Urban Planning
Mostafa Dehghani; Gholamreza Haghighat Naeini; Esfandiar Zebardast
Abstract
Highlights
- The expression knowledge city has been considered as an umbrella term for other phrases such as place of knowledge, city of learning, and smart city.
- Knowledge-based spaces have shifted from a focus on the limited concept of science and technology to an emphasis on the broader social ...
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Highlights
- The expression knowledge city has been considered as an umbrella term for other phrases such as place of knowledge, city of learning, and smart city.
- Knowledge-based spaces have shifted from a focus on the limited concept of science and technology to an emphasis on the broader social concept of knowledge.
- The current model for planning knowledge-based spaces involves capacity-building for long-term learning and political and cultural influence.
- Knowledge-based spaces range from technology-oriented to knowledge-oriented and from non-spatial to spatial.
Introduction
Different types of concept have been formed gradually under the title of knowledge-based spaces with different goals and functions due to the need to use effective, open, participatory innovative solutions and employ ICT capabilities to create sustainable life in cities and respond to the wills and needs of citizens. An understanding of the dimensions and characteristics and a capability of differentiating these concepts will help policymakers and city managers to choose strategies and policies and invest in these areas. This is realized through prevention of mental confusion, emergence of internal contradictions, and incoherent eclecticism of the concepts. On the other hand, the sustainable development of cities has been challenged by global trends such as the increasing urbanization, transformation of cities into places of mass-energy consumption, and production of various environmental pollutants. However, there has been an increase in the need to use effective, open, participatory innovative solutions to create sustainable life in cities and the concern for knowledge-based spaces as a result of the efforts made by cities to attract skilled, entrepreneurial, creative people.
Theoretical Framework
The existence of different concepts concerning knowledge-based spaces, such as digital city, information city, smart city, wired city, learning city, and knowledge city has led to confusion in attempts to distinguish their meanings. This conceptual confusion is due to the lack of understanding of the dimensions, characteristics, and instances of these concepts, and is a major obstacle against the efforts to persuade policy-makers and city managers to invest in these areas. This ambiguity causes planning strategies and policies to be inconsistent with the institutional environment and governance system or strategies and policies to be fraught with internal contradictions and incoherent eclecticism. In the attempts to address this issue, typology and comparative studies based on specific criteria and components contribute greatly to a better understanding of different types of knowledge-based space. So far, various types of knowledge-based space have been proposed (Castells & Hall, 1994; Dodge et al., 1998; Shiud, 2001; Nam & Pardo, 2011; Nikina et al., 2016; Carvalho et al.; Wenden, 2017; and Lara et al., 2016). Moreover, some researchers have compared two or more knowledge spaces (either directly or implicitly) (Strategy, 2012; Jojaru & Peso, 2013; Yigitjanlar & Lee, 2014; Koch, 2017; Chang et al., 2018; and Yigitjanlar & Inkinen, 2019). However, no integrated comparative study has been performed so far for all concepts of knowledge-based spaces to provide a clear, comprehensive image and a deep, coherent understanding of these spaces. Therefore, the present study seeks to develop a coherent framework to provide a new typology for a better understanding of the types of knowledge-based space. Thus, the aspects and features of distinguishing concepts, trends, and paradigm shifts in knowledge-based spaces become apparent through identification and classification of the main sources pertaining to each space and examination of the definitions and the process of formation and conceptual evolution of each concept and feature and the dimensions and instances thereof.
Methodology
The present meta-combined systematic qualitative review is conducted to pursue a descriptive-exploratory purpose. In addition to creating a new theory, meta-composition can be used to develop conceptual models or expand understanding of existing knowledge, especially to discover similarities and differences concerning concepts and ideas about a phenomenon. It can involve seven steps, including examination of research questions, systematic review of texts, exploration and selection of appropriate texts, extraction of textual information, analysis and composition of qualitative findings, and quality control and presentation. In the present study, the seven stages proposed by Sandlowski and Barroso (2007) are considered.
Results and Discussion
This study comparatively examines the concepts of knowledge-based spaces based on the six components of development discourse, type of knowledge required for development, location, key stakeholders, management model, and historical period. Moreover, the typology of knowledge-based spaces is based on the two components of spatiality and type of knowledge required for development. Accordingly, four types of knowledge space are identified: 1- technology-based non-spatial, 2- technology-based spatial, 3- knowledge-based non-spatial, and 4- knowledge-based spatial. The research findings demonstrate that concepts such as smart city and knowledge city (due to semantic inclusion) have largely replaced concepts such as digital city and virtual city, and are currently used more widely in policy-making and planning knowledge-based spaces.
Conclusion
The expression knowledge city has been considered as an umbrella term for other phrases such as knowledge place, learning city, and smart city. Moreover, the findings of the present comparative study of knowledge-based spaces based on the above seven components indicate that that knowledge-based spaces have gone through paradigm changes over time, such as the transition from a focus on the limited concept of science and technology to an emphasis on the broader social concept of knowledge, the transition from the discourse of economic development to sustainable, integrated development in various economic, social, environmental, and institutional dimensions, the transition from citizens’ passive role to their active participation in the creation, development, and management of knowledge-based spaces, the transition from government and centralized management of a limited number of stakeholders with specific guidelines and frameworks to government of networks based on the interaction of a wide range of stakeholders, the transition from a hardware, capital-based perspective involving tangible infrastructure networks to a software perspective based on intangible intellectual capital and knowledge innovation systems, and the transition from management and planning models aimed at increasing livability standards and complexity management to citizen engagement grounding and capacity-building for long-term learning and political and cultural influence. These trends and paradigm shifts represent a kind of conceptual convergence among the features and components of knowledge-based spaces. In addition, the results demonstrate that the typology of knowledge-based spaces is based on the two components of location and type of knowledge required for development, given the significant roles of these components in the differentiation of various knowledge spaces,–calling for a deeper, more expressive understanding of these spaces.
Urban Planning
Mohammad Masoud; Shirzad Yazdani; Mostafa Behzadfar
Abstract
Iran’s urban planning system has undergone many changes in recent decades. An issue that has had a significant impact on the development of Iranian cities has been that of building density in urban development plans. In order to address the issue, the present article was aimed at specifying the ...
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Iran’s urban planning system has undergone many changes in recent decades. An issue that has had a significant impact on the development of Iranian cities has been that of building density in urban development plans. In order to address the issue, the present article was aimed at specifying the density of residential buildings in comprehensive plans of Iran’s provincial capitals since the preparation of the first plan so far and providing a typology thereof and explaining its features. This original descriptive-analytical article adopted a documentary data collection method with direct reference to access the data, analyzed simply through description of the relationships between them. The findings indicated that five different types of residential building density specification method could be identified: Traditional Method (with three subtypes: Reduction, Incremental, and Three-Level), Floating Method, Strategic-Structural Method, Combined Method, and Other Methods. On that basis, a historical trend was identified in the proposed typology, where each type or subtype in a certain period of the timeline has the greatest impact in specification of the density of residential buildings in cities. Moreover, the study of the historical evolution of such types demonstrated that laws approved by the upper hand and regulations concerning the issue of building density have functioned as turning points for application of these methods in Iran’s comprehensive urban plans. The adoption of the Regulations for Increasing Density and High-Rise Buildings by the Iranian Supreme Council of Architecture and Urban Planning in 1990 turned the inverse relationship between the two variables of parcel size and building density into a direct relationship. This resulted in the development of open spaces and increase in building density in the municipal rules and regulations for construction and urban planning, considered particularly in the theoretical foundations and development patterns in plans. Another important factor in the shift from traditional to three-tier subtypes was the Rules and Regulations for Cities’ Residential Zoning to Apartment Complexes, Multi-households, and Single Units to Preserve Neighborhood Rights in Residential Units, ratified in 1992. Along with the earlier regulations, these induced a lasting change in the approach adopted in the plan to the issue of specifying building density. This approach causes the increase in the density of buildings to be conditioned upon increase in outdoor space, decrease in the level of residential infrastructure, avoidance of segregation, and observance of neighborhood rights through provision of light and sun and avoidance of overlook. Another influential factor that has led to the creation of a strategic-structural type involves the (Comprehensive) Strategic-Structural Plan of the city of Tehran, ratified in 2007, which was followed by nearly all the subsequent plans. Finally, the comprehensive plans of Tehran in 1969, 1991, and 2007 have played an important role in specification of density in other plans, where the widespread zoning of building density began from the comprehensive plan of Tehran ratified in 1969. In general, the study of density specification experiences in provincial capitals can provide urban planners and designers with guidelines for specification of the density of residential buildings. Thus, they can pathologize the existing methods and provide optimal density specification methods based on the requirements of each city and the internal and external advantages, so as to achieve the correct forecast in the use of resources, lands, natural environments, and infrastructures according to population capacity and upper-hand rules.
Regional Planning
Fardis Salarian; Hashem Dadashpoor
Abstract
Residential constructions with or even without plan have led to the expansion of cities and their peripheral areas into the agricultural lands of central city-region of Mazandaran province. The economic capacity of this region is based on the capacity of agricultural development. To preserve ...
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Residential constructions with or even without plan have led to the expansion of cities and their peripheral areas into the agricultural lands of central city-region of Mazandaran province. The economic capacity of this region is based on the capacity of agricultural development. To preserve the national capital, a specific plan should be adopted to prevent the increasing destruction of the lands and the development of the buildings constructed on these lands. The current capacity has already been completely forgotten and undergone changes or even widespread degradation due to the development of the land and housing market. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the typology of spatial patterns of sprawl in central city-region of Mazandaran province. The research method is quantitative and the main data is summarized in terms of demographic and physical-spatial components to achieve the research objectives.The annual data on the population of rural and urban areas in the Statistical Yearbooks of Mazandaran Province from 1986 to 2016 was consulted to obtain demographic data. Physical-spatial data includes the data related to built-up lands during 1986-2016 (based on Landsat images and 1:25000 map of Mazandaran province development) and construction density in the study period. Other data was obtained from statistical and mathematical processing of demographic and physical-spatial data using GIS, ESRI, and the urban growth model. Then, the Kriging Estimator was used for the typology of macro-scale spatial models. Also, the urban growth form (UGF) was used for micro-scale spatial patterns. This model can identify 3 main types of sprawl, including linear, infill and leap-frog patterns, based on the development process perspective.The results of the research indicate that urban sprawl has increased on the macro scale during the studied period. In this sense, the spatial pattern in 1986 was focused on only three main urban centers with a sprawl in their peripheral lands, especially in the city of Sari. However, in 1996, due to the transformation of some rural centers into urban areas and the trend of development in the lands around urban centers, concentration in Babol increased, but only some parts of the lands of Babol and Qaemshahr underwent the sprawl phenomenon. This was the case up to 2006, but in 2016, along with the concentration of development in urban, peri-urban and rural lands, the sprawl phenomenon intensified with increasing values of the related variables.On the other hand, spatial patterns of sprawl from 1986 to 1996 (including intervals of 1986-1996 and 1996-2006) were linear on a micro scale, a line with an upward trend due to the development around the boundaries of urban settlements (peri-urban lands). However, in the period from 1986 to 1996, sprawled development tended to have an infill pattern, indicating the emergence of a combination of linear and infill patterns. In the period from 2006 to 2016, the spatial pattern of growth was also an infilled one. It should be noted that, in a separate study of urban and rural settlements of the studied city-region, different results were observed in urban lands. Thus, it can be concluded that the sprawl pattern in urban lands often follows a dispersed and linear pattern, while rural settlements have a linear and infill pattern. The sprawl pattern in the central city-region of Mazandaran has evolved as a result of the development of rural lands.Residential constructions with or even without plan have led to the expansion of cities and their peripheral areas into the agricultural lands of central city-region of Mazandaran province. The economic capacity of this region is based on the capacity of agricultural development. To preserve the national capital, a specific plan should be adopted to prevent the increasing destruction of the lands and the development of the buildings constructed on these lands. The current capacity has already been completely forgotten and undergone changes or even widespread degradation due to the development of the land and housing market. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the typology of spatial patterns of sprawl in central city-region of Mazandaran province. The research method is quantitative and the main data is summarized in terms of demographic and physical-spatial components to achieve the research objectives.
