Application of Structural Equation Model in Explaining the Role of Factors Affecting the Realization of Urban Development Plans (Case Study: Shiraz City)

Urban development plans are progressing towards becoming more effective in their evolutionary process, with the goal of serving human beings with a modeling of sustainable development components. One of the major goals of urban development plans is the provision of basic services and infrastructures for the full development of human settlements. In this regard, the main purpose of this paper is to explain the factors affecting the change of service landuses in the city of Shiraz and identify its reasons. This research is an exploratory research, which first studies the concepts related to land use change using document-library sources and then investigates the severity of the effect of the four factors (physical, activity, economic, accessibility) on land use change and their desirability. For this purpose, the second-order confirmatory factor analysis technique has been used to determine the severity of the effect of the four factors on land use change, through which a contributing framework for the effects of the four factors on land use change is obtained. Finally, the extent and direction of the factors affecting the realization of service land uses in the city of Shiraz are explained using the structural equation model (SEM). In order to achieve these goals, 50 variables affecting 600 plots in Shiraz city are extracted through field method. The variables are investigated and analyzed using GIS maps, Amos and SPSS software. The results of the research show that, in total, the selected four factors have a significant effect on the land use change. It is such that the standardized weights of regression for "the effect of the access factor on land use change", "the effect of the economic factor on land use change", "the effect of the activity factor on land use change", and "the effect of the physical factor on land use change" are 0.91, 0.78, 0.65, and 0.56, respectively.