Strategic environmental assessment in urban development: a case study: (Zahedan city)

Environmental problems are one of the most important issues in major cities and metropolises as the result of conflict with the natural environment since urban development is necessarily associated with the domination of buildings, industries, transportation, and economic activities on natural spaces. Strategic Environmental Assessment is a comprehensive, formulated and systematic environmental impact assessment of policies, plans, and plans the options of which include reporting through their findings and their application in the decision-making process. A descriptive and analytical method was used to study and evaluate the strategic environmental impacts of urban development, Based on the concepts of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), using MADM statistical techniques and operational research such as the Analytic Hierarchy Process Analyzer (AHP), questionnaires were distributed and completed for determining the proper emphasis on and valuation of among experts (whose content was calculated using the Cochran formula) . The questions related to urban management and the environment and topics such as the municipality, environment, governorate, natural resources, etc.. Finally, the results were analyzed using Expert Choice software. The aim of the SEA process is to recognize the advantages and disadvantages of the environmental effects of a comprehensive plan and minimize the negative impacts of the implementation of the plan. For strategic evaluation, two criteria and 10 sub-criteria were selected which, after assessing and evaluating the environmental criteria, the sanitary exclusion of wastewater and residues, weighing 0.417, and reducing air pollution, with a weight of 0.245, were the most important and among the top priorities; the sub-criteria of emphasis on improving the quantity and quality of water resources, with a relative weight of 0.208, restoration of green space or missed pastures, with a relative weight of 0.077, and emphasis on increased soil quality and fertility, with a relative weight of.053, were placed in the third to fifth levels of priority, respectively. Among the non-criteria related to the physical components, the realization of a healthy city plan, increase in access to open and green spaces, and paying attention to the urban architecture of the native, with respective weights of 0.34, 0.264 and 0.159, were in the first, second and third places. Quality improvement measurements for informal settlements, with a relative weight of 0.094, realization of optimum density, with relative weight of 0.085, and the optimal distribution of applications in the city, with a relative weight of 0.058, were the third to sixth priorities. Zahedan contains suburban neighborhoods such as Shir Abad, Karim Abad, Babaeyan, etc. Most of these neighborhoods are deprived of welfare infrastructures such as water, sanitation, etc. The structure and texture of soil geology are such that there is no possibility of constructing wells, According to the results of the strategic assessment, urban environmental pollution such as sanitary wastewater-residues, air pollution, water pollution, restoration and access to open and green urban areas, access to a healthy and habitable city, attention to architecture, local urbanism were identified which are all are the consequence of accelerated development of modern cities. Therefore, greater attention by officials, planners and urban managers is required to prevent more urban environmental degradation, and it is necessary to provide citizens with fair access to welfare indicators.