Evaluation of policies of the Islamic city council in the field of urban planning and architecture of Shiraz city from the perspective of sustainable development

Councils, as institutions that derive their legitimacy and popularity from the people, can play an important role in urban policy-making through their decisions regarding urban form, especially in the fields of urban planning and architecture. The present study aimed to evaluate the urban policies of the Islamic City Council of Shiraz in the field of urban planning and architecture from the perspective of sustainable development. The research method was descriptive-survey, using a questionnaire tool. The statistical population of this study consisted of managers and heads of various departments of Shiraz municipality (executive experts) and university professors familiar with the research topic (academic experts). The sample size was calculated to be 113 individuals using Morgan's table. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed. The study's findings indicated that for evaluating the urban policies of the Islamic Council, the Hagoort and Gunn model (1984) consisting of 5 dimensions of issue identification, policy formulation, decision-making, policy implementation, and policy evaluation can be used. To measure these dimensions, 19 components related to urban policy-making were identified based on the opinions of academic and executive experts in the field of urban planning. The results showed that at a significance level of less than 0.05, the dimensions and components related to urban policy-making were significant. The results also indicated that the status of the dimensions and components of the Islamic Council's urban policies was evaluated as average. The Friedman test results for ranking the dimensions and components of policy-making showed that among the dimensions, issue identification and among the components, the delegation of power and resources to the members of the Islamic Council obtained the highest rank. The results of the one-sample t-test also indicated that the performance of the Islamic Council in terms of urban planning and architecture policies was less than 0.05. In the field of urban planning, the best performance of the Islamic Council pertained to the consultation and legal supervision of the urban planning department and its affiliated units with a score of 0.803, and in the field of architecture, the best performance pertained to consultation and approval of regulations and decisions in the field of architecture with a score of 0.705.