Assistant Professror, Environmental Sciences Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University

The aim of this study is to assess the sustainability of the planning of greenways in Tehran's landscape change. By adopting an ecological approach towards the comparison of ecological indicators in different planning approches, this study evaluates Tehran's ecological network's function in the process of landscape change. Similar to a simulative approch, the research methodology is comparative-analytical. This process results in new ecological indicators that can be useful for a sustainable planning of urban greenways. In addition to studies such as "Land Capability Assessment" and "Development Impact Assessment" (that help achieve environmental equilibrium), an ecological network's function assessment is also necessary to monitor the process of landscape change. Landscape change is introduced as “the alteration of structure and function over time through their interaction and mutual influences”. The main emphasis of this assessment is to investigate the causes and effects of land-use and land-cover dynamics in controlling social programmes as well as planning new landscapes network. By using greenway's functional indicators, the possibility of improving the intractions between primary and secondary, natural and built, and inner and outer living zones can be achieved.