Evaluation of vital drivers affecting urban development based on the view of new urbanism in metropolises of Iran (Case study: Tabriz metropolis)

Subject Areas : Regional Planning

Massome Ghasemi ¹ , Mohammad Hassan Yazdani ^{2 *} , Alireza Mohammadi ³ , Rasoul Ghorbani ⁴

1 - PhD Student, Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran
2 - Professor, Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran
3 - Professor, Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran
4 - Professor, Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Faculty of Planning and Environmental Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

Received: 2021-07-25 Accepted : 2022-01-10 Published : 2022-10-04

Keywords: urban development, new urbanism, Tabriz Metropolis, vital drivers,

Abstract :

Over the past 20 years, new urbanism has become one of the most prominent urban design movements in the United States. Others have found that neo-urbanism is potentially the most influential architectural movement in the United States in the post-Cold War era. New urbanism has emerged as a new approach to urban design and planning in its critique of contemporary urban planning, which has a scattered, inhuman, and mechanistic pattern. The goal of neo-urbanism is to create a suitable environment on a human scale that is responsive to modern urban developments and developments in line with the goals of sustainable development. The rapid growth of the city of Tabriz in recent years has created many needs in neighborhoods and urban textures and the creation of new textures, including marginal textures. Existence of worn-out and suburban textures and the influence of traditional and modernist ideas and stereotyped imitations in preparing urban development plans and creating new urban textures have caused many problems in Tabriz that these problems can be considered as the most important reasons for unsustainable development of Tabriz. In this regard, considering that the new urbanism approach is one of the most important examples of sustainable urban development, we have tried to identify the effective factors in urban development based on this view and introduce vital drivers among them. To this end, with an applied-development approach using common methods in futures studies, including the Delphi method and cross-sectional analysis method, and using MICMAC software, among the 41 effective factors identified by the Delphi group, 15 factors as vital drivers of urban development of Tabriz was discovered based on the view of new urbanism.

Extended Abstract

 

Introduction

Cities will face many challenges in the future due to their dual role in creating environmental tensions and shifting towards sustainable development in order to balance the city and nature to sustain life on Earth; Increasing population in cities and the establishment of various services and facilities in them is one of the main challenges of today; Therefore, paying attention to different dimensions of urban development and designing a suitable development plan for today's cities has become doubly important. ). Now the question is, what should a physically sustainable city look like? Most of the features mentioned in various researches for a stable physical form can be found in the model of new urbanism. The main goal of modern urban planning is to change the environments created in order to cultivate a different way of life.The rapid growth of the city of Tabriz in recent years has created many needs in neighborhoods and urban textures and the creation of new textures, including marginal textures. The existence of worn-out and marginal textures of the city and the influence of traditional and modernist ideas and stereotyped imitations in preparing urban development plans and creating new urban textures have caused many problems in the city of Tabriz. On the other hand, the existence of such problems and the importance of using futures research methods to outline urban development perspectives prove the need for future-oriented urban development research based on new theories of urban planning based on sustainable development and return to traditions and revitalization.

 

Methodology

This research is part of applied-developmental research in terms of type and exploratory research in terms of method. Due to the exploratory nature of the research, it is not possible to achieve relationships and identify effective variables in the phenomena before doing so, so the research process generally consists of two stages; Identifying the effective factors in the development of the city from the perspective of New-urbanism consists of identifying vital and effective drivers.Data collection in this research has been done in two forms: library and questionnaire. Due to the use of futures research methods, the most important research tools were interviews and questionnaires. Expert-centered methods (Delphi method), futures-based methods such as cross-impact analysis (CIB) and GIS software are used to analyze and display the information to describe and display the study area.

 

Results and Discussion

Due to the nature of the research method, this article consists of two general stages. In the first stage, the factors affecting the urban development of Tabriz have been estimated and studied based on the neo-urbanism approach. Also, with a systematic and structural view, it has been tried to analyze all the factors involved in the urban development of Tabriz based on the neo-urbanism approach and to extract the key factors and drivers that are the most important factors, using the relationships created between these factors. In the next step, to achieve this, first using the Delphi method and analyzing the factors extracted in MICMAC software, the relationship between the factors involved in the urban development of Tabriz based on the New-urbanism approach is analyzed and finally the key factors are extracted.

 

Conclusion

In this article, in order to determine the vital drivers of urban development based on the view of neo-urbanism, first using common methods in the future, including the Delphi method, effective factors in this matter, after holding several meetings of expert groups and conducting interviews and completing the effective factors questionnaire. Next, the relationships between the variables were analyzed using the cross-section analysis method and using the Delphi group's opinions. Finally, using the Mig Mac software, the effects of the variables were displayed in the form of impact-effectiveness diagrams. Finally, 15 factors out of 41 factors were studied as follows, have been selected as vital drivers: Thinking in planning, Mix Uses, Neighborhood Center, Suburbanization, Dense Development, Continuous Traffic Network, Public and diverse transportation, urban governance, public and social spaces, protection of natural features, citizen participation in the development plan, neighborhood-centered, economic health, diversity of housing and attractiveness of sidewalks. The reason for choosing these criteria is based on the opinions of the Delphi Group in the conditions of Tabriz city development. Carefully in the situation of Tabriz city in relation to these mentioned drivers, it can be concluded that in designing future development scenarios of Tabriz city, considering these factors and providing appropriate guidelines can pave the way for sustainable development of this city in the coming years.

 

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