نشریه دانش شهرسازی
سال دوم شماره 3 (پیاپی 4، پاییز 1397)

The concept of legitimacy along with its close meanings and implications such as righteousness, justification, validity, etc. has always been one of the domains of interest in political structures and public and even private systems. However, despite the rhetorical use of this concept in the current discourses in the political arena, its implications in the specialized sub-systems of a government, including an urban planning and development system, are less discussed. In this study, an attempt was made to investigate the dimensions and factors of legitimacy of an urban planning and development system through reviewing scholarly literature, as well as interviews with 23 experts and elites in the field of urban planning in Iran. The results showed that there is no significant difference and epistemic gap between the content of the studies in global literature and the total perception of the domestic experts regarding the dimensions and factors of legitimacy of an urban planning system. In total, 17 factors of legitimacy in four dimensions, namely, political-social, legal, normative, and technical-functional were identified. Subsequently, through interviewing 16 out of 23 of the participating experts, the internal relationship and potential interactions among these factors were investigated by ‘fuzzy cognitive mapping’ method. Finally, based on the composite indicator resulting from the averaged normalized value of three indicators, namely, frequency, centrality, and total intensity of potential impact of each factor and dimension on other factors in the network, the factors and dimensions were sorted out based on their score. The results revealed that the legal dimension had the highest score overall and the political-social, technical-functional, and normative dimensions ranked next in order.

During the evolution of the urban regeneration approach, paying attention to social participation has led to the formation of community-led urban regeneration. Social participation can improve social capital, sense of place and responsibility to place through community-led urban regeneration process. Since sufficient knowledge and skills are needed for individuals to participate in the process of local development, it seems that their lack of social participation in the aforementioned process is due to the lack of required education. With the aim of explaining the relationship between education and urban regeneration as well as determining the role of education in the process of community-led urban regeneration, this study utilized qualitative analysis and content analysis method to review the theories, statements, and international declarations and charters to compose the community-led urban regeneration through education. In order to determine the aforementioned relationship, the main objective addressed the effect of social education on the process of community-led urban regeneration. Based on a review of the existing theories and experiences, three approaches were identified: the establishment of higher education institutes in the target neighborhoods, public and fair access to educational facilities, and social education of the residents in the target neighborhoods. The results of the study showed that employing a participatory approach as a planning paradigm would lead to the success of urban regeneration projects. The important point is that social training and social education are not only means to achieve urban regeneration objectives but those should be considered as executive tools to increase the residents' participation. In addition, based on this concept, training is conceived as an enabling, empowering, capacity-building, and institutionalizing means for the residents that raises their awareness and leads to social participation. In fact, it can sensitize the residents to their environment and increase their responsibility toward upcoming development of their neighborhood.

Today, the phenomenon of second homes has become one of the most important reasons for changing the landscape of urban suburbs and urban and rural areas around metropolitan cities. These homes are usually bought for spending one’s spare time and weekends, or for retirement, and sometimes for investment. One of the most important consequences of this phenomenon is the clustering and separation of the city in terms of spatial and social spheres. In Iran, with the development of urbanization, citizens have turned their attention to the construction of villas around the cities to relax and spend their leisure time. Sadra New Town is a prominent example of the formation of second homes in the form of a pre-designed garden-house model. Therefore, it seems necessary to examine the causes and consequences of this pattern of habitation and its social-spatial separation from different dimensions. In this study, analytical and descriptive method was utilized. To gather the data, documentary-library method, along with the statistics and the data collected through the Questionnaire of Garden-Cities of Sadra, was employed. Goeller Matrix Method was used to investigate the separation and the interconnection level of the garden-cities area with other urban areas. Based on the findings, more than half of the participants stated that their primary motivation was to make a garden-house for their leisure time during the weekends and holidays. The results of the survey of the interconnection level of garden-cities with other city areas indicated that in terms of natural and environmental indicators (77.5%) and economic indicator (28.13%), Sadra garden-cities have the highest and lowest degree of integration with other city areas of Sadra, respectively. Finally, the overall interconnection level of Sadra garden-cities was found to be 43.05% compared to other urban areas. Based on the findings, garden-cities have led to an unbalanced structure in the city. In addition, the tendency to polarization and spatial separation and structural anomalies are growing in this city. Therefore, it should be noted that the positive effects of tourism of second homes would not come on its own. In fact, in order for these effects to be realized, they must be properly planned and managed.

The process of development in urban areas, after the horizontal expansion and land acquisition of national and natural resources and agricultural land in the suburbs, has led to the use of protected areas for urban services and an increase in construction density and has hit the citizens by increasing population, density, environmental pollution, and degradation of life quality. A plethora of several factors has led development to diverge from its original path; as a result, physical changes have not been realized based on what is envisaged in the approved plans. One of these factors is the lack of monitoring the process of development and physical changes based on urban and regional development plans. Accordingly, utilizing the principles of strategic planning, the present study tries to put forward some strategies to modify and improve the existing processes based on examining critical points and identifying the potentialities and constraints of of the monitoring system of the physical changes in the country. To this end, by means of the IEA technique and a survey of 40 experts, the current conditions for monitoring physical changes based on the SWOT framework have been identified and analyzed. The findings of the study showed that multiple management and the lack of an integrated monitoring mechanism, the lack of defining and clarifying the responsibilities, and separate performance of relevant institutions in physical change monitoring and the lack of legal support for the implementation of monitoring mechanisms have seriously damaged the development in urban and suburban area. This is indicative of the need to redefine the legal and institutional framework for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of development plans in the form of a coherent institution to manage and monitor the physical changes in urban areas in an integrated manner. Finally, while it is suggested that the deficiencies in the system of monitoring the physical changes be removed based on the priorities set out in this study, the legal and institutional framework necessary to establish an integrated system of management and monitoring is to be secured.

Urban development is associated with an increase in impervious areas and simultaneously with changes in the hydrological cycle. This increases the amount of runoff from rain, resulting in a faster runoff regime with shorter delay times and higher peaks. Therefore, the risk of flooding, which is one of the most dangerous natural disasters, increases. The studied area is part of the city of Bandar Abbas, which is highly subject to growth and development. Inappropriate drainage system and heterogeneous development of the city, regardless of comprehensive urban planning criteria in the past decades, have led to flooding in the urban area even due to rainfall with a small return period. Therefore, in this study, an attempt was made to investigate the areas sensitive to flooding through simulating the operation of the surface runoff drainage system and evaluate the best management practices for flood control and their impact on flood volume reduction. To this end, by means of EPA-SWMM software and in order to control the runoff, we evaluated three management practices including bioretention cells, green roof and swale in parts of Bandar Abbas city. The results indicated that the green roof management solution had the best performance compared to other solutions with an average reduction of 18.8 percent of the runoff peak, and 12.5 percent reduction in runoff velocity. The results of this study also revealed that the network in the non-BMP mode for the 10-year return period had a flow rejection of 18%, which was reduced by implementing the green roof scenario to 1% of the network. Therefore, the green roof management practice was selected as the best solution to reduce peak and flow velocity in the studied area.

Some of the urban organs can play a key role in creating city attractions in order to increase social interaction. One of the most important of these types of organs is urban plaza the reconstruction of which can serve as an approach to increase social interaction in city center. Increasing social interaction in reconstruction is one of the most important concerns of urban designers. Plazas are a mirror of culture, customs, and cultural heritage of cities; as such, the presence of population can spread and enhance these cultural factors. However, they are currently known as squares and only play a traffic role; they are, in fact, not considered as an opportunity for social promotion. Reconstruction of Imam Khomeini Square of Bandar Anzali, a central and traditional square, which has witnessed significant cultural and historical events, can lead to an increase in social interactions. In the present study, descriptive-analytical method was utilized. In this survey-based and library research, SWOT table, AHP analysis and Expert Choice software were used to weigh the new urbanism factors which influence social interactions. Based on the findings, seven main factors including increasing density in texture, walkability, maintaining valuable texture, preserving and increasing green space, connection and continuity, sense of security and physical security, and intelligent transportation were found to play a significant role in reconstructing the urban plaza. Connection and continuity indicator had the highest weight (.203) and was in an optimal state whereas sense of security and physical security indictor had the lowest weight (.084) which was indicative of its undesirable status among the aforementioned factors.

Natural hazards, because of their severity and impact on communities in a short period of time, have become one of the main concerns of planners and city managers in recent years. Among others, earthquake is the most probable and destructive hazard in our country. The city of Shiraz is located in a zone with a high risk of earthquake in Iran. This is a serious threat to the sustainability of the city's development. The third municipal district of Shiraz is one of its most important districts, which is threatened by two major faults (Soltan II and Saadi). Due to the importance of urban earthquake vulnerability assessment issues in urban planning, an attempt has been made in this study to estimate the casualties of the third municipal district of Shiraz in two possible scenarios. To this end, RADIUS method with indicators such as soil conditions, distance from faults, population density, and structural characteristics of the buildings were used. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that an earthquake with 6.2 Richter magnitude at 12 o’clock leaves about 713 people dead and at least 9876 people will be injured as a result. Due to a similar earthquake in this district at three o’clock in the morning, about 648 people will die and at least 7342 people will be injured. This study showed that this district is highly vulnerable against earthquakes because of physical characteristics, the existence of worn-out buildings, proximity to active faults, and inappropriate quality structures. Therefore, the results of this assessment can be used to figure out the urban programs needed to reduce injuries and fatalities.