Identifying the Factors Affecting the Blighting of Urban Spaces (Case Study: Tabriz Metropolis)

In recent decades, urban spaces have come under pressure for a variety of reasons, including declining economic development rates, demographic change, industrial restructuring, and declining real estate markets, and the issue of urban decline and blight has become a global phenomenon. Therefore, identifying the factors affecting the spread of urban blighted and strategic planning in order to deal with the spread of this phenomenon and the realization of sustainable development is an inevitable necessity. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to identify the factors affecting the blighting of urban spaces in Tabriz metropolis. The research method is a combination of quantitative-qualitative approaches with applied purpose and descriptive-analytical nature and in order to analyze the data, structural equations based on variance with Smart-pls partial least squares method have been used. The statistical population of the study also includes experts, managers and city officials and academic elites (about 1400 people) and the sample size was determined using special rules of the partial least squares method and the modified Cochran model of 344 people. Findings show that the most effective in the formation of urban blighting in Tabriz metropolis is related to the variables of technocratic management system and shifting resources and facilities to high-income deciles of society, non-segregation of interventions in various urban contexts (new, old, worn and informal), tissue wear and obsolescence of equipment and transformation in economic centers with scores of 0.791, 0.744, 0.728 and 0.639, respectively. Also, the results indicate that developments such as population movements and changes in economic centers in recent decades have caused the formation of spatial imbalances in different dimensions and the blighting of some city spaces.