An Improved Integrated Model of Urban Development for Tehran Province

Unplanned urban development imposes significant pressure on land resources and land use structures and brings about many negative socio-economic and environmental consequences. Therefore, comprehensive studies should be applied to support urban land use management in the world and especially in developing countries. In Iran, like many other developing countries, urban development is fast and often unharnessed. Tehran province is the main focus of urban sprawl, in which strong economic state and allocation of facilities and infrastructures encourage mass migration of people and cause unplanned construction and changes in spatial structure of the region. In this study, an integrated approach towards urban land suitability assessment in Tehran province including social – economic and ecological aspects has been implemented. The employed method and the developed model can be considered as an efficient sample of achieving sustainable urban development and regulating the physical development in Iran. In this research, a Weighted Linear Combination Method was conducted in a Geographical Information System considering 15 criteria, including social–economic and ecological factors. For weighting the criteria, the Analytic Hierarchy Process was used including opinions of ten experts. At the end, a land suitability map was produced showing suitable area for urban development. These areas include six arenas with suitable extent and desirable suitability in southern part of the province that can be used by urban planners and spatial decision makers. As the results are systematic and reproducible, they can be regarded as means of collaboration and consensus making among urban developers and decision makers.