Development of the Integrated Environmental Management Framework in Tehran Metropolis

Environmental protection is a key element in urban management. Due to complex relationships between human and environment in metropolises, the importance of environment is ever-increasing. Heavy environment deterioration and the indicators of the human habitat show significant drop in life satisfaction and life quality in Tehran (Tehran state of the Environment, 2015). A reason for this situation is inter-organizational inconsistencies among those who are in charge of urban environmental management. Sporadic attitudes of the organizations and different policies within the geographical neighboring areas are among managerial and structural deficiencies in the metropolis. This research is an attempted to minimize the effects of such urban difficulties and problems. In this paper The current situation of environment in Tehran metropolis including air, water, biodiversity and human habitat along with the most crucial threats, their effect as well as the associated agencies and organizations have been investigated, using the indicators of OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), UNEP (United Nation Environmental Program) and GFF (Global Environmental Fund). The current management of Tehran environment is studied based on a framework and using SWOT analysis. Then, an ideal urban environmental management framework is proposed for Tehran, with regard to the higher order legal documents of national and international levels and the global models such as: UN Habitat Program, Sustainable Cities Program, Policy and Regulatory Framework for Sustainable Cities Program, Healthy Cities Program, Agenda 21, Strategies of the Environmental European commission and a Good Governance Model, as well as the results of the SWOT analysis In this framework, the authorities in charge of urban management and their responsibilities are determined and classified at three levels of policy-making, decision making and implementation and Target, and the relationship between them are clarified.