahr’s Comprehensive Plan also suffers from them identically. The unrealistic approach in determining the city limit, an incorrect policy of using open spaces and increasing density in contradiction with the ecological, touristic, and port nature of the city, failure to realize most of the proposed land uses, and consequently, a severe shortage of service spaces, are among the most apparent objective instances regarding the inefficiency of Nowshahr’s Comprehensive Plan according to the mentioned substantial reasons. Considering the reasons for inefficiency and analysis of the objective instances are an essential strategy that can differentiate the substance of urban plans, especially ones prepared based on the evolution in urban planning and substitution of new approaches, from the old and traditional cases and make them successful more than before.

The usefulness of many forms of spatial studies relies on the nature of the topics under study. Geographers and urban planners have a long-lasting tradition of studying the data derived from spatial issues at regional and urban levels. Nonetheless, no standard has been offered so far on the provision of statistical results in the form of spatial units. Therefore, the results of the previous studies in this field have been influenced by the scale and zoning effects. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of scale and zoning on the spatial unit results. To this end, the rural areas located in the southern parts of West Azerbaijan province were selected. This study adopted the critical positivism approach and used quantitative data collection and analysis. Moreover, this research project was descriptive-analytical in terms of method and applied in terms of purpose. The statistical population of the study included 1143 villages with an overall population of 418948 in 9 southern cities of West Azerbaijan province. The study was done using 8 indices of rural services, which were composed of 77 indicators in total. Then, the effect of scale and zoning on the results was analyzed. The results showed that the value of Moran’s statistic related to the overall index of rural service distribution level has been 0. 39 at city, 0. 06 at rural district level, and 0. 05 at village level. Accordingly, the distribution of rural services has been clustered at the city level, but has been random at rural district and village levels. Moreover, the results of the rural services overall index was 15. 09 at city level, 10. 88 at rural district level, and 2. 31 at village level. This shows that by changing the spatial unit scale, the results of the spatial distribution of services has totally changed. This finding is true for zoning, too,with a change in the zoning pattern, the results of spatial units have changed. These findings show that the nature of rural service distribution alters with the change in the scale and zoning models.

The sustainable physical-spatial development of Mashhad urban complex is the prerequisite of attaining sustainable regional (provincial) and national development. This necessitates paying attention to the development of scenarios that set the ground for the development of Mashhad. In the study at hand, it was tried through the participation of the provincial managers and academic experts to identify first the key drivers of physical-spatial changes in the rural settlements of Mashhad urban complex and then the scenarios effective on the physical-spatial development of these settlements. This study was applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of research method. The data was collected through library research, document analysis, and survey (interview) methods. Examining scientific resources, 69 factors effective on the physical-spatial changes were identified, which were grouped into five dimensions. Then, 29 participants in two groups, namely the managers of the related organizations and academic experts, were interviewed. Data analysis was done based on future research techniques, including Schwartz model, structural analysis, and interaction analysis, using Micmac and Scenario Wizard software packages. The results showed that 512 scenarios have weak compatibility, and only one scenario has strong, sustainable compatibility (zero incompatibility) (2. 8 percent of possible scenarios are credible). The first scenario, which is in positive direction, has the overall interaction effect score of 771 and compatibility value of 7, while the second scenario that expresses the fairly favorable conditions for the future of rural settlements has the overall interaction effect score of 736 and compatibility value of-2. The third scenario, which has the compatibility value of-3 and the overall interaction effect score of 695, can be one of the possible scenarios for the future physical-spatial changes in rural areas, too.

As city framework, the city spatial organization is a broader and more comprehensive concept than city spatial structure. In fact, the spatial structure tends only to the physical structure of the city, while spatial organization takes also into account the examination and identification of various functions, including economic, social, transportation functions. In addition, high-rise buildings – as phenomena that have flourished in the past decade in Hamedan and are still growing – have always got influenced by various factors and have affected various urban aspects such as spatial-physical, economic, social, environmental, and traffic dimensions. In fact, in addition to the effects of this issue on the physical structure of the city, they have brought about many changes in the spatial and functional organization of the city such that changes in the daily commuting to shopping centers, offices, etc. in the city are clearly observable. On the other hand, the previous studies have rarely addressed the effect of high-rise buildings on the spatial and functional organization of the city in major areas of business. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze and evaluate the effects of high-rise buildings in the form of major modern central business districts on the spatial-functional organization of Hamedan city. This study was applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of method. Moreover, in order to collect the required data, the documents related to urban development plans, field observations, interviews, and questionnaires were used. Then, to analyze the obtained data, the spatial-locative analysis models in GIS environment were adopted. The conceptual model of this study provided 8 indices for the analysis of the effects of modern high-rise CBDs on city spatial-functional organization, and each of them was analyzed spatially. The results of the analyses indicated that in the single-core spatial organization of Hamedan city, there is a high concentration on the central part of the city, but this concentrated area is expanding and new urban cores are emerging due to various factors. One of the reasons for the appearance of these new cores is business-office high-rise buildings. Another noteworthy finding of this study is that the majority of these newly emerging urban cores are growing along Buali-Jahannama road. Therefore, due to the changes in the spatial-functional structure of the city, paying more attention to urban infrastructures and flexible planning should be among the main priorities of the city management.

City Development Strategy (CDS), which aims at reducing poverty, bringing about sustainable development, enhancing participation, and creating good urban governance, has attracted the attention of many Iranian scientific circles. This approach can replace the previous inflexible plans for the removal of the future crises in all cities of Iran. It is clear that in case the novel city development strategies are not used and the old methods and policies are exercised, the problems of Iran cannot be solved. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of Malard city using Meta SWOT model and to propose effective strategies to achieve sustainable development of this city. This study was descriptive-analytical in terms of research method, applied in terms of purpose, and mixed-methods in terms of approach. The statistical population was comprised of 50 managers of Malard city. Based on the obtained results, the reduction of water resources, excessive migration (especially the increase in the share of Afghans in city population composition), and social harms are the main obstacles to the sustainable development of Malard city that need to be taken into account in the strategic development planning process of this city. Moreover, among the factors effective on the sustainable development of Malard city, the suitable grounds for agricultural activities and conversion and complementary industries as well as ethnic and cultural diversity have strategic fitness.

The growing role of science and technology in economic development makes the necessity of policymaking and planning for the science and technology system more important. In line with centralized, top-down planning approaches to science and technology policymaking, the spatial planning approach is a bottom-up effort to identify regional capacities and potentials in order to provide an endogenous and balanced model for the development of science and technology. Although the spatial planning approach in its general form has a multi-decade history in the planning literature, the optimization of this approach in the science and technology governance needs methodological innovations. The purpose of this study was to provide a science and technology spatial planning methodology using institutional mapping. To this end, we used two cross-sections. On the one hand, we took into account innovation within a regional system, and on the other hand, we adopted the institutional mapping to attain a method for its analysis and estimation. In this system, first the institutions of the science and technology institution including the science institution, the technology institution, and the market institution were identified, and then the interconnection capabilities of these three institutions and their subsidiaries were evaluated. This was done through the extraction of the similarity graph. The similarity graph, which was obtained through the quantification of binary relationships of the science and technology system sub-institutions, expressed the diversity and intensity of the connections of each institute with other institutes. The more diverse and intense the relationships among the institutions were in general, the more optimal the science and technology system would be. Ultimately, observing this graph, the policymaker can design a scenario for moving toward regional balance for each of these institutions so that in the predetermined chronological horizons, the institutional proximity is increased and the agreement and accord of the institutions are enhanced.

In order to explain the ecological-sociological strategy of Tehran land use network/ land cover, the present study was tried to identify the spatial process of the change in the landscape mosaic pattern and its effect on carbon sequestration over the course of 3 decades from 1990 to 2020. In this study, the role of landscape measures in the identification of landscape mosaic spatial pattern changes and its combination with data obtained from ecosystem service modeling was shown. To this end, after examining the process of structural-functional changes in landscape mosaic using decision tree algorithm and InVEST model, the complexity of the relationship between landscape spatial pattern and the quantity of carbon sequestration regulatory services at the two levels of class and landscape was addressed using the measures and data obtained from InVEST model. The findings indicated that the volume of carbon sequestration regulatory services in all periods had reduced due to the effects of the spatial process of “accumulation” in construction strains. Moreover, in the 1990-2020 period, the highest rate of carbon storage loss (291656 tones, 9. 58%) occurred due to the effects of the spatial processes of “deletion” in green lands and “fragmentation” in barren lands. In the 2000-2010 and 2010-2020 periods, the volume of carbon storage reduction were 182209 (6. 62%) and 159688 (6. 22%) tones, respectively. Pertaining to this discussion was the finding that the effect of the change in the index of strain numbers in green and barren lands for all periods was accompanied by increased fineness, which indicates its reverse relationship with carbon sequestration rate. On the other hand, the reduction of other measures in green and barren lands reveals the existence of a direct relationship with the loss of a volume of carbon sequestration in the foregoing period. At the landscape level, the reduction of heterogeneity and simplification of the landscape mosaic spatial pattern led to the reduction of carbon sequestration. From this perspective, it is necessary to prioritize the identification of the spatial processes effective on the landscape structure model in the completion of the processes of the evaluation of the urban development effects on the carbon sequestration service current.

Air pollution is one of the most important problems of industrial cities. The existence of large industrial factories, official and industrial facilities, National Iranian South Oil Company, National Iranian Drilling Company, etc., have turned Ahvaz to one of the main industrial centers and one of the most polluted cities of Iran. Coming into contact with airborne microorganisms is related to a host of negative effects on the human health. This study was carried out to find out the effect of oil industries on air pollution and its optimal locating through the environmental approach in Ahvaz metropolis. In this study, SCREEN3 software was used to find out and analyze the distribution of Sox, NOx, and CO pollutants. Based on expert opinion, the main criteria were determined as climatic, natural, environmental, and economic factors. After calculating weights through the AHP model and attaining the information layers, the GIS software capabilities to combine and overlap the maps were used. This led to a map depicting the optimal location of oil industries congruent with the environmental approach in Ahvaz metropolis. According to the obtained results, there should be no residence-based activity in at least 5000 meters distance from the oil industries, where air pollutants have a considerable density. That is to say, within this distance, the animate and inanimate creatures will be damaged the most. The most optimal areas for the establishment of oil industry facilities are located on the west, south, southwest, and parts of east and north of the area under study.

The main purpose of this study was modeling the suitability of recreational services in order to identify the high-priority areas for the development of recreational activities. To identify the spatial patterns of recreational services, the landscape attractiveness index, visit rate estimation, and access distribution were combined using a set of sub-indices. Moreover, the weight of each index was calculated using CRITIC weighting method and the importance of each index in the formation of recreational services spatial suitability was determined. The results showed that the presentation of highly recreational services is mainly done in the areas with forest ecosystems, protected areas, and aquatic ecosystems such as rivers and wetlands that have diverse landscapes. On the contrary, urban and human-built areas have the least potential for the provision of recreational services. Getis-Ord Gi* statistic was used to model the recreational suitability, identify recreational suitability clusters, and zoning. With its very low suitability, Zone 1 covers 19. 9 percent of the area under study. This zone is mainly filled with agricultural lands (54. 7%), grasslands (36. 1%), and urban lands (6. 8%). In contrast, with its very high recreational suitability, Zone 5 covers 16. 5 percent of the area under study. The main uses of the lands in this zone are forest lands (55. 5%) and aquatic layers including rivers and wetlands (17. 2%). Zone 3, which has an average suitability rate, covers more than half of the area under study. The approach presented in this study helps identify the development priorities in the light of the recreational potentials of the ecosystems existing in an area. Thus, it can be used to improve the spatial planning of recreation and tourism in order to preserve ecosystem services and sustainable use of them.

Hospitals are among the most important service centers, and the selection of the optimal site for them is a very important (yet complex) undertaking, as it can bring about optimal spatial distribution of hospitals and can make them optimally accessible for citizens. In the present study, in order to optimally locate hospitals in District 5 of Tehran metropolis, a combination of the geographical information system, objective weighting methods, and multi-criteria decision making method was used. The geographical information system was used to analyze and manage the optimal hospital locating criteria, the CRITIC weighting method was implemented to account for the correlation between the criteria, and Shannon's entropy method was used to model the existing uncertainty in the criteria. CODAS multi-criteria decision making method was used due to its novelty and the evaluation of alternatives based on two criteria. Based on the results obtained from CRITIC weighting method, distance from health centers, and based on the results of Shannon's entropy method, distance from industrial areas were the most important optimal hospital locating criteria. The results of ranking the candidate sites using CRITIC-CODAS and Shannon’s entropy-CODAS were almost the same, and both methods identified the sites on the western side of the District (that did not have any hospital) as the appropriate sites. The results of the study indicated the high accuracy of combined objective weighting and multi-criteria decision making methods in optimal locating of the hospitals. It might be asserted that these methods can replace thematic weighting methods such as analytical hierarchy process.