Locating of High-Rise Buildings with Emphasis on Smart Growth Theory

Nowadays، policies of urbanization have changed from horizontal growth pattern to smart growth that lead to the concept of compact city. Building high-rise structures as one of the compact city parts have been considered by city managers to maximum use of limited space and resources. But lack of consideration to criteria and principles of correct locating this kind of buildings can lead to problems to the future of cities. So، The aim of this article is to identify effective criteria in locating high-rise buildings in District 9 of Mashhad with emphasis on smart growth such as the idea of compact city، mixed land use، preserve open space and finally survey the region''s potential in terms of building high-rise structures. Therefore، by using document and field research method 9 criteria on two physical - spatial and environmental qualities has been selected for suitable positions of this kind of buildings. Also The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a tool to determine the weight of criteria and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a tool to collate، analyze and display spatial datain the process ofpositioningis used. From the whole surface area (45،617 pieces) the number of1747 pieces with a total area of 100 hectares is proposed respectively in the first and second priorities for high buildings. But the proposed boundaries is different with current situation and the hypothesis based on lack of proper attention to the principles and criteria of compact city، has been approved.