Analysis of Urban Sprawl of the City of Mashhad in Recent Decades (1956-2006) and Its Impact on Soil Resources

Urban spatial growth and its patterns is one of the most important issues in urban planning. During the time، the patterns of spatial distributions which are called urban form are changing because of urban dynamics. Urban sprawl is one of the most unstable forms the cities have ever experienced. The city of Mashhad as the second metropolis of Iran and the case study of this research is not exceted of these problems. Various methods such as aerial photographs، maps of the organizations، soil and topographic maps، GIS and SPSS software are used in this research. The result of survey showed a rapid and unplanned sprawl growth has happened for the Mashhad city in the recent decades (1956-2006) that have had some adverse effects on soil resources. The results show from 1956 to 2006 around 27747. 8 hectares of Mashhad suburb lands from different classes were changed into urban landuse for good. Actually، this rapid and unplanned urban growth of Mashhad has destroyed 10،288 ha (37 percent) in class I، 6233 ha (22%) in class III، 9089 ha (33%) in Class IV and 2،147 ha (7. 7 percent) in Class VI.