Typology of Sustainable Urban Form and Urban Structure, With a view to Tehran

Urban form and spatial structure are important aspects for city surveying and its analysis. Literature review on the concepts of spatial structure, urban form, pattern of the city and etc. indicates variety and diversity of opinion in these areas. Some of the reasons for differences in the definition of these concepts as follows: the difference in scales and areas of research, different ways of words translating, different semantic content for similar indicators, view of planner or designer and etc. So the author is looking for detailed analysis and explanation of the concepts of urban form and urban spatial structure. we can find out that the urban spatial structure and urban form in some parts and some variables such as natural landscape, transport infrastructure, communication networks, spatial pattern of land use, morphology of housing, density and etc. have overlaps, but not completely overlapping or following. In other words, if we classify the definitions of these two concepts into three levels: the macro level (metropolitan areas), middle level (cities and regions) and micro levels (neighborhoods and neighborhoods units), at the middle level, the implications of these two concepts have overlaps, so in this scale, the two concepts cab be equated. However at the macro level, the components of urban spatial structure and at the micro level, the elements of urban form can be clearer to explain the issue. Although some researchers use urban spatial structure for micro scale or urban form for macro scale, but in this article, by analysis of comments of majority of experts, it has been argued that the concepts of urban form and urban spatial structure at the middle scale equally, the components of urban form at the micro scale and the elements and variables of urban spatial structure at the macro scale can repaint the nature of urban development issues with a more accurate method. On the other hand, urban form and spatial structure of the city are known as one of the most important sources of environmental, economic and social instability. There are many ways to achieve a sustainable future for urban and regional scales. In this research with an analytical view, the author want to identify how urban form and spatial structure affect Tehran sustainability. In this research, after collecting information and analyzing the spatial layers, using the K-Means Clustering Model and the softwares of GIS and Python, we classified the 22 districts of Tehran into six clusters based on the urban-form and urban spatial structure indicators in the middle scale. The similarities between the form and spatial structure indicators in each of these categories make such categorization and typology meaningful. Also we classified these districts into six clusters besed on the urban sustainability indexes by using K-Means Clustering Model The overlap of clustering in Tehran's districts based on the form and spatial structure indicators and on the basis of sustainability indicators, shows urban form and urban spatial structure factors affect sustainability directly. Determining the extent of this relationship will be important in future research.