The position of environmental studies in Iran's spatial planning - Case study: regional physical plan and provincial training program

Introduction :

Environmental degradation and climate change are one of the most important challenges faced by all living organisms on earth today (Rafique et al., 2022). Human activities, urbanization, mining and industrialization accelerate environmental pollution (Etchie et al, 2018, Rahman and Anser, 2020). The effects of climate change or environmental destruction include melting glaciers, increasing air and ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, decreasing agricultural production, extinction of wildlife, unpredictable precipitation and climate change, and destruction of the workforce (Danish et al., 2019). In addition, due to the depletion of forests and natural resources, environmental pollution is increasing rapidly in the world (Appannagari, 2006). The rapid development process on the one hand and environmental limitations on the other hand have caused that today the evaluation of the effects caused by development on the environment should be considered as a part of development activities. The existence of a gap between economic growth and a sustainable environment has made planning a big challenge, so thinking about environmental considerations at high levels of planning can prevent environmental problems and disturbances despite the destructive effects that economic growth indicators have on their own. They put it, reduce it. In the present study, the place of environmental considerations in Iran's spatial planning, such as the provincial planning plan and the regional physical development plan, and the relevant laws and regulations have been analyzed.

The current research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of nature and method. The required data and information were extracted by using library studies and documents from the service description of provincial and regional physical plans, laws and regulations governing the urban and regional development of the country, prepared programs and plans, etc. The method of content analysis was to analyze the position of environmental and environmental studies in the spatial planning and development system of the country. In addition, the objectives, topics to be investigated and the process of environmental studies in regional physical plans and provincial plans have been compared in a comparative manner.

In this section, the necessity of environmental studies in land development and environmental management, the place of environmental studies in spatial planning, environmental studies in environmental and physical plans, and the process of combining natural environment studies in physical and physical plans have been investigated. The results of the research indicate the existence of many overlaps and similarities in the content and subjects of the study of the mentioned projects and differences in the objectives, the process of studies and the way of their integration.

The results of the research indicate that:- The regional physical plans and the provincial training program in natural studies have many overlaps and similarities in terms of content, topics and subjects studied. In regional physical plans, studies of the natural environment are examined in detail and widely. The purpose of environmental studies in physical plans is to eliminate land (with priority for other uses and high cost) and to rank the remaining land according to their suitability for urban, rural and industrial development. In the research projects, the evaluation of the ecological power in the ecological units for the types of main uses, as well as the identification of the environment of the province (strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats).The process of unifying studies and merging layers of studies to achieve the goals and final output (suitability of land for the development of residence and activity, etc.) .) are different from each other. In the regional physical plans, the suitability of the land is checked only for the development of residence and activity. While the ecological model for all land uses is presented in the land use program, and in the table of biological units, the characteristics of each of the environmental units are given separately according to the studied parameters. In environmental studies, the investigated criteria and sub-criteria do not have the same weight. In the regional physical plans, during the final integration, each of the criteria and sub-criteria are compared two by two using the AHP model and weighted based on their importance in determining the suitable place for residence and activity. In the provincial planning program, parameters are prioritized based on the type of uses.the type of uses. Although in the country's five-year development plans, especially in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth plans of economic, social and cultural development, in terms of law, only emphasis has been placed on conducting evaluation studies before implementation, but this approach was not enough and In order to achieve sustainable development, it is necessary to have a special, independent and comprehensive law for the process of evaluating the environmental effects of projects and plans. In other words, there is currently no independent law specific to the environmental assessment process in the country. Today, environmental impact assessment has found a real place as one of the effective components in environmental planning and policies.The following suggestions are made for reforming the spatial planning and management system with environmental considerations:- The integration of physical plans and land preparation and the definition of strategic environmental assessment in the process of spatial planning in Iran;Paying attention to the strategic environmental assessment in the country's policies, programs and plans before implementation; Conducting applied research on the pathology of the country's environmental assessment process with an emphasis on explaining the status of land use, ecological capacity assessment, strategic environmental assessment, cumulative impact assessment and environmental impact assessment;- the country's environmental assessment law in a specific and independent manner, in order to guarantee enforcement and strengthen deterrence; Paying attention to the environmental supervision and monitoring of the implementation of plans and projects after the issuance of environmental approvals by creating a monitoring system and environmental monitoring or control of plans and projects by increasing the quantity and quality of human resources in the environmental protection departments of the provinces and eliminating traditional monitoring and surveillance systems.