Structural analysis of smart growth indicators to indentify key stimulator with a foresight approach (Sari city case study)

Subject Areas : Urban and Regional Planning Studies

Saeed  Ezoji ¹ (Student)
Kia  Bozorgmehr ² (Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Islamic Azad University, Chalous Branch, Iran)
Ameneh  haghzad ³ (Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Islamic Azad University, Chalous Branch, Iran)
Leila  Ebrahimi ⁴ (Department of Geography, Chalus Branch, Islamic Azad University, Chalus, Iran)

Received: 2022-12-17 Accepted : 2023-06-06 Published : 2024-05-21

Keywords: Foresight, Structural analysis, Smart Growth, MICMAC, City of Sari,

Abstract :

AbstractIntroduction Cities are more prone to human activity than any other place. A key function in smart growth of cities considering population growth and lack of infrastructure and land availability is to take care of physical expansion in order to respond to current needs and predict future needs of cities. Methodology This article is descriptive-analytical in terms of methodology and practical in terms of targeting. In the preparation of smart growth indicators, theoretical data has been prepared with documentary method and experimental data with survey method based on Delphi technique. The statistical population of 20 academic and research experts and specialists in the urban area has been selected by purposeful sampling. In processing the data MICMAC software was employed for structural mutual effects analysis.Geographical area of researchThe geographical realm of the study was the city of Sari. Results and discussion Fifty initial stimulators were classified into five smart growth dimensions (economic, social-cultural, bodily-spatial, environmental and access) and analyzed by using MICMAC. Results showed a matrix filling of 96.88% which indicates the strong effect of the selected factors on one another and that the whole system is in unstable condition so that most of the stimulators lie within bi-dimensional stimulators.Conclusion Twelve key stimulators: Planning policies for increasing density, revising of urban plans and making them more flexible, expansion of local management units, appropriate distribution of equipment and amenities, persuading citizens and stakeholders to take part in planning and decision making, development of neighborhoods with various functions, creating dense neighboring units, equal distribution of financial sources and loads, integrated mapping of regions, emphasizing adjacency of compatible uses, fair distribution of services in neighborhoods and using abandoned urban lands and lots. These make seven bodily-spatial, two social-cultural, two access stimulators and one effective stimulator that affects the future status of Sari.