The Comparative Study of the Quality of Urban Life in Iran

In recent decades, the concept of quality of urban life has been entered into urban planning studies due to worldwide increasing growth of urbanization and cities. The aim of this research is comparative study of the quality of urban life in Iran cities. Using descriptive and analytic approach, a Composite Human Development Model is applied to assess urban life quality in Iran. This model uses 36 indicators in three social- cultural, population- economic and infrastructure categories. The results show that quality of urban life is better in the northern and central cities than the other ones. Most of these are located in the imaginary circle which starts from Isfahan, passes through Tehran and Semnan and finally ends to the northern cities of country. Cities in western and northern half of country have better social and cultural conditions, whereas the economic conditions are better in cities of southern and eastern part of country. The quality of urban life is relatively suitable in the cities with 100 – 400 Meters elevation above sea level. In addition, the cities having 100-250 thousands population are better in social and cultural view and cities with more than one million population have better economic condition than others.