Assessment of Planning Periods of Mashhad Comprehensive Planning, Based on The Indices of Smart Growth

This paper, based on the presented indices by the theory of smart growth of the city tries to assess the comprehensive plans in Iran and monitor the level of attunement of these documents (as the most important document of the city development by the view of smart growth). The method of research, is analytical – comparative, The method of research, is analytical – comparative, and based on the obtained inferential statistics from data analysis of three periods of comprehensive plans in Mashhad, and their integration with the evaluation method of multi-criteria and hierarchical AHP. The results show that among the four selected indicators, from the ten indicators of smart growth, the importance of "strong and direct development towards existing communities", According to the current conditions and needs of the urban population in Iran, is dramatically higher than the other indicators. As its reason, it can be referred to this case that by using development towards existing communities, it may achieve other components including preserving open lands, mixed use and compact construction. Also according to the coefficients of the importance of the reviewed indices, it was found that planning period of Mehrazan comprehensive planning, in the time period of 1970-1990, in total has been more consistent and aligned with the indices of the smart growth.