An Analysis of Sustainable Community Development with Emphasis on Good Urban Governance: The Case of Akhund Neighbourhood, Qazvin

The realisation of urban sustainable development throughout the world is better observable in local levels, as sustainable cities are based on sustainable neighbourhoods, with the unsustainability of urban neighbourhoods at local levels resulting in unsustainability at urban levels. The Akhund neighbourhood in Qazvin is one of the historic neighbourhoods of the city, which is left in unsuitable conditions economically, socio-culturally, physically, environmentally, and management/ institutional-wise. The aim of this research is the assessment of sustainability in Akhund neighbourhood based on indicators and criteria of sustainable community development and the study of the role of good urban governance in this neighbourhood. The research methodology is descriptive survey, with data collected through library and field studies including observations, interviews, and questionnaires. Using Cochran-Formula, 95 samples were selected for the research. The sampling method was multi-stage cluster, with each cluster based on simple random samplings. The validity content method was used to test validity, and Cronbach's Alpha method was used for reliability. The analysis of questionnaires was based on descriptive and deductive methods based on one-sample T-test. The findings show that the neighbourhood is unsustainable based on its score of 2.24. The highest sustainability score is for socio-cultural (2.81), and the lowest for management/ institutional dimension (1.64). Legibility, identity, sense of belonging criteria gained highest scores, and governance the lowest. The research then moves on to explain shortcomings of sustainable development in the neighbourhood analysing the role and necessity of good urban governance in mitigating inadequacies. The paper concludes with making suggestions to achieve sustainable development in the neighbourhood.