Evaluation of the Spatial Planning of Ardabil Urban Areas in accordance with the Criteria of the Original Islamic City

The religion of Islam, as a worldview, introduces principles and values to its followers and calls on its people to follow it, in which citizens are considered the most important element of the city and determine the manifestation and construction of the city. This is a kind of indication of urban planning policy. So, an Islamic city is meaningless without a religious world and without the people to whom it belongs. And the Islamic nature of the city indicates that this place should be a manifestation of Islamic values. Thus, all Islamic orders and laws have influenced the construction of cities and given them a special identity that is different from other cities in the world. But today, the physical structure of the Muslim urban space has suffered from confusion, multiplicity, and imitation of Western patterns, and it is difficult to find the characteristics of an Islamic city in it. And they have distanced themselves from Islamic guidelines, mainly as a result of the spread of foreign culture. Therefore, recognizing each of the components and criteria for building a genuine Islamic city and adapting it to existing cities can lead to re-reading and revitalization of Islamic cities. Ardabil is one of the cities which has shown the manifestation of many elements and components of the Islamic city.  Therefore, investigating the degree of compatibility of components and elements of Ardabil urban areas with the indicators and criteria of the original Islamic city in the framework of intellectual, behavioral, and objective requires appropriate and transparent research. This study seeks to achieve the extent to which the urban areas of Ardabil have been able to meet the criteria of the original Islamic city in their spatial planning policies.

In this regard, a combination of two descriptive-analytical methods was used to achieve the desired result. Documentary (library) and field (citizen questionnaire collection) methods have been used to collect data. First, the indicators and components of the original Islamic city were identified. Then in the next stage, criteria were identified for each indicator. Finally, for each of the criteria, the total number of which reached 21 primary criteria, about 3-4 items for each criterion were developed using a LIKERT scale (five options). A total of 80 research questions were prepared for intellectual, ideological, practical, and behavioral aspects. Expert opinions were used for the validity of the questionnaire, and CRONBACH'S alpha coefficient was used for reliability. The statistical population was the citizens of Ardabil. The statistical sample size was 383 people using Cochran's sampling formula by stratified sampling method from five Districts of Ardabil based on a simple random method without replacement. And the sample size is a function of distance measurement between the ages of 15 to 65 years.

Based on the indicators involved in the emergence and realization of the original Islamic city in the urban areas of Ardabil, the QI value indicates that Districts 1, 2, 5, 3, and 4 were ranked, respectively. According to this model, the closer the Q figures are to one, the more adaptable the urban areas of Ardabil will be to the criteria of the original Islamic city, and the better the urban space planning policy will be. Based on the final findings, the main gap is between District 1 and other ones. That is, the urban areas of Ardabil can be classified into two levels according to the indicators involved in the emergence and realization of the original Islamic city. The first level is District 1. The Second level is Districts 2, 3, 4, and 5. However, it can be stated that District 1 with the rank of 1 is in the best situation and District 4 with the rank of 5 is in the worst situation.

In the process of model analysis, the current situation of each urban area of Ardabil was evaluated and matched with 21 criteria, and the overall results indicate that the Islamic city of Ardabil has a near-average situation with an average (Qi 0.43062). Based on the results of the WASPAS model, District 1 of Ardabil city by achieving 17 out of 21 criteria with Qi 0.59393, was able to obtain the closest and first rank of compatibility of components and elements of the original Islamic city. District 2 of Ardabil city was ranked second with the implementation of 9 criteria out of a total of 21 major criteria of the original Islamic city (Qi 0.4258). District 5 of Ardabil city achieved the third rank compared to other urban areas by fulfilling 12 criteria and with the figure (Qi 0.4099). District 3 of Ardabil took the fourth place (Qi 0.3978) by fulfilling 14 criteria. Finally, District 4 of Ardabil, with adaptability and the realization of 5 criteria out of a total of 21 criteria of the original Islamic city, has gained the fifth rank with the number (Qi / 0.3803), which is the farthest distance. Thus, in spatial planning policies, this region needs more effective planning and organization based on the criteria of the original Islamic city. However, all districts have shortcomings until they reach the desired goal.