Analyzing the Internal Development Capacities of Residential Neighborhoods with the view of Infill Development, Case Study: Shariati Neighborhood of Tabriz

After the 1970s and World War II, strong reactions began to the overgrowth of cities, these reactions led to the formation of movements such as smart growth, new-urbanism, creation of places, compact city, and so on. On a smaller scale, these movements have proposed some types of development, including support for transportation-oriented development, mixed-use development, and infill development. With the emergence of new ideas, urban growth and development has been intelligently proposed and infill development is a part of it. Especially with the expansion of the concept of sustainable urban development, in which it recommends the effective and sustainable use of development capacities abandoned within urban areas, it has gained special importance. Generally, infill development is a practical solution for preventing the physical expansion of the city in undeveloped lands around the city and the development of vacant and abandoned land within urban areas. Infill development has increased investment in urban revitalization and uses all the existing capacities in the city development and creating mixed uses. But in the cities of Iran, despite the boundless expansion of the city on the horizon and finally destruction of agricultural lands and the emergence of other environmental problems, infill development is less used as a solution to reduce urban development problems and it needs more researches. In this research, we discuss the infill development capacity of residential development in Shariati neighborhood of Tabriz metropolis as an old and dilapidated neighborhood in order to answer the question of whether these old neighborhoods have the capacity for infill development? If there is the development capacity in these neighborhoods, how much is it? Therefore, the present article seeks to measure the capacity of residential development with an infill development approach in Shariati neighborhood to be a step towards sustainable development in this neighborhood.

According to the research objectives and components, the research method is analytical-descriptive. The required data and information for the research have been obtained and processed through library and field studies. First, the required information is prepared from various documents and field surveys and then based on them, maps were prepared related to each index through ArcGIS software. Then, the weights are indexed using the combined method (AHP-Fuzzy TOPSIS), Finally, through ArcGIS software, the combination of raster maps is done based on the used method.

The used indicators in this research are: Empty and barren lands, quality of buildings, impermeability, fineness of parts, number of buildings floors, relative value of land and type of building materials (building skeleton). The first used criterion, is the amount of empty and barren lands. This criterion is considered because it is closer to scalability than other factors. Another indicator in infill development, is the study of building quality. In the building quality index, buildings are classified into four, new, usable, renovated and destroyed groups. In the study area about 8.39% are destroyed ones, 52.30% are usable ones, 30.68% are renovated ones and 8.63% are new ones. The next studied indicator in this research, is accessibility and permeability. To examine this index, neighborhoods are classified into four groups according to access to the thoroughfares which the results show 26.43% of parts with high impermeability, 12.56 medium impermeability, 15.58 low impermeability and 44.43 very low impermeability. According to the obtained result, the studied neighborhood has a great potential for infill development. Another studied indicator, is the floors of buildings.  In the studied neighborhood of all floors, 79.13% are 2 floors and less, 16.38% of them are 3 and 4 floors, 3.20% are 5 and 6 floors and 1.29% has been built above 6 floors. The latest studied indicators are the used materials (building skeletons) in buildings. In order to analyze the development capacity of the building skeleton index, buildings with reinforced concrete materials in the low development capacity class, steel structures in the medium development capacity class, composites materials such as raw clay, brick and wood, etc. are in the category of high development capacity.

The results of the research show that the capacity for residential infill development in Shariati neighborhood has been very high. According to the obtained results in the GIS environment, 34.04% of the neighborhood area has very high potential, 37.42% has high potential, 23.37% has medium potential, and 5.7% has low potential. These results mean that Shariati neighborhood has full potential for revitalization and redevelopment to increase the capacity of residential land use. Based on the results, it can be said that the studied neighborhood, which is now one of the most dilapidated neighborhoods of Tabriz metropolis, needs an urgent need for planning in order to improve and renovate. The use of infill development strategy with smart growth approach can be one of the most important scenarios for urban planners. Considering the two groups of very high and high scalability, it can be said that more than half of the total area of ​​the studied area, is prone to infill development, which is necessary to develop appropriate planning based on the principles of smart growth.