The Role of Smart Urban Development in the Development of the Dilapidated Areas of Tabriz City:A Case Study of 8th District of Tabriz

New urbanization developments and the emergence of problems in the world have made the central cities of metropolitan areas more vulnerable to the adverse effects of urban development compared to other urban areas. Meanwhile, technological advances have accelerated the population change and increased urban populations. This volume of rapid urbanization has had a significant impact on ancient and historical textures. The ancient and historic cores of cities with a large population of mostly immigrants in recent years have been continually deformed and their textures have been eroded. Therefore, urban planners around the world are working to integrate models of urban development so as to meet the demands and expectations of today's world by integrating all aspects of urbanization.One of the new concepts to address the current challenges of cities in the field of urban planning is smart city development. The smart city is at the heart of the evolution of the 3rd millennium and means opening up of new concepts in urban planning, which combines real-world and virtual world capabilities to solve urban problems. One of the most important projects for the development of worn-out textures, on which planners and city officials have now focused, is the idea of infill development. This theory is one of the categories of urban smart growth and if it is applied correctly, the development of old and worn-out urban areas can be strengthened.Tabriz is one of the oldest residential centers of Iran and an important city in different natural, political, demographic, and other aspects. The metropolis needs several goals to refurbish and modernize the worn-out areas in the form of smart and infill developments so as to maintain its core pillars. One of these goals is providing the basis for optimal urban development and analyzing the infill development in the context of urban development. Prioritizing the indicators, providing sub-themes of the research subject, and identifying the key variables of interstate development policies were the goals of this research.

A smart city has 6 features: smart shifting, smart economy, smart environment, smart community, smart life, and smart government. In the present study, the subsets of each of these 6 key factors, along with the infill development factors, were studied by measuring their interactions in a matrix. In this regard, the current study intended to identify the priority areas for future planning by examining different aspects of urban smart development and infill development and propose optimal strategies for effectively implementing such developments. The structural equation modeling was utilized to investigate the research conceptual model in detail. For this purpose, the opinions of 50 experts were gathered.To estimate the impacts of smart growth and interdependent development, the researchers created a 53-by-53 matrix by taking into account 34 urban smart development subdivisions and 19 interdisciplinary development subsystems with regard to indigenous and territorial conditions within the system.The 50 experts were provided with the matrix in order to identify the impact of each subsystem in the system.

The researchers prepared a questionnaire to determine the weights of the criteria, besides conducting a survey on the opinions of the 50 experts in Tabriz University and Municipality.A total of 53 criteria were identified in a table for the two main factors of smart development and interstate development. Then, by placing these factors in a 53-by-53 matrix, their effects on each other were determined after weighting them.After determining the degree of influence and effectiveness of each of the smart development and infill development factors in the worn-out areas of Tabriz City, the relationship between these factors were investigated using Micmac software. With respect to the bi-directional variables, there was only one factor -- land use compatibility -- related to infill development and the rest of the components were among the factors that affected smart development, indicating the importance of having such development in urban growth and development. The future of the city of Tabriz in different aspects, as well as the development of its worn-out urban textures in particular, could be tied to this kind of development.

The current research was undertaken as the first step in studying the impacts of macroeconomic policies on sustainable development and infill development as two interrelated issues. Hence, new horizons were created for the smart development of the worn-out areas of Tabriz. The results showed the prominence of the 3 critical factors of technological infrastructure, creativity, and innovation and ultimately, social and corporate cohesion in the infill development of historic and worn-out areas.A look at the results clearly revealed the impact of urban smart development on infill development that inevitably need to be further explored in planning the developments of the burnt urban areas so as to achieve a comprehensive development.