Comparative Analysis of the Proposed Development Model in Tehran Strategic-Structural Master Plan (2007) using Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Model

Moving towards sustainability is not a recommendation, but an "imperative" in light of Tehran's challenges, which include air pollution, traffic, excessive energy consumption, and etc. The critical aim of this article is to assess the compatibility of the development model in Tehran's comprehensive plan (approved in 2007) with the concept of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) as one of the main models for achieving sustainability. The TOD development model, which includes five components of "development structure", "development scale", "development intensity", "development direction", and "development quality" was derived from a review of the literature and global experiences. Then, the content analysis method was employed to extract the development model of Tehran Comprehensive plan 2007, and therefore, two development models were compared with each other using "adaptive evaluation". To this end, expert judgments were applied as the basis of evaluation in four components, while quantitative methods were used in the component of "development intensity". The results showed that the component of "development structure" has the lowest rate of compliance with the TOD model. It is due to the density distribution in the Tehran Comprehensive plan, which is based on road network hierarchy rather than subway stations. Furthermore, the highest level of compliance is associated with the "development direction" component, the reason for which is the use of the infill development approach in the Tehran comprehensive plan, which is perfectly consistent with the TOD principles. Taking into account all variables, the average rate of compliance of the Tehran Comprehensive plan's development model with the TOD model is in the "poor compliance" range.