Urban Sustainability
Mohammad Mehdi Azizi; samaneh khosravani nezhad
Abstract
Highlights
Analysis of the pedagogical orientation of the planning discipline towards the concept of sustainable development and its position in the academic field
Orientation of the patterns of education towards sustainable development
The predominant orientation in the teaching of ...
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Highlights
Analysis of the pedagogical orientation of the planning discipline towards the concept of sustainable development and its position in the academic field
Orientation of the patterns of education towards sustainable development
The predominant orientation in the teaching of sustainability involves the provision of an independent course on sustainability and environmental concepts and inclusion of instructions on sustainability in the procedure and materials of planning courses
Consideration of the issue of sustainability can be observed formally in the sub-disciplines of urban design and regional planning as one and two optional courses, respectively, in masters studies of educational planning in Iran.
Introduction
The change in the attitude of the urban planning discipline from the growth to the sustainability paradigm resulted from the inefficiency of the discipline and profession in response to environmental concerns around the world since the second half of the twentieth century; this shifted the substantial, procedural orientation of the discipline to the latter dominant paradigm. The result of such a change in attitude in the late twentieth century was reflected worldwide in formal and informal educational planning, and different orientations towards sustainability and sustainable development took shape according to the conditions in each country.
Theoretical Framework
The fundamental question that this article seeks to answer can be raised as follows: given the position of urban planners in plans and programs where they function as specialized managers and coordinators, what is the position of sustainable development with a focus on environmental and social issues in urban planning education, and how can urban development graduates be promoted in the field to improve the quality of professional activities? The purpose of this study is to analyze the pedagogical orientation of the urban planning discipline towards the concept of sustainable development and its position in the academic field, where professionals are trained to work in the profession.
Methodology
It is directly affected by the nature of the field how an emerging idea is addressed in any knowledge. Transition from theory to practice requires the idea to go through the scientific process of education. Education that has adopted its input from research and profession conceptualizes it and transmits it to future students and professionals as educational content–involving the knowledge, skills, and value of urban planning curricula. Thus, different feedbacks can be provided to the profession given the type of acceptance and the way education deals with emerging phenomena and ideas in the field of urban planning. At the same time, there is the missing link between education and profession, which is being moved from the channel of education to profession in the transition towards sustainable development. The specific area and research gap elaborated on in this study is the number of orientation patterns of education towards sustainable development, which are specified based on the research method.
The main tool used in this fundamental qualitative descriptive-analytical method is content analysis, enabled through the capabilities of the SPSS software.
Results and Discussion
The results of the authors’ surveys at 128 universities in 9 different countries demonstrated that the predominant orientation in the teaching of sustainability is to provide an independent course on sustainability and environmental concepts and to teach sustainability in the procedure and materials of urban planning courses. The results can be observed in the case of Iran, as a developing country that strives to move towards sustainability, contrary to the direction taken in the profession corresponding to the discipline. In Iran, the only independent course on sustainability is that entitled Sustainable Urban Development, which is an optional course presented in two theoretical credits. Among all the universities with doctorate programs in urban planning, however, this course is taught only at two, namely the University of Tehran and Tehran University of Art. For a master’s degree in urban planning, on the other hand, it is included in different sub-disciplines of the curricula. Although courses with environmental content and topics are offered in all sub-disciplines, consideration of the issue of sustainability can be observed formally in urban design and regional planning as one and two optional courses, respectively.
Conclusion
The current trend will practically slow down the process of replacing the growth paradigm with the sustainability paradigm and bring about wide gaps therein. However, the proper orientation adopted in the discipline in recent years in regard to education of sustainability and sustainable development conveys the message that the gap will be reduced greatly in the future. This means that the appropriate orientation of the discipline (in education and research) is also reflected in the profession to help responds to the requirements of the field in the right direction. This is especially important in the training of graduates who will be developing plans and programs in the future. Education of sustainability and sustainable development, one of the criteria examined in the Green Metric ranking system, can be considered as a focus of future applied research and as a step forward in its achievement.
Urban Planning
Mohammad Mehdi Azizi; Bahare Bahra
Abstract
Highlights In the process of urban regeneration, the establishment and strengthening of decision-making should be through evaluation. The article has tried to achieve a generalizable structure for evaluation after the implementation of flagship development at neighborhood scale. In flagship development ...
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Highlights In the process of urban regeneration, the establishment and strengthening of decision-making should be through evaluation. The article has tried to achieve a generalizable structure for evaluation after the implementation of flagship development at neighborhood scale. In flagship development at the scale of neighborhood, more important notice should be given to the residential parameter. Introduction. Urban development through development of internal neighborhoods is an attempt to restore urban life to the deteriorated areas of cities. In order to facilitate this process, planning and implementation of flagship development has been considered as one of the policies used for urban neighborhood regeneration and provision of the requirements for the residents’ presence and concern for different dimensions of development.Regeneration of the historical and deteriorated areas in cities has been addressed in the recent literature on urban planning worldwide. Inefficiency is a major problem in historical and deteriorated urban areas, where automatic update and change is no longer possible.As in many other countries, the current process of extension of deteriorated urban areas in Iran indicates that problems will be complicated if no precautionary measures are taken, and no appropriate policies or operating plans are adopted.Implementation of flagship development has been considered as a solution.A main purpose of flagship development is to help achieve urban regeneration goals, an approach taken up as a comprehensive strategy for making positive changes in a place with signs of deterioration. This strategy is aimed at quality improvement, with integrated economic, social, and physical goals. Flagship development is applied in order to improve a place that is in the process of decaying and deteriorating, and its advocatesare agreed that an urban area will not achieve regeneration without such projects, since it causes a series of reactions that will lead to regeneration of the urban fabric. On the other hand, it is not the case that we hope to achieve development over a vast urban area simply by relying on this project, as many projects all around the world have failed to achieve their main purpose, i.e. to regenerate a decaying fabric. Theoretical Framework. Evaluation is possible throughout the urban regeneration process, from the stage of problem identification to the implementation of projects and the review of the decision-making process. Through presentation of mobility and development indicators, therefore, the present study has developed into an appropriate, generalizable structure for assessment of the impact of flagship development and catalyst projects after implementation at the neighborhood scale. It evaluates the effects of an example of these projects in the Gowdal Mosalla neighborhood in the historical city of Yazd, Iran. The theoretical framework of the research involves three main parameters based on the overall literature and practical experience: the physical parameter, the residential parameter, and the activity parameter. The activity parameter includes the indicators of dependency burden, percentage of active population, percentage of commercial use, active commercial use, employment rate, and men’s rate of immigration. The physical parameter includes the indicators of access to infrastructure, access to parking space, population density, residential renovation, percentage of non-arid land, sustainable buildings, new buildings, percentage of administrative use. The residential parameter includes the indicators of percentage of indigenous population, percentage of tenancy, active housing, single-family housing, home access to primary schools, access to local parks, access to sports venues, youth population, number of students, level of education, and coefficient of residence. Methodology. A research method based on the quantitative methodology, regression analysis was used in this study to analyze the effects of each indicator on each factor, and the matrix of impact assessment, known as Leopold Matrix, was used for evaluation after the implementation of the flagship development and the neighborhood regeneration. The final results were obtained after 25 evaluation indicators pertaining to urban regeneration and flagship development were extracted from the established overall literature and practical experience, and secondary data on 93 urban blocks of the Gowdal Mosalla neighborhood were analyzed in SPSS 21. Results and Discussion. The research findings demonstrate that the project performed at the Faculty of Arts and Architecture of Yazd has the greatest effects on the physical parameter, followed by the residential parameter and, eventually, the activity parameter at the scale of the Gowdal Mosalla neighborhood, and it can be approved as a positive flagship development through provision of modification options. The results indicate the closest relationships between the indicator of native quality and the residential status of the fabric, between the indicator of access to services and the status of the residential environment, and between the indicators of population at the age of activity and percentage of commercial land use and the activity and economic status of the neighborhood. Population density, administrative level, and the stability of buildings affect the mobility and physical development of the neighborhood. Conclusion. In future planning, it is necessary to consider indicators that focus on improvement of the residential parameter, especially through consolidation of the existing indigenous population and absorption of the young population. Moreover, the extracted theoretical framework will be effective for planning flagship developments and evaluating them in future practice and research.
Urban Planning
mohammad mehdi Azizi; Reza Asadi
Abstract
Large shopping malls have been a popular phenomenon in recent urban development plans and projects in many developed and developing countries. In Tehran, the capital of Iran, these projects have been largely noted and developed in recent years. This phenomenon can have major effects in various aspects ...
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Large shopping malls have been a popular phenomenon in recent urban development plans and projects in many developed and developing countries. In Tehran, the capital of Iran, these projects have been largely noted and developed in recent years. This phenomenon can have major effects in various aspects that need to be recognized, analyzed and evaluated. One of the aspects of these projects is their morphology in terms of their scale, position and role in urban development (community or regional shopping malls). This paper aims to find the criteria and indicators for classifying these shopping malls. The main questions of the research for Tehran shopping malls are: “Which variables are appropriate to classify shopping malls in Tehran?” “How suitable are these variables to be used in shopping malls of the city?” “If shopping malls in Tehran cannot be classified in any global categories, what are the reasons? One of the well-known shopping malls constructed recently in Tehran is “Korush Shopping Mall”, located in the western part of the city, District 5, which was selected as the case study of this research. The related literature and experiences were reviewed to analyze physical, economic, management, and ownership aspects as well as the limitations of the project. Various criteria, variables and indicators were used for evaluation of data collected using questionnaire and field research. Among these are travel time and distance, shopping mall site and land area, types of commodities, employment opportunities for local residents, shops’ ownership, aims of shopping for consumers, and the extent of entertainment facilities. Classification of the case study was done according to indexes and variables. Two data sources were used to analyze the variables: first, data collected from the site and features of the shopping mall; second, data collected from 380 surveys filled out by consumers. The results showed that Korush Shopping Mall could not be classified into any specific type of shopping mall in the literature review and the global categories. It has various features from each type so it could not belong to any type of shopping malls, especially community or regional shopping malls. Specialized goods, the number of retail shops, tenants, and limited site area are the main factors in categorizing shopping malls, but Korush Shopping Mall lacks these features. One of the major results of the research was that most people visiting this shopping center aim for entertainment rather that shopping. The main reason for this is that most items in the shops are products of famous brands and their prices are much higher than what low and middle class people can afford. Furthermore, based on the results, the law and guidelines related to the construction of retail markets in the Master and Detailed Plan of Tehran are among the main reasons. There are not any special rules for shopping malls, an issue which allows for lots of mixed variable in any shopping center in Tehran. Although the area of regional shopping malls should be at least 4ha, the regulations in the Master Plan of Tehran clearly mention that 1 ha site area is suitable for retail centers on the city scale. As a final note, it can be claimed that shopping centers, such as Korush Shopping Mall in Tehran must be planned and constructed based on their roles, sizes and locations. It is thus recommended to conduct feasibility studies for their aims and effects in advance.
