Analysis of the Urban and Regional Planning Post-Graduate Theses at Shahid Beheshti University (2006- 2016): A Scientometric Perspective and Comparison with the Challenges in this Field in Iran

Postgraduate theses are considered to be one of the sources with a high capacity to solve related problems in society. Students choose the subject based on different criteria, such as personal preferences, work experience, and current problems in their field, which change at any point in time depending on the conditions of that point. The trends that have existed in the field of theses topics in certain periods of time can be tracked and quantitatively analyzed with scientometric analysis. The purposes of this paper are to determine the most frequent topics of theses in the field of urban and regional planning at Shahid Beheshti University )2006- 2016); outline the co-occurrence of the topics in these theses; and compare them with the most important problems in this field. The general question of this paper is that during the 10-year period from 2006 to 2016, what the trends in the selection of theses topics in Shahid Beheshti University were, and how much these topics dealt with the problems and challenges that were raised as urban and regional problems during this period

Due to the position of Shahid Beheshti University as one of the oldest and largest academic centers in the country, which has created and offered this field since 1356, theses of this university have been selected as the case study of this paper. By using the method of network analysis and drawing the co-occurrence graph of theses topics, a clear picture based on quantitative data of the topics chosen by the students in a 10-year time period has been drawn. The co-occurrence of 181 keywords was analyzed using betweenness and degree centrality indicators. Urban and regional challenges were also extracted by content analysis. Finally, a comparison between these challenges and problems with the most central subject areas of the thesis was conducted.

“Sustainable development” is the most widely used keyword in these theses that also acts as a connecting factor to other concepts. The five most common keywords except for “sustainable development” are evaluation, urban regeneration, distressed areas, and tourism. Comparing the central keywords with the urban and regional planning problems indicates that subjects such as water crisis and air pollution, weakness of the compensation regulations, shortcomings of urban transportation systems, and urban housing are topics that have been ignored in the theses.

The problems expressed in the documents reviewed in this article can be divided into six main issues strengthening the institutional and legal structure supporting urban and regional planning, spatial justice, environmental sustainability, efficient transportation system, urban regeneration/revitalization, organizing urban housing and organizing urban spaces. Findings show that the main urban and planning challenges have been pursued in theses as a whole. Among the challenges raised in the researched sources, spatial justice and urban regeneration are the issues that are most compatible with the central issues of theses. About the two issues of strengthening the institutional and legal structure supporting urban, and regional planning and environmental sustainability, although some aspects of these issues have been raised in theses, items like the weakness of the restorative rights system, the undesiredness of the urban cost-income system, the lack of Water resources, air pollution, urban waste and greenhouse gas production have not been raised as central issues. In the two subjects of urban transportation and urban housing, the least correspondence with the central subjects of theses can be traced, so none of the central subjects can be considered as directly responding to these two challenges of the urban and regional planning system in the country. Regarding the reason why urban revitalization is important in these theses, we can point to the impact of discussions and decisions of the public sector that have been expressed in speeches (Akhundi, 2015 A & Akhundi, 2015 B), specialized meetings and seminars, and drafting laws.