غلامرضا حقیقت نائینی

A look at urban management approaches over the history shows that urban approaches have becoming more flexible. The current approach is urban governance and one of the principles of urban governance is participation. Many believe that more informed and legitimate decisions can be made by involving citizens. Due to the advancement of information technologies and the increase in the use of the Internet and participation tools in recent years, electronic participation has also started to increase the scope and transparency of the government and, as a result, increase the trust of citizens in the government. Citizen-initiated electronic-participation is often in the form of consultative communication in which participants communicate with government administrators, monitor, comment on others’ opinions, and respond to the opinions.
As an institution that is made up of people’s representatives, the city council is one of the important principles of the urban management system in Iran. For satisfying the needs of the people, this institution has an urgent need to get people’s votes and opinions, and one of the prerequisites for getting their opinions is involving them in urban management issues. Since the use of the Internet and virtual space is increasing every day, it is not possible to hold meetings with the presence of all citizens. And as the purpose of electronic participation is increasing the participation of citizens in digital governance, their participation can help officials, including city council members, to offer better services to people and solve their problems. Bojnord city council’s facilities for electronic participation are limited to the website of the organization, Telegram groups, and Instagram pages of members of the council. Taking these issues into consideration, this study tried to examine the challenges of citizens regarding their electronic participation in Bojnord city council’s decisions and to offer some solutions that make citizens’ electronic participation easier.

A mixed method was used for this applied research. A semi-structured interview was used in three sections. First, public relations experts (website officials) of the city council were interviewed to see the website's status. In the second section, interactive interviews were conducted with members of city council and city managers and experts regarding citizens' participation through open questions. In the third part, the virtual literacy of citizens and the amount of current training were explored to see the access of citizens of Bojnord to electronic tools. For this purpose, an employee of Seraj in North Khorasan province was interviewed. Content analysis was applied to analyze the data from the interviews. Another questionnaire was designed, the target group of which was all the citizens of Bojnord older than 18, because these people can vote for selecting city council members. As it was not possible to access all the people of this city, aged 18 to 20, the statistical population was considered to be all citizens over 20 years of age, which according to the last census in 2016 were 153122 people. SPSS was run to analyze the data of this section. The one-sample t-test and descriptive tests were used. DPSER and SWAT methods were also applied to understand the status of electronic participation.

The results showed that three important issues are needed for electronic participation of citizens: 1) conditions or prerequisites for electronic participation (economic/financial conditions, social/cultural conditions, legal/law conditions, and technical and infrastructure conditions); 2) the methods of electronic participation (electronic notification, electronic consultation and electronic decision-making); and 3) electronic participation tools (available platforms). Moreover, the investigations showed that full electronic informing has been done regarding the news and approvals of the city council of Bojnord and the news of daily meetings has been published for the citizens, but the citizens have not been informed about the presence of city council members on different platforms and the way of electronic communication with them. Therefore, many citizens did not know at all about the presence of city council members in social media and though they have wanted to communicate electronically, they did not know the communication methods.

The results showed that resorting to electronic participation has many such advantages as creating a more comprehensive view of the problems and even a more specialized solution to them. Generally speaking, one can say that Bojnord city council is in electronic notification stage. Here are some strategies to overcome barriers and emphasize strengths. The goal is that all city councils with similar conditions that do not have a single platform for electronic participation can use these suggestions to solve the participation problems. These suggestions are as follows:
Appropriate and public informing about the activeness of city council members in electronic media;
Determining the duties for each member of city council for electronic presence. This will encourage citizens to communicate electronically with members of city councils;
Creating a technology department in the city councils and employing experts in this regard;
Improving the facilities of city councils’ websites and providing some possibilities, including sending emails to citizens, uploading photos and videos by citizens, and online broadcast of the meetings of city councils;
Using the power of city council representatives in the supreme council of provinces to make legislations for citizens’ electronic participation.

Mental health is one of the foundations of quality of life that enables people to have meaningful lives and be creative and active citizens. On the other hand, the target of development projects with any approach are citizens, who must have a certain level of health in order to have a productive life in cities. Therefore, the health of citizens in urban development policies should not be considered as a separate goal, and the health of the city cannot be considered independent from its citizens. Urban regeneration as a comprehensive and integrated approach that targets disadvantaged areas to improve the quality of settlements, promote sustainability and solve social and economic problems. As urban regeneration policies seek to eliminate inequalities and deprivations within target areas, citizens’ health and well-being can be effected by such interventions. The present study aims to explain the relationship between sustainable urban regeneration projects and citizens’ mental health, using documentary research method. So, studies on the relationship between environmental factors, urban planning process and implementation of urban development projects and regeneration projects on the mental health of citizens have been explored with the help of meta-analysis approach and the main areas and indicators affecting this matter were identified. Based on this, it was shown that the process, product and implementation of regeneration projects can affect the mental health of citizens by changing their lifestyle and socio-economic status.

Urban planning, as a professional activity, is ethically complex. and all its aspects, from theoretical thoughts to professional activities, are related to ethical issues. This relationship is so strong that for thinking clearly and comprehensively about planning one should develop some understanding of how key ideas in ethics relate to planning and their integration with this profession. One way of integrating ethical ideas with the planning profession is to integrate it with the professional codes. This research aims to present a clear image of the relationship between the philosophy of ethics and the planning profession, in particular the codes of professional ethics, and examines the position of these ethical theories in these codes. The results of the synthesis of qualitative studies and the examination of the relationship between the principles extracted from these studies and the principles found in the ethical codes of Iran, the United States and Canada show that the American ethical codes are most closely related to ethical theories and various ethical ideas have been involved in the formulation of the content of these codes, from classical theories to more recent t, from teleological theories to deontological Theories and virtue ethics. In Canada's codes of professional ethics, almost all ethical theories examined in qualitative research can be traced, especially environmental ethics and its different approaches. Ethical codes related to planning in Iran have a limited relationship with normative theories, and the relevant ones are related to more classical ethical theories such as Kant's and Ross's theories.

Ethics is related to choice and practical judgment. Since the nature of urban planning is related to the pursuit of community interests through determining appropriate actions for the future during successive choices in complex settings and uncertain conditions, it can be said that ethical considerations are an inseparable part of it and it is inevitable to integrate the philosophy of ethics with the thoughts and professional efforts of planning. In general, addressing the ethical questions of "do's and don'ts" and examining "the nature and meaning of moral values" in planning is always urgent and necessary but challenges raised in the contemporary era, the emphasis of new theoretical positions on attention to contextual differences and conflicts in perceptions and interpretations of values and ethical principles of planning, and ultimately the dispersion and reduction of attention to the area of planning ethics in the recent decades, the necessity of reviewing and rethinking the content of research published in this area has become more prominent. The current research aims to present a comprehensive view of ethics in planning by identifying dominant themes in the literature, specifying existing research gaps, and of course introducing new paths to complete the various dimensions of planning ethics. With answering to the questions like: what are the main priorities of researchers regarding ethics in urban planning? Which subjects and issues have been neglected in the existing researches and what perspectives can be suggested for future researches in this area? This research provides a general view of ethics in planning and its changes over time.

This research is a systematic investigation of a specific subject to improve or expand knowledge, it is considered basic research that has been conducted with a qualitative approach (thematic analysis). Table 1. Methodological design in this research General stages Descriptions Outputs Review strategy Explaining the qualitative systematic review using thematic analysis The review plan  Data collection Identifying key concepts and searching for primary sources Finding 224 sources as articles, dissertations, book chapters 110 researches enter the analysis stage as a final data set. Refinement and selection of the most relevant studies Analyzing and synthesizing the dataset Descriptive analysis of research Temporal and geographical distribution and researches focus area Content analysis in five steps: Reading the full text of documents in the dataset; Selecting textual codes; Extracting basic themes; Synthesizing the basic themes and creating organizing themes; Grouping the organizing themes and generating the global themes.identifying three global themes: integration of ethical theories with planning theory, ethics in the realm of professional practice, and ethical considerations in the Academic realm. introducing potential paths for future research.

By analyzing the final data set, we have identified three global themes: integration of ethical theories with planning theory, ethics in the realm of professional practice, and ethical considerations in the academic realm.Research under the First global theme, integrating ethical theories with planning theory is qualitative and discusses the nature and role of planning based on ethical philosophy. With an extroverted approach, these works focus on normative ethical theories and seek to explain the most basic criteria of rightness and wrongness and do and don'ts in planning. Second global them, ethics in the realm of professional practice is focused on the ethical dimensions and aspects of the planning practice including Ethical attitudes of planners, the complexities of decision-making and ethical judgment in the planning process, ethics in planning techniques, and the direct application of ethical theories in practice. Research under the third global theme, ethics, and ethical considerations in the academic realm of planning is focused on teaching ethics in planning and ethics in planning research.

According to the investigations of the present research, the research focused on ethics in planning has been scattered and separated over time and their balance has decreased in different layers (Figure 5). In the 1990s, most of the themes receivedthe attention of researchers, but since the beginning of the 21st century, we have seen a decline in direct attention to this research field at various levels. Of course, a series of themes such as extracting the values of planners, investigating the nature and content of professional codes, and teaching ethics in planning have always been welcomed by researchers. The continuation of attention to these themes shows things like learning from action, determining ethical frameworks through a bottom-up process, and extracting the inner values of planning have always been emphasized by researchers. . Also, the flow of research in the last two decades shows that the context of planning and the importance and impact of contextual differences in the selection, interpretation, and teaching of ethical concepts and ideas have become more prominent.

A general review of the planning ethics literature shows that the concerns related to the ethics and values of planning are largely dominated by normative concerns. The researchers of this field, instead of exploring more deeply the "nature and meaning of ethical values and principles" (meta-ethical field) and how to identify the appropriate solution in each specific situation, focus on the normative Deontological frameworks derived from Western contexts, which put forth universal normative principles and procedures without considering the impact of context and culture on knowledge and behavior.

The spatial decoration of urban activities, the spatial structure of the communication and spatial accessibility have a significant impact on the extent and quality of urban mobility and accessibility. The concept of sustainable urban accessibility emerged from the sustainability paradigm on the concepts of urban mobility and accessibility. Accordingly, the current research aims at evaluating the spatial structure of the urban activities' hot spots, stations and arteries using a spatial-functional structure and assessing their compatibility.

This is a quantitative applied study, carried out in Enghelab Islami Square, Tehran in 2022. The analysis of the spatial-functional structure and sustainable urban accessibility in the studied area was carried out using GIS and spatial analysis methods, including space syntax analysis and urban network analysis.

The functional and spatial structure of the Enghelab Islami square region was relatively compatible. 75% and 70% of the points of interest (POI) were located around the structural arteries and in urban blocks with high spatial accessibility, respectively. Moreover, regarding the quality of sustainable urban accessibility, 85% of the POIs were within the first level of the functional radius of the sustainable transportation stations, while, 75% and 85% of parcels were located within the functional radius of the first and second level sustainable transportation stations, respectively.

Enghelab Islami square area is in a relatively good condition in terms of the mentioned structure's compatibility and the quality of sustainable urban accessibility.

During the recent decades, the coastal city of Mahmudabad has faced many challenges and issues, including changing the spatial organization of the city in the context of economic abuses and spatial organization disproportionate to the needs of the local people and reducing ecological capacities, due to the rapid physical growth and rapid population adoption. Thus, the spatial developments of this city have been studied in terms of the urbanization developments of the last few decades. The aim was to know the elements of the spatial organization of the city of Mahmudabad in different historical stages and to analyze its spatial dynamics. First, with an analytical method, a structured review of the ideas of thinkers and related research experiences has been done; then, the applicability of the obtained factors has been considered as judging criteria for the urban space organization of Mahmoudabad in different periods, through the documentary review and interpretation of aerial photos. Research data has been collected from existing documents, including travelogues, books, urban development documents, interviews, and aerial images. The research period was from 1872 to 2020. The results indicated that the city of Mahmudabad has been affected by the ruling of political systems and population growth, migration trends, and demand for land and housing during different periods. The study of the change process of the city's spatial organization showed that this city's spatial organization has changed from a very simple and organic spatial organization to a complex organization with the predominance of specific elements of tourism, entertainment, and administrative service. Therefore, in the spatial organization of coastal cities, including the city under study, the formation of tourism zones with the predominance of coastal towns, temporary residential-recreational zones, and high-altitude zones with temporary recreational-leisure functions is the dominant spatial issue. Extended Abstract Introduction During recent decades, the coastal city of Mahmudabad has faced many challenges and issues, such as changing the city's spatial organization in the context of economic abuses and spatial organization that is not proportionate to the needs of the local people and the reduction of ecological capacities. Thus, in this research, an attempt has been made to examine the spatial developments of this city in terms of urbanization developments in recent decades. Therefore, the research aimed to know the elements of the spatial organization of Mahmudabad in different historical stages and to analyze its spatial dynamics.MethodologyFirst, with an analytical method, a structured review of the ideas of thinkers and related research experiences has been done; then, the applicability of the obtained factors has been considered as judging criteria for the urban space organization of Mahmoudabad in different periods, through the documentary review and interpretation of aerial photos. Research data has been collected from existing documents, including travelogues, books, urban development documents, interviews, and aerial images. The research period was from 1872 to 2020.Results and discussionThe findings showed that the coastal cities of the northern part of Iran, especially the city of Mahmoudabad, have adopted a different pattern of urban growth in recent decades. But various forces such as population growth, area, increase in the division of social work, multiple uses, and opening of communication routes have played a role in the city's spatial organization. But the dominant force in the city's spatial organization is the formation of large areas of second homes and tall towers along the coast and the income from extensive construction inside and outside the city. The findings indicated that in different time processes, the lifestyle and house building, activity, and income generation of the people of Mahmudabad have changed. The most important factor is the growth of land purchase demand, extensive construction of villa. The construction of villa houses and the recreation towers of the second house caused the shape and city's spatial organization to change from a rural-urban agricultural, livestock, and fishing to a tourist and recreational city. As in recent researches, the dominance of tourism in the organization of coastal cities has been confirmed. Also, the findings of this research showed that over time, the mix of uses in the central part of the city has changed and the amount of diversity, density and granularity of uses has also increased, and this has increased the role of the centrality of the city and the prominence of this part compared to other parts of the city. The important point regarding the research problem is the transformation of the spatial organization of Mahmudabad. The coastal cities of northern part of Iran, including the city under study, due to their proximity to population centers such as Tehran, Karaj, Rasht, Sari, Mashhad, etc., have followed their development process from the demands created in these cities. Also, the reopening of transmission routes, the increase in car traffic, and the improvement of the people's economic situation have increased the importance of tourism in northern cities, including Mahmoudabad. This has increased the role of tourism in northern cities and the growth of land and housing prices, including in the city in question. The existing findings indicated the change in the role of Mahmudabad from the traditional function to the service-tourism role.ConclusionThe results indicated that Mahmudabad has been affected by the ruling political systems and population growth, the migration process, and the demand for land and housing. Examining the change process of the spatial organization of the city showed that the spatial organization of Mahmudabad has changed from a very simple and organic spatial organization to a complex organization with the predominance of special elements of tourism, recreation, and administrative service. Therefore, in the spatial organization of coastal cities, including the city under study, the formation of tourism zones with the predominance of coastal towns, temporary residential-recreational areas and elevated zones with temporary recreational functions is the dominant spatial issue.Funding There is no funding support.Authors’ Contribution Authors contributed equally to the conceptualization and writing of the article. All of the authors approved the content of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the workConflict of Interest Authors declared no conflict of interest.Acknowledgments We are grateful to all the persons for scientific consulting in this paper.

The issue of health and mental health is one of the hidden goals in the urban regeneration approach that has been less discussed so far. Also, urban regeneration, as it is currently pursued in the country, has serious problems in terms of supporting mental health indicators. On the other hand, the effects of such projects on various aspects of mental health are not well known. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to the pathology of urban regeneration programs to support mental health indicators.

In this study, a survey method based on semi-structured interviews and completing a weighting questionnaire of experts was used. Snowball sampling was performed on 17 experts in the form of three groups of “academic researchers”, “experts in the field of urban regeneration” and “managers of Tehran urban management institutions” and the results were analyzed using open and axial coding techniques. Then, the dimensions affecting mental health in urban regeneration projects were evaluated in the form of a 39-item questionnaire using the effect spectrum method.

An urban regeneration program to support mental health components should create 8 positive features and prevent 4 negative features. These dimensions are the externalities or external effects of projects that can be measured in the form of impact assessment techniques. Barriers to achieving a mental health support rehabilitation program can also be pursued in three areas: “policy approaches”, “preparation and implementation process” and “monitoring and evaluation process”. According to other results, the negative consequences of current rehabilitation programs on mental health are greater than their positive consequences, the most important of which are “discrimination and inequality” and “stress and anxiety”.

In order to integrate the components of mental health as much as possible in the heart of regeneration programs, the mechanisms related to policy-making, preparation, approval, implementation, and monitoring of these programs should be changed and fundamentally revised.

Studies in the field of regeneration management in Iran show that despite the efforts and planning, so far, the process of urban renovation and regeneration in the national level and especially in Tehran has not been carried out with the participation of all actors and stakeholders. However, in recent years, with the formation of the Tehran Metropolitan Reconstruction Headquarter, a concerted effort has been made to achieve inter-organizational coordination, both within the municipality and with related institutions outside the municipality. In spite of these joint actions, there are still political and functional Fragmentation among these actors. Each of these actors has specific powers according to their organizational duties and has access to the necessary resources in this field. However, the inconsistency between their actions and sometimes the overlap of tasks between them and the lack of a clear institutional plan are among the causes that have led to a lack of organizational coordination, thus, the failure to achieve the desired goal. Therefore, the lack of integrated and coordinated management and its support mechanisms in the field of urban renovation and regeneration has caused the renovation process to have a significant distance from the goals of the country's macro-plans. Although the formation of a National Urban Regeneration Headquarter can provide some coordination between different organizations at different national and urban levels, it cannot achieve its main goals without a coherent plan that considers the various tasks of the different institutions in coordination with each other. The purpose of this study is to identify the actors of regeneration and renovation management at the national and local level (Tehran metropolis) as well as the pattern of its current relationships and ultimately the capacity assessment of key actors in this field. Thus, this is an applied research using a mixed method. In order to achieve the objectives of the research, in addition to examining the theoretical foundations of the subject, various documents such as bylaws and memorandum and records of the Tehran Renovation Organization were analyzed. Finally, to increase the reliability and validity of the research and complete the data, the method of interviewing experts and top managers of the involved organizations has been used. Findings show that the number of actors in this field is very high, but in practice it is dominated by the governmental and public sectors (municipalities) while the private sector and local communities have a small role in the structure of regeneration management. In this case, the actors generally follow their specified organizational missions and systematically prefer the interests of the organization to the issue of regeneration. In terms of communication, certain centers are recognizable and vertical connections between institutions are not noticeable. The study also shows that these actors have significant capacities, which have a great potential for policy and management of urban regeneration.

Different types of concept have been formed gradually under the title of knowledge-based spaces with different goals and functions due to the need to use effective, open, participatory innovative solutions and employ ICT capabilities to create sustainable life in cities and respond to the wills and needs of citizens. An understanding of the dimensions and characteristics and a capability of differentiating these concepts will help policymakers and city managers to choose strategies and policies and invest in these areas. This is realized through prevention of mental confusion, emergence of internal contradictions, and incoherent eclecticism of the concepts. On the other hand, the sustainable development of cities has been challenged by global trends such as the increasing urbanization, transformation of cities into places of mass-energy consumption, and production of various environmental pollutants. However, there has been an increase in the need to use effective, open, participatory innovative solutions to create sustainable life in cities and the concern for knowledge-based spaces as a result of the efforts made by cities to attract skilled, entrepreneurial, creative people.

Theoretical Framework 

The existence of different concepts concerning knowledge-based spaces, such as digital city, information city, smart city, wired city, learning city, and knowledge city has led to confusion in attempts to distinguish their meanings. This conceptual confusion is due to the lack of understanding of the dimensions, characteristics, and instances of these concepts, and is a major obstacle against the efforts to persuade policy-makers and city managers to invest in these areas. This ambiguity causes planning strategies and policies to be inconsistent with the institutional environment and governance system or strategies and policies to be fraught with internal contradictions and incoherent eclecticism. In the attempts to address this issue, typology and comparative studies based on specific criteria and components contribute greatly to a better understanding of different types of knowledge-based space. So far, various types of knowledge-based space have been proposed (Castells & Hall, 1994; Dodge et al., 1998; Shiud, 2001; Nam & Pardo, 2011; Nikina et al., 2016; Carvalho et al.; Wenden, 2017; and Lara et al., 2016). Moreover, some researchers have compared two or more knowledge spaces (either directly or implicitly) (Strategy, 2012; Jojaru & Peso, 2013; Yigitjanlar & Lee, 2014; Koch, 2017; Chang et al., 2018; and Yigitjanlar & Inkinen, 2019). However, no integrated comparative study has been performed so far for all concepts of knowledge-based spaces to provide a clear, comprehensive image and a deep, coherent understanding of these spaces. Therefore, the present study seeks to develop a coherent framework to provide a new typology for a better understanding of the types of knowledge-based space. Thus, the aspects and features of distinguishing concepts, trends, and paradigm shifts in knowledge-based spaces become apparent through identification and classification of the main sources pertaining to each space and examination of the definitions and the process of formation and conceptual evolution of each concept and feature and the dimensions and instances thereof.

The present meta-combined systematic qualitative review is conducted to pursue a descriptive-exploratory purpose. In addition to creating a new theory, meta-composition can be used to develop conceptual models or expand understanding of existing knowledge, especially to discover similarities and differences concerning concepts and ideas about a phenomenon. It can involve seven steps, including examination of research questions, systematic review of texts, exploration and selection of appropriate texts, extraction of textual information, analysis and composition of qualitative findings, and quality control and presentation. In the present study, the seven stages proposed by Sandlowski and Barroso (2007) are considered.

Results and Discussion 

This study comparatively examines the concepts of knowledge-based spaces based on the six components of development discourse, type of knowledge required for development, location, key stakeholders, management model, and historical period. Moreover, the typology of knowledge-based spaces is based on the two components of spatiality and type of knowledge required for development. Accordingly, four types of knowledge space are identified: 1- technology-based non-spatial, 2- technology-based spatial, 3- knowledge-based non-spatial, and 4- knowledge-based spatial. The research findings demonstrate that concepts such as smart city and knowledge city (due to semantic inclusion) have largely replaced concepts such as digital city and virtual city, and are currently used more widely in policy-making and planning knowledge-based spaces.

The expression knowledge city has been considered as an umbrella term for other phrases such as knowledge place, learning city, and smart city. Moreover, the findings of the present comparative study of knowledge-based spaces based on the above seven components indicate that that knowledge-based spaces have gone through paradigm changes over time, such as the transition from a focus on the limited concept of science and technology to an emphasis on the broader social concept of knowledge, the transition from the discourse of economic development to sustainable, integrated development in various economic, social, environmental, and institutional dimensions, the transition from citizens’ passive role to their active participation in the creation, development, and management of knowledge-based spaces, the transition from government and centralized management of a limited number of stakeholders with specific guidelines and frameworks to government of networks based on the interaction of a wide range of stakeholders, the transition from a hardware, capital-based perspective involving tangible infrastructure networks to a software perspective based on intangible intellectual capital and knowledge innovation systems, and the transition from management and planning models aimed at increasing livability standards and complexity management to citizen engagement grounding and capacity-building for long-term learning and political and cultural influence. These trends and paradigm shifts represent a kind of conceptual convergence among the features and components of knowledge-based spaces. In addition, the results demonstrate that the typology of knowledge-based spaces is based on the two components of location and type of knowledge required for development, given the significant roles of these components in the differentiation of various knowledge spaces,–calling for a deeper, more expressive understanding of these spaces.

Urban space's publicness and decline in new urban space's publicness have been addressed by many researchers and commentators in recent years. Although their attitudes towards publicness have been mainly influenced by civil society discourse, and despite existing theories about publicness in the civil society discourse, none of them has introduced constructive factors for the publicness of urban spaces. Also, there is no consensus on the criteria for evaluating the publicness of these spaces. Considering this theoretical gap, the first step of this research is through a systematic review of scholars' opinions and research experiences to identify the component factors of the publicness of spaces in the civil society discourse. In the next step, the Delphi technique is used to evaluate the usability of these factors in assessing the publicness of urban spaces. The results show that only four factors, namely, public access, adaptability, interaction and discussion, and immunity can be used to assess the publicness of urban spaces.

Nowadays, as cities are the center of development in which knowledge is produced and disseminated, they play a fundamental role in knowledge-based development. Thus, knowledge-based value is the driving force of urban development and is changing the spatial structure of the cities. Knowledge-based urban development (KBUD) has been proposed as an approach for competitiveness and sustainable development of urban economics and their compatibility to the strategies of the knowledge economy through creating opportunities for the production and exchange of knowledge and innovation between citizens. Due to the fact that KBUD activities are related to the stakeholders in the field of learning and innovation, the use of the capacity building and networking tools based on the institutional framework and through the expansion of local stakeholder engagement can underlie and be the driving force of institutional changes for integrated urban development. According to the emergence of city knowledge studies and the lack of systematic development of its theoretical foundations, there has been little research conducted on the success or failure of KBUD policies and their challenges in the cities in developing countries. Recent studies have shown that the most important requirement for the realization of KBUD is institutional development. In order to create interaction and integrated compatibility between urban resources and stakeholders, the need for good governance and strong political leadership is the pioneer in science and technology that addresses the weakness of institutional arrangements and the inadequacy of the governing tools. The most substantial aspect of knowledge-based urban development is the institutional aspect, since it is the regulator of the relationship between the economic, social, and environmental aspects of the city, which is performed based on political will, strategic view, strong relationships, and KBUD stakeholders' confidence. Therefore, this study seeks to identify the factors affecting the institutional capacity of KBUD in Isfahan to provide a proper understanding of the institutional requirements of KBUD in Isfahan. This research has been conducted with an exploratory-operational goal and has used exploratory factor analysis and survey research methods. It is also a quantitative research due to the nature of the required data, and the main tool for data collection is questionnaire. The findings show that eight factors affecting the institutional capacity of KBUD in Isfahan with a total variance of 66.309% provide a good explanation of the topic, the most important factor being an encouraging and supportive environment for knowledge production and use. On the other hand, the institutional capacity status of KBUD in Isfahan, with an overall score of 34.16 is inadequate and in the absence of sufficient political will and deep strategic insight for the realization of KBUD in Isfahan, actors and managers, in particular, are less willing to cooperate because of their lack of trust in each other. Therefore, they cannot provide an encouraging and supportive environment for knowledge production and use, including hard infrastructure (urban spaces suitable for people to attend and chat) and soft infrastructure (providing incentives, job comfort and security).

Today, since cities are the focus of development and knowledge is produced and published in them, they play a fundamental role in knowledge-based development. Thus, with the evolution of the development concept, knowledge-based value, the driving force of urban development and changing the spatial structure of cities, the Knowledge City (KC), and the knowledge-based urban development (KBUD) have been proposed as an attitude for competitiveness and sustainable development of urban economics and their compatibility to the strategies of the knowledge economy through creating opportunities for the production and exchange of knowledge and innovation among citizens.Due to the fact that KBUD activities are related to the stakeholders in the field of learning and innovation, the use of the capacity building and networking tools based on the institutional framework and through the expansion of local stakeholder engagement can underlie and be the driving force of institutional changes for integrated urban development. According to the emergence of city knowledge studies and the lack of systematic development of its theoretical foundations, there has been a little report on the success or failure of KBUD policies and their challenges in the cities of developing countries. Recent studies have shown that the most important requirement for the realization of KBUD is institutional development. In order to create interaction and integrated compatibility between urban resources and stakeholders, the need for good governance and strong political leadership is a pioneer in science and technology that addresses the weakness of institutional arrangements and the inadequacy of the governing tools. the most important aspect of knowledge-based urban development is the institutional aspect, since it is the regulator of the relationship between the economic, social and environmental aspects of the city, which is performed based on political will, strategic view, strong relationships, and KBUD stakeholders' confidence. Recent empirical studies on the requirements for the realization of KBUD show that the most important requirement for the achievement and success of the knowledge city is institutional development. The results of the above-mentioned empirical studies on the feasibility and realization of KBUD show that all of these studies consider the most important challenges facing the realization of knowledge cities are governance weaknesses, inefficient institutional frameworks, low institutional capacities, poor KBUD stakeholder cooperation and low trust between them. Hence, capacity building and strengthening of trust and cooperation and relation network cohesion of the main knowledge-based urban development stakeholders are a suitable tool for paradigmatic changes towards the knowledge-based urban development. In this regard, identification and analysis of key stakeholders as an effective primary step for this important issue is inevitable.

The present research is carried out in the case study framework and 4 steps with the general functional goal and operational-descriptive-exploratory purpose and by the combined method and use of quantitative and qualitative approaches. In the first step, using a snowball sampling method, by referring to experts in the field of knowledge-based urban development of Isfahan, a preliminary list containing 83 potential stakeholders was prepared in accordance with the requirements of knowledge-based urban development and was let to the theoretical saturation of list regulation with 23 experts. In the second step, using the power-interest matrix model and completing the closed questionnaire by the experts and statistical analyses, 14 key stakeholders whose average power and interest rates were more than 3, were identified. In the third step, by completing a closed questionnaire by the experts and statistical analysis, type of power and interests of the main stakeholders of knowledge-based urban development were identified. In the fourth step, using the semi-structured interview method, the way of applying the key stakeholders’ power in knowledge-based urban development has been analyzed based on their type of interest and the use of open source coding and axial coding.

Considering the importance of implementing capacity building and networking tools by expanding the interaction of local stakeholders to create institutional changes for realizing the knowledge-based urban development of Isfahan and the results of empirical studies on the feasibility and realization of knowledge-based urban development of Isfahan, that considers the most important challenges confronting the realization of knowledge cities are the weakness of governance and inefficient institutional frameworks, low institutional capacity, poor cooperation of stakeholders in knowledge-based urban development of Isfahan, and low trust between them, thus, building capacity, strengthening trust and cooperation, and network cohesion of main stakeholders of knowledge-based urban development is an appropriate tool for a paradigm changing toward the knowledge-based urban development. In this regard, identification and analysis of key stakeholders as an effective primary step for this important issue is inevitable. Therefore, in the present study, through a systematic review of texts related to the requirements and factors of Isfahan’s knowledge-based urban development success, the concept of stakeholder and stakeholder analysis, processes and models for identifying and analyzing stakeholders and also using power-interest matrix model of key stakeholders, the knowledge-based urban development of Isfahan was identified and analyzed and the extent and type of power and interest and the way of applying their power according to their type of interest were evaluated and analyzed.

 The results of the research show that without the broad participation and engagement of all key stakeholders, it is very difficult to achieve knowledge-based urban development of Isfahan. Thus, the framework developed for the analysis of key stakeholders in the knowledge-based development of Isfahan provides a good understanding about the types of power and how to apply it based on the types of interests that each of the key stakeholders has on and the basis of which, through capacity building and networking it is possible to policy on how to promote participation and interaction between them in the process of achieving the knowledge-based urban development in Isfahan.

The position and importance of urban development plans and their evaluation through various methods remains a significant issue in theoretical and practical areas. Plan quality evaluation is known as an emerging methodology for examination of whether a plan holds certain desirable features, and is aimed at answering questions about the suitability of plans and application of methods and theories of planning and their strengths and weaknesses with respect to the ideal conditions in different fields. During the past two decades, researchers have successfully formulated a conceptual consensus based on the preliminary principles of plan quality. The purpose of this study was to introduce concepts and methods for plan quality evaluation and to present an appropriate systematic conceptual model for quality evaluation of urban development plans in Iran. For specification of the theoretical framework of this explanatory-analytical research, a range of methods and studies related to the subject were comprehensively examined and analyzed, and the consequent appropriate model for evaluation of the quality of urban development plans in Iran was clearly established and adapted to the entire country. A conceptual model for evaluating the quality of comprehensive plans consists of seven basic components (factual basis, analysis and inference, plans and programs, implementation, inter-organizational coordination, presentation, and planning methods) and three progressive components (participation, sustainable development, and monitoring and evaluation). This study evaluated 29 plans from medium-sized Iranian cities and 5 from large ones. The results demonstrated that the overall quality score of the comprehensive plans in both groups was moderate (The average score was 4.95 out of 10). Among the seven basic components of plan quality, factual basis, analysis and inference, organization, and presentation exhibited proper conditions, and the components of plans and programs, inter-organizational coordination, implementation, and planning methods were found to be inappropriate. The progressive component of sustainable development exhibited potentials for advancement despite the low score, while participation and monitoring and evaluation were generally disregarded in the plans. The findings also indicated the incapability of the plans (at least in the present conditions) of correctly completing the planning process. The most important drawbacks of the plans included the reduction of the capability of presenting and implementing the plans and the lack of a mechanism for monitoring and evaluating them. Among all the evaluated plans, the plan from the city of Rasht was identified as the best, followed by those of Mahabad, Bojnord, Amol, Sabzevar, Kerman, and Birjand, all of which could be regarded as plans with potentials for advancement. In a study of the internal consistency of the plan components, plans and programs was found to be the most important, most influential component of plan quality, which could be considered as the main indicator of comprehensive plan quality. Moreover, there was no significant difference between the plan quality of the large and medium-sized cities. However, the quality of the plans has increased over the past two decades, and the dates of their approval were found to be effective on their quality. The future conditions of plan quality in the country seem to be promising, and better quality is expected to be provided by the urban development plans. Future plans are likely to be capable of addressing issues such as justice in urban development, environmental quality, transportation, and sustainability. This study sought to provide incentives for reconsideration of how plans are developed and to prevent discouragement of planners and unnecessary underestimation of their ability to inject creativity, new methods, and new planning challenges into their plans, so that they can present better plans to which they are committed. The value of the capacity to assess the quality of plans in order to highlight their strengths and weaknesses in analysis of the controversial or innovative effects of urban development plans and land use planning in various fields was demonstrated in this research, requiring those in charge of development and implementation of plans to have greater concern for to their quality indicators.

Nowadays urban stimulant projects are known as a new urban redevelopment strategy. These dynamic strategies are affecting their surroundings and they can help the revitalization objectives. They can improve the existing physical conditions of urban areas through redesigning or renovating. The higher education institutions as part of the thriving urban areas are known as one of the most effective stimulant projects for sustainable urban developments because of their cultural potential and providing significant services at the society level. This research seeks to determine whether the University of Art as a stimulant urban development project will affect its surrounding area (after completing development in National Garden). Analytic and descriptive methods have been used in this research and the statistical population includes experts and stakeholders groups. In total, 300 samples are considered for the statistical sample for all groups and the cluster sampling and simple sampling methods are used. Theoretical studies show that criterions and/or indicators such as Promoting social capital, increasing investment and public participation, creating positive norms, changing the environmental behavior of citizens, increasing the visitor's presence, mobility of human capital, branding and symbolism can be the important effects of exercising urban stimulant projects. Results show both groups consider that the university has had a significant effect on the physical factors, infrastructures and attitudes changing to the environment and it has had the least effect on the economic development. And also both groups believe that the role of university for improving engagement between people and urban managers is low.

The main subject of this article is about two basic issues. Firstly, in finding the basic concepts of urban spaces planning and design, we have rarely been focusing on the characteristics of our traditional cities, and we began to recognize these concepts from Western literature. Secondly, the publicness of urban spaces has been increasingly noticed and challenged by scholars in recent years. Accordingly, and considering the necessity of providing an understanding of the status of the publicness of urban spaces in Iranian cities based on recent discussions, this research is carried out in a descriptive-analytical and comparative method. The main question of this research is that what are the main components of the publicness of urban spaces in Iranian-Islamic cities and western cities, and what are the differences? The findings of this research show that the most basic components of the publicness of urban spaces that have been mentioned in the western literature over the past few decades have existed centuries ago in traditional Iranian-Islamic cities and have been emphasized and implemented even in more detail.

Cities are complex spatial systems that are directly related to economics, politics, and power. Urban land-use changes are an economic-spatial category. Changes in urban land use and the tendencies of the society to intervene in space reflect the structure of the spatial economy in cities. In this research, an attempt was made to study the patterns and trends of intervention in urban land. Many studies have been conducted on land use and land prices, but the study of land-use change trends and its relationship with land price changes has been less considered. To this end, the approvals of the Commission Article Five of Tehran have been analyzed. This research was applied from the perspective of the type of research. The documentary method of data collection and secondary data have been used. The statistical population of the study was the total approvals of the Commission Article Five in Tehran from 2006 to 2018 (1385-1397 AH) with 194 decrees and 1322 clauses. The sampling method was purposive (733 clauses). Cluster analysis and pattern analysis were performed using the Moran I algorithm and the Gettys-Ard-G statistic in Arc Gis software. The results showed that the spatial economy in Tehran was based on the development of high-quality urban land in the rich areas of the city. Districts 1, 2, 3, and 6 were identified as hot spots, and Districts 10, 13, 14, 17, and 19 were identified as cold spots in the structure of the spatial economy in Tehran. The dominant tendency of land-use change was toward residential, commercial, administrative, and tourism. Greenspace, residential, and development reserve lands were identified as the dominant factors for land-use change. The spatial pattern of these changes was clustered. The continuation of this trend will lead to the influx of capital into the northern regions of the city, the classification of the society, and the escalation of land price disparities in the northern regions with other areas of Tehran. The solution to this problem is to change the country’s economic structure, strengthen local government, reduce its dependence on unsustainable resources, and impose tolls on building permits.

A survey of the history and evidence of life in traditional Iranian neighborhood reveals a coherent, self-made physical and social structure and system that expresses the transcendent concepts of human dwelling. Neighborhoods today due to changing lifestyles and new urban developments, do not have the participation of locals and the self-made neighborhood system. Therefore, it is imperative to pay attention to the principles and teachings of the social life and transcendent concepts of traditional living to enhance the quality of life in today's city. The purpose of this study is to recognize the concept of dwelling in the neighborhoods of Tehran during the Qajar and Pahlavi periods and the research method is a combination of historical interpretation methods and data content analysis. This study first briefly defines the concept of neighborhood; then the factors of perception of neighborhood concept and characteristics and specifications of each factor and how to trace it from the content of the texts are presented. Finally, in the literature research, the recognition of the life and lived experiences of the dwellers of Tehran neighborhoods is discussed; this section is based on a number of social cultural writings from Tehran neighborhoods. The result is that the factors and criteria of perception of neighborhood concept demonstrate the social role and participation of citizens in different aspects of dwelling, including good affairs and social-political movements in neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that have been a place for the presentation and emergence of social and cultural values including dedication, charity, respect for elders, and the arrest of the deprived; whereas concepts of territory, hierarchy and privacy are defined and appearanced in neighborhood physics and perceptions of dwellers and they are relatively satisfied with the provision of many of the services in the neighborhood and the mental relaxation of social dwelling. As a result, dwellers have considered themselves part of the neighborhood and the emergence of place belongings to the neighborhood can be understood in various physical, behavioral, and semantic dimensions.

The status and importance of the urban development plans and their evaluation through various methods is still an outstanding challenging issue in the academic and practical settings. Plan quality evaluation is known as an emerging methodology for assessing the quality of plans. It typically evaluate plans in relation to whether they contain certain desirable features, and aims to answer questions about the suitability of plans, applying methods and theories of planning, their strengths and weaknesses related to the ideal situation in different fields. During the past two decades, researchers have been able to formulate conceptual consensus based on the preliminary principles of plan quality. The purpose of this study is to introduce concepts and methods for plan quality evaluation describing an appropriate systematic conceptual model in order for quality evaluation of urban development plans in Iran, so that planners, while knowing the appropriate content of the plans, can try to carry out further research focused on specific topics and fields. It should be mentioned that the method used in this study is an explanatory overview. As the theoretical foundations, different methods and studies related to the subject have been comprehensively investigated and analyzed, consequently, the suitable "model and method" for evaluating the quality of urban development plans in Iran is clearly explained and adjusted to the whole country. In this research, six main stages for content analysis of the plans were clearly described including (1) determining the subject of evaluation, the level and scope of the research, explaining the conceptual model, identifying and determining the main features of the plan; (2) making a protocol composed of components, criteria and items (questions and items) related to each feature; (3) determining the method for scoring items in the protocol; (4) coding principles and methods; (5) checking the reliability of scores; and (6) interpreting, analyzing and comparing of plan quality scores. Additionally, due to the clarification of the concepts and theoretical framework and the literature review of the plan's quality, in order to explain the conceptual model of the comprehensive plans quality in Iran, the provisions of the definitions, requirements and methods of (rational) comprehensive planning, the description of contract services for the development plans (type 12), laws, guidelines, approvals and opinions of researchers, experts and critics of urban development plans, the results and content of studies on evaluation of plans in Iran were widely utilized. Finally, a conceptual model was designed with 10 main components (i.e., fact base, analysis and inference, preparation of plans, implementation, inter-organizational coordination, participation, presentation, monitoring and evaluation, planning methods, sustainable development). This conceptual model can be both a guide and a checklist for planners to improve the content of their plans and identify the strengths, weaknesses and shortcomings of them. Last but not least, this study motivates researchers to appropriately apply this conceptual model or counterpart models to their research topic for the purpose of initiating and extending studies on the quality of plans in Iran.

The presence of citizens in outdoors can influence the liveliness of neighborhoods in the city and at the same time, can improve public physiological health. Thermal comfort, as a physiological need, is one of the most important requirements to facilitate the presence of citizens in open public spaces, which has an increasing importance especially in hot and dry climate including Lar. Therefore, one of the most important priorities in neighborhood design in such a climate is considering thermal comfort in outdoor public spaces. This research is aimed to search for principles of designing a neighborhood unit in order to provide thermal comfort in urban public spaces. The research pursues a step-by-step simulation process by which the best alternative design for achieving outdoor thermal comfort is obtained. In order to design different steps in simulating process, environmental criteria was derived from previous studies. Geometry, greenery and material that is used in building facades and on pavements, were three criteria which influence thermal conditions and are considered as simulation process steps. Achieving thermal comfort in outdoor spaces should not cause extra energy consumption for buildings, therefore finding the best orientation of buildings for reducing energy consumption in interior spaces is one of the design issues, the main point which was neglected in previous studies, and eventually in this process we optimized the orientation of buildings. In this study, ENVI-met software version 4 is used for modeling the available urban fabrics and simulating design scenarios. ENVI-met model is validated through a comparison between field measurement and simulation results. Meteorological data (temperature and relative humidity) were measured for 7 days from December 10th to December 16th 2016 in the new town area of Lar. The physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) index has been chosen to assess the space design scenarios thermally. While designing, using a step-by-step simulation process facilitated the achievement of an optimal model based on three criteria: urban geometry, greenery, and facade material. The aforementioned models were simulated between 9 A.M to 17 P.M in two days Jun 21st and Dec 21st in each step of the process. The final design has been optimized after simulating 37 different scenario models. Simulation results confirm the crucial effect of geometry on street thermal conditions. In the case study of Lar, an east-orientated street with 5 degrees’ rotation designed with two W/H aspect ratios, leads to the best thermal condition. Simulation of the neighborhood center based on greenery criteria shows that among two existing tree species of Lar, Albizia lebbeck in comparison with Palm makes better thermal conditions and reduces Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) by 3.94 degrees on average. Simulation of neighborhood center based on material criteria shows a negligible effect on thermal condition of space; it approves previous studies results; thermal conditions of space in denser tree canopies with higher aspect ratio are less affected by materials of space facades and ground pavement.

So far the measures are taken in urban renovation, have represented the signs of incapability in providing of public services and the shortcomings of community participation; This issue consider necessity of attention new approaches to land use planning, such as development management planning, which sought to resolve problems arising from the failure to implement proposed patterns in land use plans as an interface between planning and implementation. So, the purpose of this study is to use land readjustment as a collaborative approach to development management planning for implementing land use plans. Therefore, data have extracted by the method of documentary / field and the research method is descriptive-analytic. So that in the process of research after estimation of land price using spherical kriging interpolation method, boundary analytic has done, then land use planning is calculated, afterwards estimated land price; developable and undevelopable land area are used as input data in the LR equations. Thus Potential rate of land (3.39), feasibility index (2.44), and distribution rate (1.72) is estimated, Which indicates the justification of the planned area for implementing the LR method. Moreover for finance proposed land use plan, area of financial support land (17112.2 m2); contribution rate of financial support land (0.21); and contribution rate of undevelopable land area (0.28) is estimated. Finally readjusted land plots using the contribution and distribution rate In order to implementation of land use plan is calculated. The results show that, using distribution rate due to focuses added value in readjusting land is fairer.