A Comparative Study on Persian Gardens of Chehelsotoun and Hashtbehesht of Isfahan with the Parameters of Sustainable Landscape in order to respond to Climatic Objectives in Arid Regions

It is a necessity in modern life, especially in the metropolitans to create urban green spaces thatcorresponds to sustainable parameters. Urban green spaces such as gardens and parks, as parts of urban landscape have effective roles in identifying urban public spaces, and because of their correspondence with climatic and environmental conditions, they can decrease environmental pollutions, use of fossil fuel consumptions, and also respond to life requirements, as sustainable landscapes.According to scholar studies, one of the main strategies to respond to climatic conditions and environmental obstacles is historical gardens of Iran, created to moderate local climate of vast arid regions of Iran. The creation of historical gardens of ancient Persia are usually determined by different factors such as intellectual, economic, political, artistic and etc., Which in their turn mirrored in them. Persian garden as a cultural, historical, and environmental phenomenon has had background and it could respond to human comfort for many millennia. It seems that considering to parameters of environmental sustainability and climatic factors was an essential strategy in Iranian garden design. Thus, the use of Persian gardens’ design method in arid regions of contemporary green spaces in Iran and the other similar climatic regions can moderate local climate. This paper has applied objective research method to achieve principles and parameters of Persian gardens in arid regions, so that they can be used in accordance with contemporary patterns and parameters of landscape design and creation of sustainable environments. The main question of this research is “how the climate has effected the process of Persian garden design?” Analysis method of this paper is descriptive-analytical, based on both quantitative and qualitative methods, and the data collection from chosen samples of gardens and analyzing them based on library research and field studies. The main reasons for the authors to achieve the logical and accurate results are to select gardens located in arid regions, with specific framework of natural and built elements and orders. In addition, it was possible for the authors to access the    architectural documents of the gardens. Thus, the selected case studies in this research are Chehelsotoun and Hashtbehesht gardens, two reminder gardens of arid region of Isfahan city. The main hypothesis of this research is: “The climatic parameters are the essential factors to create the Persian garden in the hot and arid regions of Isfahan”. The framework of this research includes these three processes: First, description of climatic features and parameters of hot and arid regions and the city of Isfahan. Second, exploration of climatic design strategies in architecture and landscape architecture design in hot and arid regions. And third, explanation and validation of climatic design strategies in the gardens of Chahelsotoun and Hashtbehesht as selected case studies of this paper. By the analysis of sustainable characteristics and climatic strategies in selected gardens, their response to climatic objects are assessed, and shows that climatic characteristics and objectives are the main factor in physical models and principles, spatial organization and composition of elements of Persian garden design in arid regions.