Measurement of Sustainable Development in Urban Areas by Using Planning Techniques Case Study: Ilam City

Sustainable development of urban areas as one of the main objectives in geography seeks to strengthen economical, social, culture and physical aspects of cities. The aim of this paper is to identify the sustainability and instability of Ilam urban areas and the weak and strong points of these regions by using sustainable development indices. The method used in this study is a combination of analytical and occasional- field methods. In order to analyze the data, factor analysis method, Human Development Index (HDI) and dispersion coefficient have been used. The type of Development- functional research and its statistical society includes the fourteenth districts of Ilam city.The results show that among the fourteen urban areas, there has been one sustainable area with combined human development index and coefficient 0.72, three semi-sustainable areas and ten instable areas. The central area has been recognized as the only sustained area and Chalimar area as the most instable area. On this basis, in the central area, access to educational, health, hygienic, cultural and… facilities and high rate of employment and saving in access and costs have been together with the settlement of rich people. While in the instable areas, lack of conformity between the population group and service needs, lack of recreational spaces, low rate of employment, non-authorized constructions and uncontrolled spread have been together with the settlement of people with low income level. Therefore, access to sustainable development in urban areas of Ilam is only possible through recognizing the dimensions of sustainable development and the weak and strong points of urban areas and also considering the sustained indices and strength of in stabled features.