Science and Technology Special Regions; New Approach in Sustainable Development (Case: Science and Technology Special Region of Yazd)

The emergence of knowledge-based city-regions as the paradigm of the knowledge-based economy is one of the effective paradigms for the sustainable development of future cities. These regions aim to synthesis the functional, physical, and institutional components of knowledge clusters with urban activities to maximize beneficiary of the unique characteristics of each region. In regional development, the prerequisite for achieving goals in these regions is spatial-physical planning and how they spatially organized their activities and functions in the territorial area. The main question of this study is "to achieve sustainable development, what are the spatial-physical considerations in Iran special regions in general and Yazd in particular?" It identifies the most important actions (physical spatial, transport, housing and environment) of science and technology regions plans on global scale by the method of secondary analysis and based on the content analysis. comparison the results in Yazd Special region with others in Iran indicates the high emphasis on economic aspects, relative attention to environmental issues, and minimal attention to quality of spatial organization and the relationship between main functional focuses and the cities/regions, transport and housing. Considering the unique characteristics of each region, reviewing their function and defining their legal position in the hierarchy of planning system in Iran, explaining the goals and priorities of development in a comprehensive plan to stabilize these regions in the urban sustainable development is indispensable.