A Comparative Study of the Physical Components of Social Sustainability in Old and New Towns (Case Study: Old and New Town of Hashtgerd)

One of the important dimensions of sustainable development is social sustainability. Indeed, it can be argued that sustainable development derives from social sustainability. Given the complexity of contemporary urban issues, attention to social aspects of urban neighborhoods is indispensable. When these factors disappear in a neighborhood, the social stability of the neighborhood is compromised; in new neighborhoods, most of the features of old neighborhoods have disappeared and the social and economic coexistence of people is replaced by ethnic-religious affiliations and the homogeneities of all have become social life. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate quantitatively the components of social sustainability in the old and new neighborhoods of Hashtgerd in a comparative way. The research method used is descriptive-analytic. In the collection of information, in the first stage, Criteria were recognized by using library and documentary studies. In the second stage, as a field study, the studied areas were evaluated using the obtained criteria. Fuzzy Delphi method has been used to understand the fundamental criteria in this research and the Network Analysis technique has been used to evaluate and prioritize the provided indicators and evaluate the community surveyed. Using the Fuzzy Delphi method, five criteria out of seven criteria including "activity", "identity", "security", "spatial justice" and "physical and spatial coherence" were selected as the basic criteria. The results of the network analysis indicated that the "activity diversification" (0.139), "urban signs" (0.17) were the most important in achieving social sustainability from the viewpoint of experts.