The role of smart growth in sustainable development of coastal cities (case study: Babolsar)

Coastal areas affected by social and economic factors, are faced with growing population, making these regions a great context for urbanization and urban population growth. As a result of this process, exploitation of economic and natural resources and use of productive lands and critical coastal ecosystems to meet growing urban population's needs lead coastal cities to develop in sprawl pattern from one hand and degradation of environmental quality and threaten sustainable development of coastal cities. Consequently, various approaches such as urban smart growth seek to provide strategies and policies to adapt the negative impacts of human activities with the unique characteristics of the coastal cities. In the present research indicators of sustainable urban development and smart growth are measured, to evaluate the impact of smart growth approach to the sustainable development of the coastal city of Babolsar. For this reason, a sample of 384 residents of various neighborhoods in the coastal city of Babolsar studied and indicators of sustainable urban development and smart growth have been calculated by VIKOR and modified Ewing methods. The results indicate stronger sustainability index in West Babolrood and City Center neighborhoods compare to peripheral ones. Meanwhile, a meaningful and relatively strong correlation exists between urban smart growth and urban sustainability with 0.788 correlation coefficient. Among the urban smart growth factors have been studied, access and proximity has the greatest impact on increasing to urban sustainable development indicators in neighborhoods of coastal city of Babolsar with0.822 correlation coefficient. Meanwhile, economic sustainability with 0.657 correlation coefficient and environmental sustainability with 0.536 correlation coefficient show strong relationship with smart growth, but there is an inverse relationship with a correlation coefficient -0.191, between social sustainability and smart growth. Therefore, proper distribution of urban services to improve accessibility and reduce private vehicles urban trips, ease of access to alternative modes of transportation with priority given to pedestrians, especially in coastal neighborhoods and create a communication network between the coast line and other urban spaces for sustainable development of coastal city of Babolsar are proposed.