نشریه دانش شهرسازی
سال هفتم شماره 2 (پیاپی 23، تابستان 1402)

Currently, more than half of the world's population resides in cities. The important issue is that, due to demographic trends, cities are significantly facing with the global challenges of the new age. One of these challenges is faced with natural disasters that cause social vulnerabilities along with economic losses. The most incidents that can be mentioned are; extreme climate changes, earthquakes, floods, storms, avalanches, landslides, lightning, and tsunamis. The cases mentioned are among the events that mankind is facing today, and it should be noticed that every day these disasters lead to the loss of a large number of people's life. It should also be noted that the planned structure of cities through factors such as the rapid and uncontrollable growth of urbanization and development of new residence patterns, changes in national and local government and its spatial organization, weak local governments, and social and income inequality are gradually destroying. According to the issues mentioned, one of the important challenges that can be pointed out is that cities are facing severe pressure and only a few of them are equipped with the tools to overcome challenges. Another point that should be mentioned is that the cities have suffered a kind of premature fragility, and in other words, the threshold of fragility of the cities has been greatly reduced and they have become a chaotic environment for residing. Nevertheless, the fragility of the city is not continual, and by offering instructions, the threshold of fragility in cities can be increased to a great extent, and instructions can also be provided for the restoration of cities. Also, by mentioning that cities are different from each other in the aspects of economic and cultural identity and how to deal with risk, each of them should have different solutions to control the fragility of the city. Therefore, the current research can significantly change the process of fragility by the perception of fragility and recognizing components of fragility in cities.

The present study, taking into account the preferred report in the field of structured review guidelines, by providing a strategy for searching articles based on the words "fragility", "fragile city", "urban fragility" and "fragile state" in valid citation databases, from a structured review based on a 7-step model (question selection, inclusion criteria, finding studies, selecting studies, evaluating the quality of studies, extracting data, analyzing and presenting results) has been started, and in total, 722 sources (including articles, books, and official reports)  have been found and after going through 7 steps, 86 sources were selected for deeper studying.

The findings obtained from the review of the theoretical basics and considerations suggested by researchers in the field of fragility indicate that urban fragility is a new concept in the field of urban planning and management and is described as follows; urban fragility means the city's weakness and fragility against a set of multiple risks, that happens when a city lacks legitimacy and effective institutions, the existence of multiple risks in different dimensions (economic; social; institutional; environmental, economic, social and political conditions of the people of the society; because of the unfavorable performance of the city, international relations) that do not have the suitable functionality to perform their main tasks before, during and after facing the shocks and lead to different forms of fragility in relation to the city and society. It is also necessary to mention that fragility is unavoidable and reversible and can quickly or gradually penetrate into cities and lead to the creation of permanent risk and disturbance in their development process. It is worth mentioning that the degree of fragility of a city against risks is evaluated with the sum of components such as pre-risk conditions, risk characteristics, and reactions to overcome the risk.

The conducted studies indicate that the components that cause urban fragility have a continuous sequence and appear continuously. The increasing growth of urbanization leads to the creation of slums. Since the slum dwellers suffer from urban poverty due to the lack of access to essential services and proper jobs, in addition to inequalities in social issues and income, there are also issues such as tension, violence, and urban conflict which is caused by inequity. Therefore, according to the statements of researchers and thinkers in the field of urban issues, urban fragility does not appear due to one factor, but a set of risks and challenges are also involved in its emergence. Also, increasing the components of the rapid growth of urbanization, informal residence, unemployment, urban violence, and facing natural disasters indicates that the mentioned components include all social, economic, and environmental dimensions. It is worth mentioning that most of the research conducted in this field has identified the social, economic, and environmental dimensions and components, and due to the emergence of the concept of urban fragility, governmental-institutional dimensions; economic, social, and political conditions of society and international relations have not been comprehensively and accurately under the feasibility studies and practical evaluation.

The findings obtained from this study indicate that cities that make investments to address the main risks will grow at an increasing speed in the future. In other words, it can be said that investments that lead to reducing violence, improving security, and increasing the capacity of authorities and citizens to prepare and respond to disasters, prevent the fragility of the city. Therefore, urban planners, policymakers, researchers, and local managers should consider policies to reduce urban fragility for achieving urban resilience in their development plans and take measures to improve and promote the fragile infrastructure and expand livelihoods.

All managers and policymakers are seeking to design and equip urban spaces to ensure vitality in the city. However, the current condition of urban spaces shows that despite the efforts made, this goal has not been achieved, encouraging a lot of research in this field. The many studies conducted in this field could not meet the needs of this sector, causing an examination of the category of vitality through new methods. The current study aimed to determine the capabilities of traditional and modern methods in determining the vitality of urban spaces and compare them in connection with several streets of Mashhad. 

This study used one modern and two traditional methods to evaluate the vitality of urban spaces. Concerning the traditional part, the common indicators for evaluating the vitality of urban spaces were initially given to 30 experts in this field to determine the condition of five selected streets in the designated areas. Field evaluations were conducted by 10 urban planners. CCTV cameras were also used in the image recording section for analysis with artificial intelligence. In this section, 20 stores with approximately 33 cameras entered the research. All street view images were analyzed using semantic segmentation models as color groups and pixels corresponding to each component. Finally, the findings were ranked and prioritized using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Linear regression was used to determine the internal correlations of environmental variables affecting the vitality of urban spaces.

This study compared the capabilities of traditional models and artificial intelligence using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and questionnaire. Finally, the linear regression capability was used to detect the internal correlation of the variables affecting the vitality of the investigated spaces. The results showed that the overall classification accuracy of the model based on activity was 86.9% for five different classes (very bad, bad, acceptable, good, and very good). In this classification, the "good" subcategory got the lowest accuracy (66.4%), which was because of the small number of selected samples. To further assess the activity-based model with higher accuracy, a random sample of 200 images was evaluated based on field surveys in the study area. According to this study, the classification accuracy in this section was 84.1% in total.In general, wide streets and areas with mixed uses were in better conditions than others concerning spatial orientation, openness, and pleasantness of the environment. Specifically, Imam Khomeini Street attracted more passers-by because of its commercial complexes, shopping centers, National Garden, etc. The situation of commercial density in Janat Street and Imam Khomeini Street was of high quality, while its transparency was low, with coefficients of 0.192 and 0.226, respectively, in the analysis of data from cameras. Except for the National Garden and a small area of green space on Jannet Street, other streets did not have equipped parks, leading to respective values of 0.218 and 0.222 for the greenery ratio for these two streets. In the meantime, the activity was at a very high level in this sector.Considering the wide range and basic differences of units and independent variables, the raw data of environmental variables were primarily standardized. After preparing and grouping the raw data into high and medium categories at different times, it was found that the width of the street and commercial density were generally related to vitality and affected it differently. It was also revealed that transparency had a great impact on the vitality of the street and was positively correlated with it. Finally, the findings of the survey made it clear that openness, greenness, and commercial density all positively affected the increase in vitality. Linear regression was used to determine the effect of each variable on vitality, determining the average values of vitality for different times and selected sections. The fit coefficient (R2) calculated for this section was 0.798. To be more precise, these five variables could explain 79.8% of changes in vitality. This model was obtained as (F=182/77, P<001), indicating that at least one characteristic ofstreet width, greenness, openness, and transparency affected vitality.In the current study used different methods, including field evaluation, survey, and images and videos, and showed the width of the street as one of the main and effective variables on the volume and variety of activities in the street. Another finding of this study was that the transparency of buildings had a great role in the diversity and increase of pedestrian activity. However, the effect of this transparency was only until its value reached 70%. Increasing transparency beyond this figure did not have an additional effect on vitality. According to the results got in this survey, the effect of green space and openness on the vitality of the street was a negative correlation type, but this relationship was not completely linear.

This study found that openness affected the vitality of the street negatively and significantly. Compared to traditional methods, using images and videos prepared in the street was more suitable for big data, leading to more accuracy and less cost and time. In the meantime, the accuracy of traditional methods is much higher in limited environments but can be obtained at the cost of time and money. These conditions become more important when with the development of smart cities, there is no other choice but to use such methods to get data in the shortest time and in the highest volume. According to the result of this study, most of the studies related to the vitality of urban spaces have been conducted through traditional methods in Iran. As stated, these methods usually require more cost and time, which means they can be used in a small volume and sequence, necessitating the use of more effective methods and techniques.

Sustainable transportation systems improve the quality of urban life, but today, excessive dependence on cars and lack of attention to walkability have caused problems in achieving sustainable development. Also, car dependency, endangers individual and social life, while the use of sustainable transportation systems improves the quality of life. Therefore, one of the sustainable transportation methods that interest urban planners and designers today is walkability. Walking is the most basic type of urban transportation, and also, it is the safest and most comfortable one. But in the last few decades, most of the cities have been car-oriented and walking has been neglected. In order to study the walkability in the cities the neighborhoods are the most important spaces. The main goal of the current research is to measure the walkability in two neighborhoods of Rasht using the walk score method. Although this method is known worldwide, very few researchers in Iran have used this method. Therefore, the innovation of the current research is the use of the walk score method to measure the walkability of Pirsara and Golsar neighborhoods of Rasht City, which are different in terms of structure, texture, and economic, cultural, and social characteristics.

Walk score is one of the practical methods of analyzing the amount of walkability that has met with great popularity in the world. It should be noted that this method is used in various fields such as urban planning, health, transportation, and real estate. The walk score algorithm is based on the distance of the residential unit to the nearest amenities. These amenities include grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, cafes, cinemas, schools, parks, libraries, bookstores, sports clubs, pharmacies, digital stores, clothing, and music stores. Scoring is based on the shortness of the distance, and the shorter the distance, the better, and receives more points. This score indicates the walkability of the neighborhood. To perform the walk score method, three categories of information including network and walkability distances, street quantitative indicators (including the number of intersections and the average length of blocks), and the score of specific group users are required.

The findings show that both Pirsara and Golsar neighborhoods of Rasht city, despite their differences in terms of age, physical structure, and socio-economic status of the residents, have good walking ability and most of the trips can be done on foot. The short distance between the blocks, high permeability, and also the presence of many retail stores in the Pirsara neighborhood have made it easy for the people of this neighborhood to access daily services on foot. The checkered and regular texture, high permeability, and the commercial edge of the main street of the Golsar neighborhood have also facilitated the access of the residents of this neighborhood to urban facilities and services. Therefore, the amount of walk score can be directly related to the environmental and physical characteristics of the neighborhoods.

The high walk score in the two mentioned neighborhoods has different origins. Due to the short distance between the blocks, Pirsara has a high level of permeability, and at the same time, the presence of scattered commercial retail shops in the texture has made it easy for the people of this neighborhood to access daily services on foot. On the other hand, the checkered and regular texture of Golsar is the reason for the high permeability of this neighborhood and the commercial edge of its main street has facilitated the residents' access. Therefore, the walk score of these neighborhoods is directly related to the environmental characteristics related to walking. On the other hand, due to the lack of separation between pedestrians and vehicle way, the lack of proper flooring and attractions along the route, the walkability of Pirsara neighborhood is lower compared to its level of Golsar neighborhood. As a result, more attention should be paid to Pirsara neighborhood compared to Golsar district.

Although the Walk Score method pays attention to important quantitative indicators such as access to attractive uses for walkability, the number of intersections, and the average length of the block, many qualitative indicators of walkability such as the quality of footpath flooring, security and safety, street lighting and legibility of the environment are disregarded.  It ignores localities. Therefore, it is necessary to use other methods of walkability evaluation besides this method in order to get favorable results.Some indicators that the walk score method does not consider are the existence of a separate walking path with flooring and curbs, the quality of the walking path when it rains, the cleanliness of the walking paths at the alleys, the lighting of the neighborhood accesses at night, the safety of walkability during the day and night, the absence of obstacles, and the legibility of the environment.

Lack of detailed study of the essence of comprehensive and structural-strategic plans and lack of nobility on the extent of their capacity in the optimal organization of the country's cities and also lack of careful attention to desirable plans such as strategic, is one of the problems that has created obstacles in the way of achieving sustainable urban development. The present article tries to use the analytical-comparative method to explain the basis and process of preparing comprehensive, strategic, and structural-strategic plans, compare these three plans and identify their positive and negative features.

The present article is basic-applied and developmental research and has considered descriptive and comparative-analytical methods to achieve its goals.

Comprehensive Plan: According to some experts, comprehensive planning is a process to determine the goals and aspirations of society in terms of community development. The plan is a comprehensive program of public policies on transportation, urban facilities, land utilization, population issues, and expansion limits. Comprehensive plans typically cover large geographical areas, specifically cities, and a wide range of topics, covering a long-term horizon. According to Article 1 Section 2 of the Law on Change of Name of the Ministry of Housing (approved on 1974/7/7) in Iran, the comprehensive plan is a long-term plan in which the land use and zoning related to residential, industrial, commercial, administrative, agricultural, and urban equipment, and the general needs of the city, general lines of communication, and the location of centers, including terminals, airports, ports, and the level for the establishment of facilities, equipment, and public facilities in the areas of modernization, improvement, and priorities related to them and the rules and regulations related to all the above, and the preservation of buildings and historical views and natural landscapes have been specified. The city’s comprehensive plan can be revised as necessary" (Ahsan, 2003, Volume 1: 58). The comprehensive plan for urban planning and design standards, developed by the American Urban Planning Association, defines as an official statement made by the authority of the local government for future development and protection. This plan sets out the goals and analyzes the current situation and trends, identifies the vision of the physical, social, and economic characteristics of the society in the coming years, and summarizes the policies and guidelines for implementing that vision" (Planning Standards, 2006: 18).  A detailed plan is prepared to follow a comprehensive plan based on the general criteria of it. This plan specifies the uses of urban lands in different neighborhoods of the city and the exact area of land, the detailed status of the transit network, the population density of a building in urban units, and priorities related to improvement and modernization areas and solving urban problems. In the detailed plan, thelocation of all different urban factors is determined, and the plans and specifications related to ownership are prepared and arranged based on registered documents” (Ahsan, 2003, Volume 1: 88 and 89), and also the general lines of the comprehensive plan converted into precise executable plans. Strategic Plan: This plan has characteristics such as flexibility, paying close attention to participation in this plan, the difference in goals, and the description of different services based on the characteristics of each location that provide a clear definition of this plan, and make it difficult. A plan that is not confined to the framework of dry and unchangeable principles is prepared and defined under the arisen problems. Despite the difficulty of defining it, the strategic plan is a plan in which critical and sensitive issues are weighed, investment priorities are identified for infrastructure, and areas of the city that need prompt attention and immediate implementation of programs are specifically studied in this type of plan. Therefore, the current and future city development and housing quality reconstruction and improvement are considered in the old areas of the city in this plan. Roberts believes that strategic planning and action go hand in hand. This type of planning does not require comprehensive information, and it can meet the city’s needs with total flexibility and effectively model urban land use (Pourmohammadi, 2003: 125). Strategic planning is used to deal with the future correctly and solve current problems and complexities (Obeng and Ugboro, 2008: p420). Strategic planning, specifically an open and participatory creative process is the basis for linking related activities to all urban stakeholders for a specific period, which focuses on critical issues, creates an integrated strategy for the city, shapes flexibility in decision-making, is pragmatically based on a new culture of urban management. Strategic planning is a systematic effort to produce the fundamental decisions and activities to shape an organization and its goals. This process requires extensive effort and, at the same time, effective data collection, development, and search for strategic alternatives, with an emphasis on future inference. Strategic-Structural Plan: The proposal to prepare a so-called structural-strategic plan for cities dates back to the mid-1990s. One of the foundations of this plan is the structural plan that was invented in England, and it is almost obsolete today. In fact, this plan - although not very faithful - was a structural plan that was combined with an incomplete understanding of the strategic plan, and the structural-strategic plan was born. Briefly, the structural-strategic plan is an attempt to prepare the physical base of the city to modify the current structure and accept future developments in the physical structure of the city during a certain period of time, by recognizing the major trends of each of the important vital aspects of the city as a whole with structure. Internal factors, elements, and relationships that are interconnected with environmental conditions. The title of structure in this pattern indicates that this type of planning deals with the city as an integral and transformable whole. As a result, first the economic, social, and physical development structures of the city should be compiled for the future and they should be matched in a structural whole. The strategic term shows that such planning is aimed at guiding and monitoring the overall system of the city through intervention in the structure and performance, and strategies for the realization of the desired structure should be provided.

The comprehensive plan is a body-centered plan that is in an effort to predict the future based on the past and a top-down evangelist and has a completely linear preparation process in which the category of evaluation is almost neglected. But the strategic plan, unlike the comprehensive plan, is a flexible plan with a comprehensive view with a completely cyclical preparation process in which the category of evaluation is one of its inseparable pillars. Structural-strategic plan, although claims to be new, is a combined plan and in other words, a mixture of three comprehensive, strategic, and structural plans. The preparation process starts with the current situation and continues with the preparation of a section called the strategic plan (which is completely separate from the whole plan) and ends with structural planning (with the most impact from the UK structural plan).  A This plan claimsto have a cyclical process, while the category of evaluation is presented in a general way and far from feasibility.

By continuing to prepare the comprehensive plan in its current or revised form, or encouraging the preparation of so-called new plans (structural-strategic plans) which in practice are nothing more than the previous traditional plans, we are not able to solve the chronic problems of the country's cities. It is necessary to prepare and implement more suitable and open plans, especially the strategic plan (after the fulfillment of preconditions).

Deliberation of generated knowledge about informal settlements leads to the identification of two critical theoretical gaps. firstly, although contextualism has entered into urban planning discussions, its place as an independent theoretical framework for explaining the development process of informal settlements seems vacant. Secondly, the theoretical literature of urbanism lacks a comprehensive framework obtained by contextual analysis of the physical development pattern of these settlements.

The study aims to analyze the context to explain the physical development of informal settlements using a contextualism perspective. In other words, this study attempts to formulate a coherent theoretical framework of the informal settlement’s physical development planning principles in a contextual interpretation.

The study used the meta-synthesis method with Sandlosky and Barros seven-step model. Firstly, 422 articles were obtained through a systematic search. Finally, 27 articles were selected for inclusion through the screening process using rayyan.ai. Then the selected papers were inductively coded using MAXQDA 2020 based on the research questions, and the next steps were devoted to analyzing and synthesizing the concepts extracted.

The extraction process led to the identification of 1092 codes. The combination process of the codes resulted in the designation of one lateral category; articles’ descriptive information, and five main categories; macro context, local context, the function of context, the response to the context, and interventionist factors. The next part of the outcomes were four sorts of principles related to the physical development of informal settlements includes; process, product, management, and regulations.

Firstly, informal settlements are a context-based phenomenon consequently, to understand the logic governing them, it is necessary to analyze the context at macro and local scales. Secondly, the development principles of informal settlements are evolving and upgrading cyclically, and continuously. Therefore, these settlements have the potential dynamics necessary to adapt incrementally to the changing needs and conditions and operate resilient, affordable, and sustainable.

Ethics is related to choice and practical judgment. Since the nature of urban planning is related to the pursuit of community interests through determining appropriate actions for the future during successive choices in complex settings and uncertain conditions, it can be said that ethical considerations are an inseparable part of it and it is inevitable to integrate the philosophy of ethics with the thoughts and professional efforts of planning. In general, addressing the ethical questions of "do's and don'ts" and examining "the nature and meaning of moral values" in planning is always urgent and necessary but challenges raised in the contemporary era, the emphasis of new theoretical positions on attention to contextual differences and conflicts in perceptions and interpretations of values and ethical principles of planning, and ultimately the dispersion and reduction of attention to the area of planning ethics in the recent decades, the necessity of reviewing and rethinking the content of research published in this area has become more prominent. The current research aims to present a comprehensive view of ethics in planning by identifying dominant themes in the literature, specifying existing research gaps, and of course introducing new paths to complete the various dimensions of planning ethics. With answering to the questions like: what are the main priorities of researchers regarding ethics in urban planning? Which subjects and issues have been neglected in the existing researches and what perspectives can be suggested for future researches in this area? This research provides a general view of ethics in planning and its changes over time.

This research is a systematic investigation of a specific subject to improve or expand knowledge, it is considered basic research that has been conducted with a qualitative approach (thematic analysis). Table 1. Methodological design in this research General stages Descriptions Outputs Review strategy Explaining the qualitative systematic review using thematic analysis The review plan  Data collection Identifying key concepts and searching for primary sources Finding 224 sources as articles, dissertations, book chapters 110 researches enter the analysis stage as a final data set. Refinement and selection of the most relevant studies Analyzing and synthesizing the dataset Descriptive analysis of research Temporal and geographical distribution and researches focus area Content analysis in five steps: Reading the full text of documents in the dataset; Selecting textual codes; Extracting basic themes; Synthesizing the basic themes and creating organizing themes; Grouping the organizing themes and generating the global themes.identifying three global themes: integration of ethical theories with planning theory, ethics in the realm of professional practice, and ethical considerations in the Academic realm. introducing potential paths for future research.

By analyzing the final data set, we have identified three global themes: integration of ethical theories with planning theory, ethics in the realm of professional practice, and ethical considerations in the academic realm.Research under the First global theme, integrating ethical theories with planning theory is qualitative and discusses the nature and role of planning based on ethical philosophy. With an extroverted approach, these works focus on normative ethical theories and seek to explain the most basic criteria of rightness and wrongness and do and don'ts in planning. Second global them, ethics in the realm of professional practice is focused on the ethical dimensions and aspects of the planning practice including Ethical attitudes of planners, the complexities of decision-making and ethical judgment in the planning process, ethics in planning techniques, and the direct application of ethical theories in practice. Research under the third global theme, ethics, and ethical considerations in the academic realm of planning is focused on teaching ethics in planning and ethics in planning research.

According to the investigations of the present research, the research focused on ethics in planning has been scattered and separated over time and their balance has decreased in different layers (Figure 5). In the 1990s, most of the themes receivedthe attention of researchers, but since the beginning of the 21st century, we have seen a decline in direct attention to this research field at various levels. Of course, a series of themes such as extracting the values of planners, investigating the nature and content of professional codes, and teaching ethics in planning have always been welcomed by researchers. The continuation of attention to these themes shows things like learning from action, determining ethical frameworks through a bottom-up process, and extracting the inner values of planning have always been emphasized by researchers. . Also, the flow of research in the last two decades shows that the context of planning and the importance and impact of contextual differences in the selection, interpretation, and teaching of ethical concepts and ideas have become more prominent.

A general review of the planning ethics literature shows that the concerns related to the ethics and values of planning are largely dominated by normative concerns. The researchers of this field, instead of exploring more deeply the "nature and meaning of ethical values and principles" (meta-ethical field) and how to identify the appropriate solution in each specific situation, focus on the normative Deontological frameworks derived from Western contexts, which put forth universal normative principles and procedures without considering the impact of context and culture on knowledge and behavior.