Key Factors Affecting Sustainable Spatial Development at Mazandaran Province on the horizon of 2031

In recent years, different foresight programs have frustrated urban and regional planning with environmental forecasting methods and have been driven to use the tools of building a favorable future. On the other hand, in today's world where the notion of sustainability has become a necessity in urban and regional planning, the trend towards sustainable and balanced spatial development has become increasingly important around the world. One of the major challenges is considered in regional planning and policy-making. The present study considers identifying and extracting the key factors affecting the spatial development of Mazandaran province by using the structural analysis process in scenario planning. In the first step, 35 factors were identified as a set of factors affecting the spatial development of this province, based on recognizing the current situation of the province and reviewing related theoretical and experimental texts, existing documents, and programs. Then, the cross-impact analysis matrix was formed, and to identify and determine the relationships between these factors, the expert panel method was used with the presence of 10 experts who scored each of these factors. In the next step, the consensus of the experts' opinions was calculated using the weighted average method, and its implementation was carried out in the MIC MAC software. Finally, 16 factors were extracted as key factors affecting the spatial development of Mazandaran province in the year of the horizon, 12 factors were in the economic sector, 9 factors were in the socio-demographic, 11 factors were in the environmental and 3 factors were in the physical-spatial, and they will form the foundation of planning for the future of a sustainable space in this province.