A B S T R A C TToday, all officials involved with the challenges of city sustainability have accepted the idea of a smarter city, using more technologies, creating better living conditions and protecting the environment for a better quality of life. The central part of the metropolis of Tabriz is based on Region 8 and part of Region 10, a historical-cultural area with an area of 286 hectares and a population of about 40 thousand people in 8 neighbourhoods. This research was compiled to evaluate and explain the regeneration of the central part of Tabriz city with the approach of smart growth and in line with the sustainable development of problematic neighbourhoods in the 8th district of Tabriz metropolis. The present review is methodologically practical, to describe and analyze the goals of regeneration based on library studies. The statistical population of the research includes experts and people living in the central context. In the first part, the Delphi method was used by asking experts. In the second part, the structural equation method of SPSS and AMOS software is used. According to the results of using the scales of design, pedestrian-oriented, intergenerational justice in the actual situation and 3 indicators of management and productivity, stable and value-creating jobs are in the potential situation. Also, two environmental indicators with the most direct and indirect effects and a cultural index have been decisive in the regeneration with the smart growth approach in the central part of Tabriz city. Therefore, in the regeneration of the central part, the studied indicators should be used simultaneously and integrated into the reconstruction projects of the central fabric of the city to lead to smart sustainabilityExtended AbstractIntroductionSmart growth is considered a lever for revitalizing neighborhoods and urban centers. In a general scenario of smart growth, knowing the time and resources of investment provides a new and sustainable life in the city center and worn-out and old textures. Moreover, finally, it will improve the quality of urban neighborhoods, especially worn-out ones, and revive them. Tabriz metropolis, one of the most important and largest cities in the country, with a long history of settlement, especially the central and old texture, due to developments in information and communication technology, extensive environmental, social, and economic changes in terms of time requirements, the traditional texture of roads, Deterioration of residential units, lack of equipment, infrastructure and urban services and environmental problems have caused the failure and physically turned into inefficient and problematic textures. Urban planning and development science must adopt a new decision and approach to face the existing and complex issues of worn-out texture. The main problem of the research is to evaluate and explain the regeneration of the central texture and strengthen them in line with the sustainable development of the problematic neighborhoods of Tabriz metropolis according to the solutions and principles of smart urban growth. Therefore, the main goal of this research is to answer the following question:- What are the effective indicators and components in the regeneration of the central texture of Tabriz metropolis with a smart growth approach? MethodologyThis research is applied and fundamental in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical. The collection methods are based on documentary and library studies, surveys, and interviews. In the first part, qualitative data was prepared with an open questionnaire and through interviews, as well as the review of documents and quantitative data used in this research numerically and through the weighting of Delphi questionnaires based on the consensus index model to determine importance, certainty, and priority. The panel members were 19 people (including 5 university faculty members, 7 field research experts, 4 executive experts, and 3 graduate students) selected based on the non-probability (targeted) method. In the second part, Cronbach's alpha method was exerted to measure the reliability of the questions, which was obtained as 0.89. In order to evaluate the validity of the questionnaire, the Lawshe method was exploited. The statistical population of the second part includes District 8 of Tabriz, which is the central texture of the city and is equal to 34,231 people. According to Cochran's formula, the sample size was equal to 379 people. Results and discussionIn the next step, path analysis was performed using AMOS 23 software to compare the integrated model with the hypotheses. The results of the path analysis, while verifying the structures, show that the value of the index of the critical ratio to the degree of freedom (CMIN/DF) is equal to 4.01, which is an optimal value for the model fit. Also, the goodness of fit index (GFI) is 0.952, which indicates the acceptability of this amount for the optimal fit of the model. The value of the root means the square error of estimation (RMSEA) is 0.065, which is acceptable because it is smaller than 0.08 and indicates the confirmation of the research model. Also, the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) is 0.917, the comparative fit index (CFI) is 0.92, and the normalized parsimonious fit index (PNFI) is 0.882, which all indicate that the fit and verification of the research model are desirable.Therefore, none of the objects are removed and remain in the model. Therefore, it is confirmed that the factor structure of regeneration indicators with the smart growth approach has reliability and construct validity. Also, the second-order factor analysis shows that the factor loadings of all regeneration indicators with the smart growth approach are greater than 0.4 and are significant at the 95% probability level. According to the results, the environmental dimension with a factor loading of 0.94 has the most significant effect on urban regeneration with the smart growth approach in the central texture of Tabriz city. After that, quality of life with a factor loading of 0.92, social dimension with a factor loading of 0.88, economic dimension with a factor loading of 0.83, physical dimension with a factor loading of 0.81, transportation dimension with a factor loading of 0.74 and cultural dimension in order with a factor loading of 0.72, are in the following ranks.According to the final structural model results, the environmental index has the highest value, with a direct effect of 0.594 and an indirect effect of 0.275. Moreover, after that, respectively, the quality of life index with a direct effect of 0.513 and an indirect effect of 0.236, a social index with a direct effect of 0.476 and an indirect effect of 0.217, an economic index with a direct effect of 0.451 and an indirect effect of 0.222, Physical with the direct effect of 0.435 and indirect effect of 0.205, mobility index with the direct effect of 0.373 and indirect effect of 0.182 and cultural index with the effect of direct values of 0.295 and indirect effect of 0.153 are influential in regeneration with smart growth approach in the central part of Tabriz city. ConclusionIn this research, seven main indicators related to the subject were investigated. The results showed that the environmental index with the most significant direct and indirect effect is the focus of the evaluation. After that, dimensions and indicators of quality of life, social index, economic index, physical index, mobility index, and cultural index have been influential. According to the results, the urban environment index was analyzed as the most important factor at a high level, and this means that for urban regeneration with a smart growth approach, improving the environmental and physical conditions in the worn-out and central texture of Tabriz city in the current situation is a priority. It is first. This is the most well-known part of regeneration with a smart growth approach. The analysis results show that this is not the case only in the case of transportation infrastructure. However, more comprehensive urban infrastructure such as the urban landscape, open spaces, green and parks, etc. are also crucial in improving the physical conditions of the infrastructure. Also, this study's results show that the economic sector's importance is as important as improving the physical conditions of the infrastructure. In addition, in the worn-out texture of District 8 of Tabriz city, the sociocultural sector is essential, and the revival of historical and cultural resources is considered one of the urban regeneration options. Funding There is no funding support. Authors’ Contribution All of the authors approved the content of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work.  Conflict of Interest Authors declared no conflict of interest. AcknowledgmentsWe are grateful to all the scientific.

ABSTRACT With the expansion of inefficient tissues, "Urban regeneration" has been objectified as a solution for developing cities in different physical, social and economic dimensions. Despite the development of the guidelines for urban regeneration projects, these projects in Iran still have challenges in the stage of realization and implementation. This article aims to identify the "challenges and causes of non-realization of urban regeneration projects in Iran" and analyse the research conducted in this field with a qualitative approach. For this purpose, a meta-analysis of 23 articles in the field of problems of urban regeneration projects in Iran was carried out. The challenges raised in the AtlasTI software were extracted with the help of open and axial coding. In the following, 100 codes were determined in the form of 10 groups or general categories. In the end, the obstacles to the realization of urban regeneration projects in Iran were given. According to the obtained results, the weak presence of non-governmental organizations, the problems of preparing plans, institutional and management problems, and the weakness of participation are the four most important and frequent challenges in the research related to the realization of urban regeneration projects in Iran Extended Abstract Introduction The trend of urban population growth and the expansion of inefficient urban fabrics along with the increasing immigrant population to the cities makes the planners think of filling the existing urban fabrics with excessive density and land use change, instead of the city horizontal development with regard to the urban sustainable development prism. Poor housing, low per capita services, lack of necessary infrastructure, low quality of life, economic stagnation and functional inefficiency, unorganized physical-spatial structure, high vulnerability to earthquakes, loss of social status, and various social problems exemplify the typical challenges of such deteriorated areas. Deterioration of the urban fabric has prompted the emergence of various urban development policies among which regeneration as an overarching approach characterized by its economic, social, environmental, physical, ecological dimensions and components including quality of life, justice, revitalization and participation. This concept, as an urban development policy, has been defined and applied in the vulnerable and deteriorated areas of cities in recent years. Started from physical redevelopment in the Second World War and passing through policies concentrated on social and economic welfare, urban regeneration policies moved towards the participation of local residents and the creation of sustainable places in recent decades. However, taking into consideration the manifestation challenges of urban development plans, in the existing literature, urban regeneration challenges have been less comprehensively investigated. This paper aims to identify the "challenges and causes of lack of urban regeneration plans manifestation in Iran" based on the review and analysis of the research conducted in this field with a qualitative approach in response to this question: "What are the challenges and obstacles to the manifestation of urban regeneration projects in Iran?”   Methodology This research aims to identify "challenges and obstacles to the manifestation of urban regeneration projects in Iran" through a meta-analysis of the research conducted in this field. Conducting a systematic search in Magiran, comprehensive humanities portal, and Google Scholar databases using the Boolean logic search used the keyword (challenges) AND key phrases (‘manifestation of plans’ AND ‘urban regeneration in Iran’) resulted in more than 70 Persian papers, 2 English papers, and 2 English theses. The reviewed studies included research and review papers, case study research, and the special issue of urban regeneration policy of Haft Shahr Journal. The geographical scope of the investigated studies covers the historical contexts of Iran, and metropolises such as Tehran, Tabriz, Shiraz, and Isfahan. Reviewing the abstracts, 23 studies were selected among which the research focusing on the different types of regeneration, and evaluation of urban regeneration indicators were excluded from the research process. To conduct meta-analysis after a comprehensive review of each study, open and focused coding of challenges was done through Atlas.ti software (version 8), and the obstacles to the manifestation of the plans were extracted. Coding process continued until the saturation was reached. Finally, the 115 codes obtained was reduced to 100 through integrating similar codes. Then, all the codes were categorized into 10 categories, and a comprehensive model of "challenges of manifestation of urban regeneration projects in Iran" was presented.   Results and discussion Based on the conducted review, the recognized problems with emphasis on the different aspects of urban regeneration projects are: 1) Weak presence of non-governmental organizations (18 codes); 2) Problems of preparing plans (17 codes); 3) Institutional and managerial problems (14 codes); 4) Weakness of participation (13 codes); 5) Duration and financial problems of urban regeneration plans (10 codes); 6) Problems of urban regeneration plans process (8 codes); 7) loss of identity of fabrics in the preparation of the plan (6 codes); 8) Lack of context-oriented approach (7 codes); 9) inefficient evaluation of plans (4 codes); 10) lack of social and specialized training for citizens and officials (3 codes). The lack of endogenous theory and insufficient knowledge of the environment and residents obstacle the manifestation of urban regeneration plans. Despite pretending the use of non-governmental organizations, the relevant law weaknesses, and the lack of belief in the effectiveness of it has led to disregard of the participation of non-governmental organizations in practice in the process of preparing and implementing development plans resulting in an inadequate context for manifestation of urban regeneration plans. In addition, the government supervision on NGO’s in the way of achieving independence has also caused limitations for their interplay. In terms of the issues in the preparation of plans, more emphasis on the physical and economic dimensions and the purely physical view, and the lack of attention to the social and cultural consequences, along with the loss of the community identity, are the factors of the failure of the plans to achieve the expected results. The lack of coordination between programs and multiple decision-makers led to the institutional confrontation instead of interaction. In this regard, the necessity of an integrated and comprehensive approach to urban regeneration has been acknowledged in the reviewed studies. NGO’s can play an effective role in communicating with citizens, educating citizens and informing them. It is also necessary to have the participation of the private sector and other organizations involved in the field of urban development in addition to public participation in all steps of preparation, implementation and occupation of projects and development plans. In the absence of a context-oriented approach in the preparation and implementation of urban regeneration plans in Iran with blind imitation of western models and the existence of limited urban infrastructure, following consequences are inevitable: uncertainty in terms of time, cost and site preparation before the implementation of the plan; lack of definition of urban regeneration plans in the different scales, neighborhood, region and city; and the uncertainty of the relationship between these plans and other urban development plans. As such in the current inadequate conditions driving the process of preparing plans, the possibility of implementing new policies and plans, is low and the implemented plans like many other urban development plans in Iran, are inefficient in the absence of the post occupancy evaluation.   Conclusion Based on the results, four priority challenges in the manifestation of urban regeneration plans in Iran include; the weak presence of non-governmental organizations, the problems of preparing plans, institutional and managerial issues, and the weakness of participation. "The weak presence of non-governmental organizations" has been mentioned as the first challenge in most reviewed studies (Ahmadifar et al., 2014). Regarding the "participation of citizens" even though in the set of laws and regulations of sustainable urban regeneration, promotion of citizenship culture, participation, and cooperation of local institutions are highlighted, the residents are not welcomed in practice. On the other hand, the lack of people's participation in the preparation and implementation of plans has made any urban regeneration actions fail or achieve to its partial goals. In this regard, the results of the previous comparative comparisons have shown that the lack of laws and regulations supporting participation in various fields is of the key factors (Nourian and Ariana, 2011, Shafie Dastjerdi and Sadeghi, 2016). The problems of preparing plans, institutional and managerial issues, ranked as the third and fourth issues in this study, have been emphasized in previous studies as well (Kalantari Khalil Abad et al., Pakro and Sattarzadeh, 2014, Izadi et al., 2019). Therefore, prioritizing the challenges raised by experts and determining operational strategies to solve them are issues that can be addressed in future studies.   Keywords Urban regeneration plans, manifestation, meta-analysis   Funding There is no funding support.   Authors’ Contribution All of the authors approved the content of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work.   Conflict of Interest Authors declared no conflict of interest.

The city's regeneration is one of the strategies that lead to urban deterioration and inefficient textures towards revitalization. Using systems thinking on the subject of reinvention can lead to the identification of complex systems that are considered effective in producing and reproducing worn-out textures. In this regard, this study was to benefit from a systemic approach in identifying the the roots of the production and reproduction of historical/worn-out textures in Semnan city. The leading research is among the applied research, and in terms of information and data analysis, it uses the descriptive-analytical method. The tool for collecting information is also in documents and surveys. The statistical population of the research was 18 university professors, experts, and officials familiar with the urban fabric of Semnan, who were selected by the snowball method. In the end, using experts' opinions, 24 variables were selected as effective drivers of Semnan's production-reproduction system of worn tissue. MicMac software was used for structural-interpretive analysis of variables. The results show that the rules and regulations governing the regeneration of the studied area are the most important and effective factors. Also, the special ownership conditions governing barren, ruined, and ruined lands have caused the private sector to have no incentive to invest in this area and reproduce the existing conditions. With the continuation of the current process, the existing situation is reproduced. Breaking this round of the reproduction process requires a constructive look at the target neighborhoods from the city administration and government agencies, which can provide the basis for the presence of private sector investors in these neighborhoods

In urban literature and restoration, a variety of interventions such as renovation, rehabilitation, revitalization, and re-generation are used to address the issue of dysfunctional tissues. The type of intervention is affected by the temporal and spatial features of the context. Apart from that, various constituent layers of the context determine social, economic, and physical characteristics.  Regardless of the nature and complexity of these concepts, two fundamental issues need to be taken into consideration: 1) to be theory-based and 2) to be context-oriented. Many concerned people acknowledge that one of the reasons for the failure of urban development plans and programs is the lack of a written theory. A  theory primarily serves as a structured framework to shed light on phenomena by describing the relationship between its various constituent elements and provides a foundation for critical thought. Also, the grounded theory serves as a foundation for practical approaches and prepares a better understanding of the problem with regard to the context in the first stage and offers a solution in the next steps. With such a background and focusing on the concept of urban regeneration as a more recent and all-inclusive approach, we can expect a clearer and more tangible practical result. To do so, we need to adapt the approach to its biological equivalent based on "transformation-permanence" and use it as a theory. In intergenerational biological reproduction, the focus is on how the traits of a living organism are transformed through heredity or genetics, and in other words, what changes and what remains the same. In such a view, offspring, as the product of a process, inherit traits in the form of genetic characteristics from their environment and parents. Such characteristics can manifest in physiological and behavioral aspects. As comparing the city and the living creature can be sometimes misleading, it is necessary to take into account the essential differences between the two. We can expect that such a differentiation will be applied in urban regeneration as well. Among other things, this inheritance is not only limited to the form but will be affected by the geographical, social, cultural, and economic backgrounds. Understanding the similarities and discrepancies between generations has encountered limits and gaps, but it is always possible to confirm the hereditary relationship definitively through scientific means. So far, such hereditary characteristics have been transferred in the form of traits through genes from the early generations to the next generations and evolved under the influence of the environment. These features can be obvious and impressive in some aspects and internal and invisible in some aspects. The important point highlighted by this theory is that after the intervention and regeneration, the new context cannot completely disassociate from the previous generation(s) and its geographical, cultural, and social background.

Today, culture is one of the urban capital and creating urban spaces base on cultural infrastructure is a great challenge in large cities. Many urban spaces due to numerous problems, have confronted inefficiency and stagnation of urban life. This issue has ended up with fewer attractiveness in spaces. Moreover, it may seem that the regeneration of urban spaces with a focus on culture, can solve existing challenges and somewhat leads to reduce the same risks of urban spaces. Therefore, it becomes crucial to recognize the concept of culture-led regeneration and its influential components and principles on urban spaces. This study attempts to extract and analyze the principals involved in the success of the culture-led regeneration process of urban spaces by examining the concepts, theories and data obtained. This developmental-applied study adopts a descriptive and analytical approach to research. The research is also qualitative. Samples of the study were collected purposefully and data were analyzed through content analysis and estimation based on the generalized linear model. Research findings show that the culture-led regeneration process of urban spaces, tries to prepare urban spaces to achieve a long-term of a public space through five components including improving civic identity, sustainable development, city branding (promoting urban competitiveness), capital enhancement and placemaking. Based on findings, this goal will be achieved by applying seven principles including tourism and event-led development, cultural development, promotion of urban properties, making image and place based on distinct advantage, urban environmental quality, civil society, and the optimum economic structure.

The necessity of flexible responsiveness to impacts of globalization process on economic structure of cities of the world, accompanied by the need to resolve concentrated urban problems, through maximum utilization of local potentials, has culminated in regarding “ culture” as a new tool for urban regeneration and deal with all dimensions of urban decline. Interventions in declined urban areas in Iran are made with inadequate attention to cultural identity and cultural potentials of these areas and in many cases lead to weakening their identity. The main purpose of this article is to create and introduce an integrated framework for optimized exploitation of cultural potentials of urban areas to deal with all dimensions of urban decline. To achieve this purpose, theoretical framework underlying culture-led urban regeneration approach is considered and after selecting case study by use of “ factor analysis” , significance of relationships between culture and urban regeneration aspects in selected areas is proved using Chi-square test. Then alternative courses of action are generated using “ the analysis of interconnected decision areas” technique. By evaluating the alternatives, one course of action is selected and introduced. The main achievement of this article is to devise and application of a framework to integrate culture into strategic planning of urban regeneration in the case study, with emphasis on interests of local residents and dealing with all dimensions of urban decline. This framework is designed such that makes it possible to create a self-sustaining circle in which regeneration tools and local communities reinforce each other mutually.

In city planning, a fundamental point is to evaluate the city image. The concept of city image is multidimensional. This study evaluate the city image of Tehran and its consequences. Tehran regenerates for many years. This modernization process creates new city image, urban identity and new relationship between residents. This study has qualitative approach. Interview and thematic analysis used for collective and analyses data from 20 citizens. This sample selected equally from north and south of Tehran as developed and undeveloped urban region. Conceptual framework consist Blasé outlook of Simmel, meaning of memory and city of Benjamin and concepts of alienation and spaces of representation in Lefebvre theory. Findings reveal that process of regeneration destroys memories of citizens. They can’t relate with new urban spaces. Regeneration makes separation image from north and south of Tehran. Residents of south feel sense of deprivation, exclusion and inequality. Interviewees miss their human relationship like neighbors, so they feel loneliness. Totally, elements of city image of residents show alienated sense of place in Tehran.

Following evolution of socio-spatial structure of great cities, there have been applied efforts to develop macro plans for urban development concentrating on reforming the internal fabric of these cities and increasing their institutional capabilities. A glance over the nature of urban development plans reveals that their main focus has been the improvement of urban structure and application of methods that would result in enhancement of overall quality of life in the developed sections urban setting at the expense of neglecting small-scale urban issues, activities and institutions in less developed sections. For this reason many urban networks particularly those located in marginal areas could not use the benefits of macro urban plans. An increasing trend in the immigrant’s population, on the one hand, and the rapid growth of other sections, such as in service and housing have resulted in an intensification of socio-spatial imbalance in which the populations of marginal neighborhood have been at loss. A number of facts are demonstrative of this point, as far as problems such as unequal socio-spatial structure, poor services, and distribution system are concerned. These underdeveloped cities are mostly located in third world countries that are sadly experiencing these problems. Moreover, such problems are the origin of many other urban maladies, on the level of city, such associal inequality, urban crimes, delinquency, social abnormalities, and urban poverty and so on.In recent years the attention is shifted toward micro scale of analysis and planning process. Urban neighborhood as a unit of analysis and management became the focus of many research works. Particularly there has appeared an attention to regeneration poor urban neighborhood as the foundation of development of general structure of city. Urban neighborhood regeneration based on of community development planning framework is a way in which planners could attempt to rebuild the internal structure of poor neighborhoods, change the quality of people, and increase the possibilities of making services and provisions affordable. After the failure of the use of the macro level of analysis it seems necessary to apply a new approach in the analysis and production of a sustainable policy for future of urban development which can be concentrated on neighborhood-based and citizen-oriented rather than concentrating on an overall system-improvement. This article argues that the Community Development Planning can be conceptualized as a new approach and it means to reconstruction of poor areas in developing cities. However, in this paper the main aim is to develop the sociological aspect of community development planning approach and to direct attention towards its results for the city life and urban regeneration in general.