فصلنامه برنامه ریزی توسعه کالبدی
پیاپی 11 (پاییز 1397)

The idea of creative city is a new and effective strategy to fundamental development of cities and improvement of environment and life quality of citizens. Such an idea can be recommended as a sustainable strategy for all metropolitans of the country for all eras. It would always be a changing idea according to its innovative and creative nature as well as new activities and functions of the cities. Since, the formation and growth of creative city strategy depends on the historical and cultural context of cities, the Iranian metropolitans, because of their diverse environments and cultures have a good potential to move towards global creative cities. The present study aimed at reviewing and monitoring the urban structure of eight metropolitans of Iran from a creative city strategy viewpoint. The applied model is an integrated model of VIKOR-AHP. Based on methodology and nature, the present research is a descriptive-analytic-comparative and based on aim, it is an applicable research. Findings of the present study indicate that according to five-fold urban creative structure; metropolitans of Tehran, Isfahan and Tabriz locate at the top of ranking scale with QIs of 0.11, 0.47 and 0.56, respectively. These figures are 0.77, 0.88 and 0.90 for the last three metropolitans of Karaj, Ahwaz, and Qom, respectively. The results show that based on socio-cultural and economic-functional structures of urban creativity, there is an unbalanced and unfair distribution among metropolitans in terms of economic, social and human resources. Also, unlike the availability of potentials and capacities of urban creativity indexes, most of them are not studied and haven’t yet been applied and executed.

Nowadays, interlinking of structural, social, environmental and economic aspects of cities is a major problem which results from unplanned horizontal expansion of cities and their land-use changes. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the land use changes and physical expansion of Babol city during the last 30 years and to predict the land use change’s trend for the future. To do so, Landsat multi-temporal images of 1985, 1992, 2000, and 2015 were used. The maximum likelihood algorithm was applied for classification of land use and cross tab model was used for investigation of land use changes. The scattered expansion of the city was examined through Shannon’s entropy index. Moreover, the CA-Markov model was applied to predict the land use change’s trend as well as the physical expansion of Babol city. Results of the present study confirmed the extreme physical expansion of Babol city during the last three decades. Such an expansion was the main reason for degradation of agricultural lands and green spaces around the suburbs. The growth rate of the built-up areas was 92%. The more distance from the built-up areas the less changes occurred in land uses. Also, the Shannon entropy index was increased from 0.73 in 1985 to 0.8 in 2015 which is an indication of the scattered expansion of the city. It can be predicted that besides decreasing 704 hectares of agricultural areas, a 33% growth will be occurred in built up areas from 2015 to 2040. It consequently requires the specific attention of urban managers and planners.

Renovation projects are among the most important tools for interferencing the organization of developmental activities and the physical expansion of villages which result in the improvement of living conditions in rural areas. Such projects provide grounds for a series of public services. They facilitate communication, life flow, and organization of construction activities in villages. They have preserved rural life and have improved the life quality in rural areas. The aim of the present study was to analyze the effects of physical renewation on the quality of rural life in villages of Torghabeh and Shandiz (Binaloud county). The research method was descriptive-analytical and based on nature it was an applicable research. Documentary and field methods were used for data collection. The statistical population of this research included 10 villages in which physical renovation projects were conducted. Also, 131 out of 3724 households were selected as a sample for the present study. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated for determining the reliability of the questionnaire. It was equaled to 0.812 for all indicators which confirmed the suitability of the research tool. Descriptive statistics (standard deviation, mean and coefficient of variation) and inferential statistics (single sample and analysis of variance) were used for data analysis. Vikor model was applied for classification of villages based on their life quality indexes. The results of one-sample t-test showed that among the indicators, employment and activity status with an average of (3.702), credit attraction and cost reduction (3.44), reduction of environmental changes (3.33) and preservation of architectural style (3.26) have had the most impacts on the life quality of the studied villages, respectively. Also, the Vikor model showed that the village of Dehbar (0.68) placed at the highest level of ranking, and the villages of Dehno (0.98) and Nagorno (0.97) possessed the lowest rank of the rate of renoation effects on the life quality improvements at the studied villages.

Since the main basis of human behavior is formed in accordance with his living environment, people would encounter sophisticated problems if they lack enough knowledge and strategies for their housing provision. Social factors are among the effective factors of livability of residential complexes; however the reduction of social interactions in such complexes is considered as a serious problem. The present study poses a main question: how does the architectural form influence the realization of social livability in residential complexes? Aseman Tabriz, Shahid Chamran and Imam residential complexes are chosen as case studies to answer this question. This study is a quantitative-qualitative research carried out by a descriptive-analytical method. The information is collected through documentary and field methods (i.e. observations, interviews and questionnaires). The sample of the present study included 300 people who were selected based on Cochran formula. Also, data analysis was completed using SPSS software version 20. The present paper studied and analyzed the relationships of effective components upon livability of residential complexes. The results suggest that the components of social capital and security have more impacts on the livability of residential complexes; and ultimately, the architectural body affects the social livability in residential complexes.

Social sustainability is a subject that has attracted the attentions of researchers since the early years of 21st century. Social, economic, and ecological sustainability are considered as the three components of urban sustainable development. On the other hand, the urban form, as an important component of the city comprises communication networks, public transportation systems, pedestrian and bicycle accesses, spatial structures, spatial distribution of activities, housing and settlement size, natural phenomena and non-spatial aspects which all are important for studying and analyzing a city from different viewpoints. Considering the interdependence of the components of this concept with different dimensions of the city, its role on different aspects of sustainability, including social sustainability, would be indisputable. The emergence of urban sustainable development concept pushed the international NGOs and planners to introduce new frameworks for redesigning and reorganizing of cities in order to achieve the sustainability. A critical review of these approaches suggests a disagreement upon the most desirable form of urban sustainability. Social sustainability, due to its intangible nature as well as its focus of mankind and his interactions is subject for such contradictions. The present study was seeking to explain the relationships between the components of urban form and social sustainability in 22 districts of Tehran using a descriptive-analytic research method. Quantitative models such as factor analysis and linear regression as well as resident’s questionnaire (2200 questionnaires were completed among 22 districts of the city) and SPSS software helped the researchers to navigate this route. The findings of the present research showed that there is a significant relationship between the main factors of urban form and the factor of combined social sustainability indicators in all 22 districts of Tehran. Social sustainability indicators included citizen’s access to local services, social security, participation rates in social and group activities, interaction with other residents or social groups, residence satisfaction, and access to affordable housing for citizens. It was also determined that districts 5 and 6 had the highest scores in terms of social sustainability in Tehran.

Border markets are among the variables that affect the balance of economic space between the border regions of Iran and other regions of the country. The process of balancing can have positive and negative effects on the border regions and the rest of the country. The main question of the present study is that how can the Iranian border markets, specifically Marivan border market have a convergening and overlapping role in balancing the other economic spaces of Iran? The present study attempts to apply the SWOT model by classifying and analyzing the internal and external factors as well as considering the economic strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the border markets to be balanced with the other economic spaces of Iran. To determine the weight of criteria, Analytica Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied. Results of the present study indicate that the optimal strategies to make a balance between border markets and other economic regions of the country are competitive strategies. The main goal of such strategies is to apply specific methods to prevent and eliminate the external threats (such as goods smuggling) by internal strengths. This strategy is related to the external situation of border markets that evaluates the negative points (the threats ahead) related to the outside. The goal of this strategy is to reduce the threats as much as possible.

Nowadays, recognizing the ways to achieve sustainability has dramatically changed through different patterns of vulnerability reduction in rural planning and disaster management. The attitude to natural hazards has also changed, and the dominant view has shifted from focusing on reducing "vulnerability" to improving "resilience". According to figures, "floods", storms and earthquakes have caused the greatest damages and casualties to human societies. Iran and Golestan province are not exceptional. Results of the present study show that 215 villages are facing the permanent danger of flood. In recent years, measures have been taken to reduce vulnerability, especially in case of physical dimensions of villages in Golestan province; however, enough attention has not yet been paid to effective attempts for measuring resilience against the flood risks. Therefore, based on systemic and sustainable development approaches the main goal of the present research is analyzing and measuring the relations between physical-environmental, economic, social, and institutional factors of rural communities with the rate of their resilience against flood in Gorganroud watershed. This research is a fundamental-applied study and has been completed based on a descriptive-analytical method. The study area contains 106 villages with 22,942 households. Using multistage and random cluster sampling and Cochran formula, 31 villages with 318 households were selected as the sample size. Validity of the questionnaire was verified using the Delphi method and the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by the total amount of Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the rural household questionnaire α1= 0.86 and for the rural managers (Dehyar) questionnaire α2= 0.89. The overall results of the present research showed that there is a significant relationship between the environmental-physical, and social components of the study areas and the resilience of the inhabited communities against the floods. But there is not a meaningful relationship between the economic components of these villages and the resilience of their inhabitants in dealing with floods. Meanwhile, the average resilience of various dimensions of entire sub-basins of the study area was often ranked as "moderate to weak" grouping. The average figures for resilience of various dimensions were as follows: environmental-physical 2.89, social 3.68, institutional 2.92 and economic 2.64. These figures confirm the “moderate to weak” grouping of the area against flood resilience. In conclusion, it can be said that rural households in sub-basins of ChehelChai, Ghurechai and TilAbad and Sofla of Gorganrood have an overall moderate resilience, and rural households in sub-basins of Madarsoo, Rudbar-Mohammad-Abad-Zaringol and Sarisoo locate at an overall weak resiliency group.

Based on the definition of social happiness advocated by veenhoven, it can be posited that he considers happiness as the type of behavior that leads to desirable quality of life. The purpose of this paper is to define and analyze social happiness at urban areas. First of all, it should be noted that one who drives happiness by spreading joy through energetic behaviors and expressions, charm, humors and passions in friendly and intimate circles is considered as belonging to the warm-type happiness promotion category. Further, one who conveys a good sense to others belongs to the cold-type happiness promotion category. After interviewing the happiness promoters in this study, we came across people who were the opposite of the former group. We labeled them as happiness reception, who absorbed joy and happiness in the intimate circles. Based on this classification, it should be stated that as far as ​​social vitality in cities is concerned, the social happiness variable and its components play a significant role in the life of individuals and urban planning. Based on this process, in the present paper a mixed research methods was used. The first step involved a qualitative study (collective case study). The second step was a quantitative analysis (survey) and the last step was the point interpolation. Based on these three steps, a random and spatial-regional based sampling was conducted. The research area was the city of Mashhad and its districts during the second half of 2018. The data collection instrument was a semi-structured interview, an interview-based questionnaire, and a spatial distribution mapping of the findings on the urban areas. The results showed that the social vitality of citizens was at the average level. Meanwhile, districts (1-2-4-5) were lower than average; district 9 was at the average level and districts (3-6-7-8-10-11-12 and Samen area) were higher than average. In terms of the social happiness, districts 10-11-12 had the highest and districts 1-4-5 had the lowest social vitality. In the urban areas of Mashhad, districts 10 and 5 had the highest and lowest social vitality among the 13 urban districts of the city, respectively.