JOURNAL OF URBAN ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT
Year:2013 | Volume:1 | Issue:3|Papers Count:9

The spatial structure of a city is the result of current spatial processes in a city and in a long run, has close relationship with the efficiency of urban development. Such a concept has a significant effect on the quality of competitiveness, livability, desirability, and the environmental invulnerability of the cities. In this regard, formulating a sustainable spatial structure depends on such factors as the justifiability of functions mixing, providing ease of transfer and access, justifiability of public transport and the extent of adaptation and flexibility, environmental quality, and observing the distance between business and residential centers, etc. The applied study, aiming at identifying and assessing the features of the spatial structure of the city of Sari, with a strategic approach, has been conducted in the framework of the concept of sustainable development in 2012. The research method was descriptive-analytical and the required data were collected via a questionnaire. In line with the purposes of the study through SWOT technique, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the urban spatial structure have been analyzed, and, then, to achieve a sustainable spatial structure, appropriate policies and strategies have been offered.Experiential analysis in the case study indicates that the current spatial structure of the city of Sari does not comply with sustainability indexes.

Nowadays, tourism industry, as one of the premium developing industries, plays an important role in the economy of countries and takes an active and effective part in improving cultural-social and environmental structure of the host country. Considering the increasing importance of tourism in the development of communities, the current research intends to make an investigation into the effect (s) of tourism on economic-environmental development of the city through the lens of the citizens and the officials of the city of Babolsar. The current research is applied, purpose-wise, and is descriptive, correlational, and upon surveying, method-wise. The data has been collected via documents and library sources as well as the researcher-developed questionnaire, observations, and interviews with related organizations and the heads of the households in the city of Babolsar. Upon Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Kendall-b tests, the results show that tourism has significant effects on economy and in addition to employment and income-providing, has resulted in increase in prices and property speculation. Environmentally, tourism has decreased farmlands, changing them into buildings, and increased services, pollution, ecology-destruction, and has made it easier to have access to cities. Thus, via proper planning and efficient utilization of tourists entry, it is possible to improve economy of the city, resulting in improvement in the city’s environment.

Houses, as heterogeneous, lasting, immovable, capitalizable, and consumable goods, having side effects, have attracted a significant part of household budget, expenses, and gross national fixed investment and play an important role in a nation’s employment and value added. One of the most important and emphasized factors in housing issue, hence, is predicting the price and the effective factors deciding the price of houses. The current study aims at predicting the price and the effective factors deciding the price of houses utilizing Hedonic Pricing Model. To this end, the current study, via analytical-descriptive method and utilizing field research, the effective factors deciding housing prices in the district 2 of the city of Sanandaj, i.e. the research population from among whom 174 were randomly selected, were determined via Hedonic Pricing Model whereby independent variable and dependant ones were probed. The results indicated that physical factors had much more effect on determining the housing price than accessibility factors in the district 2 of the city of Sanandaj. From among physical factors, the significant factors were area of the land, the area of the building, the type of materials used, and urban gas-providing system.

Science and technology parks, as one of the infrastructures of science-based economy, have played a specific role in the development of regional, local, and urban economy. The current study, aiming at helping the development of the function of such parks, utilizing data-driven conceptualization-theory method, one of the qualitative methods, analyzes and identifies effective contextual factors in assessing the function of the parks across the nation. The research is descriptive purpose-wise and qualitative strategy-wise. The research population consisted of all managers and view holders of science and technology parks and the 17 participants out of the population were selected based on Snowball Sampling Method and were interviewed. The results show that effective factors in assessing the function of science and technology parks include considerations of science-based companies, considerations of internal and external interactions in the park, infrastructure consideration, cultural considerations, procedural and structural considerations, considerations related to services and consultations, managerial and staff-related considerations, considerations related to domestic and foreign potentials, large-scale and exterior considerations, and the considerations related to the assessing team of the park. The study concludes with applied suggestions for the development of such parks.

Being aware of the inference of tourists regarding perceived quality, perceived value and mental obsession quality and value, satisfaction level, and behavioral inclinations to visiting tourist destinations are vital for marketing and successful destination management.The current study aims at investigating into the relationship between such variables utilizing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The current study is practical, purpose-wise, and descriptive-surveying, method-wise. The population of the study was tourists who had visited the city of Noshahr during spring and summer of the year 2012. Based on available random sampling, 456 tourists were selected for the study. The results of Path Analysis indicated that the understanding of tourists of quality and value and their being preoccupied with a tourist destination has effects on tourists’ satisfaction. It was also indicated that such an understanding has positive effects on tourists’ inclination level to revisit the very destination. The findings of the current study result in better understanding of behavioral mechanisms which are appropriate basis for maintaining and increasing the number of tourists to an urban tourist destination.

Empowering citizens, recently, takes a pivotal role in urban management participation.Therefore, the current research aims at investigating into the relationship empowering citizens and participation in managing cities and, also, offering methods for empowering citizens, encouraging them to more cooperate and to actively participate in managing cities.The research is applied, purpose-wise, and follows a descriptive surveying method. To collect data, a questionnaire has been utilized and the research population was all above-15-year-olds dwelling in the district 18 of Tehran municipality. Via random sampling and upon Morgan table, the sample size was decided to be 384 participants. Research data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially. The results show that there is a significant positive relationship between empowering citizens and their participation in managing cities.Moreover, the results show that the extent of empowerment and participation is lower than the average. Based on the obtained results, it is argued that any measure to empower citizens and to improve their participation is necessary and any effort to empower citizens to improve the extent of their participation in managing cities will be effective and beneficial.

In today’s world, process-orientedness, as an effective and attractive factor, has become a necessity for organizations in a way that such a concept has been considered the most important managerial idea during the recent twenty years. One of the areas wherein the implementation of such an approach is of high importance is urban management. In Iran, numerous organizations have relations with the issue of urban management from among which the one having a large share in urban management is the ministry of roads and urban development. The current article aims at investigating the extent of accepting processorientedness to implement business process reengineering (BPR) in the very ministry. The current study is practical, purpose-wise, and descriptive, data-collecting and -analysis-wise, and surveying, research-method-wise. The population included the managers and staff of housing and urban development in three different deputyships of urban development and architecture, development and resources management, and housing and construction. Via stratified sampling, 135 participants were selected and the questionnaire for business process reengineering was used as a data-collecting instrument. To analyze the collected data, independent samples t-test, one sample t-test, one-way ANOAV, and Scheffe’s test were utilized to determine the extent of differences between the groups. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the current and the ideal status of the ministry of roads and urban development in terms of accepting process-orientedness. The results also revealed that there is a significant difference between the managers and the staff in the mentioned deputyships in terms of accepting process-orientedness.

Nowadays, the necessity for employing IT and paving the ground for electronic managing of the cities across the nation and utilizing such knowledge for regulating urban issues, with regard to demanding responsibilities of urban management, especially the municipality, is quite clear to all. Such a necessity better manifests itself when we become aware of the fact that, for the time being, many view holders believe that the traditional methods of managing cities, in most cases and particularly in metropolises, is not sufficient and appropriate for meeting the requirements of the citizens. Therefore, utilizing modern methods, like electronic municipality, which have such advantages as reduction in citizens’time loss in heavy traffic, better offering of services, fairer distribution of facilities, reduction in environmental pollution, employment increase, and improving sustainable management of the city, may give way to a revolution in urban management. Thus, the current study, taking a descriptive-analytical approach, investigates the status quo of electronic municipality in the metropolis of Qom. The results indicate that despite some positive measures taken for the actualization of electronic municipality in the city, there are still some problems such as lack of enjoying updated experts in IT issues, deficiency in educating staff to make them familiar with updated electronic systems, and in some cases, lack of attention to CRM. All in all, with regard to the suggestions, observations, pieces of research, and the documents obtained from the very municipality, odds are great that the metropolis of Qom change into a pioneer in electronic municipality in the nation.

Nowadays, public participation is considered to be the key for the development of human societies in the way that with an increase in human groups, citizens’ cooperation in the sustainable development of the city is highlighted. The current article aims at investigating the role of personal features, such as education level, occupation type, and the duration of residency in the city, in the extent of participation in sustainable development of the city of Amol. The city has 54144 households from among which 300 ones were randomly selected. The research method is descriptive-analytical and to collect the required data deeds and field research were utilized. To analyze the collected data, ANOVA and one sample t-test were used. The results indicate that the citizens of the city of Amol have inefficient participation in sustainable development of the city, that there is significant difference between the duration of the citizens’ living in the city with their inclination to participate in the city’s issues, and that there is a significant difference between the extent of inclination of public participation in terms of occupational and educational status.