Urban Economy
Bakhtiar Javaheri; Salah ebrahimi
Abstract
Highlights- Iran has been going through one of the fastest-growing urbanization processes in the world, where about 75% of the population lives in urban areas today.- The variation in urbanization rate in the provinces of Iran has fluctuated from about 48% to 95%.- Agriculture and industrialization are ...
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Highlights- Iran has been going through one of the fastest-growing urbanization processes in the world, where about 75% of the population lives in urban areas today.- The variation in urbanization rate in the provinces of Iran has fluctuated from about 48% to 95%.- Agriculture and industrialization are the most important variables explaining urbanization in Iran. IntroductionIn the recent decades, the proportion of the world’s urban population has increased. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the proportion of the world’s population residing in urban areas has risen from about 14 percent in 1901 to about 50 percent in 2000. The rapid growth of urbanization in the world began after the Industrial Revolution in European countries, and was then observed in developed and developing countries. In Iran, the process of urbanization and urban population growth was faster than in developing countries. During a period of about 50 years (1970-2020), the urban population in Iran grew by about 37%. There are a wide range of factors and reasons for explanation of the rapid urbanization in Iran. A reason for the growth of urbanization in Iran is the migration of rural population to urban areas, which has resulted from industrial policies, agricultural sector growth, wage gap between urban and rural areas, and employment opportunities in services and industry in urban areas.Theoretical FrameworkUrbanization began during the Industrial Revolution, and the term is used to refer to the growing number of people living in urban areas. It is not simply about an increase in the number of urban dwellers, but also about a change in the structure from rural to urban in terms of industry, employment, living conditions, and public social services. On the other hand, urbanization refers to the process of population expansion on urban scale, and includes economic, social, and geographic changes. Rapid urbanization is one of the most prominent features of global development today. In general, urbanization can be defined as a process of transition from a dominant world of rural and agricultural activities to a dominant urban world based on non-agricultural activities. Depending on their orientations, social scientists point out different explanations for the existence of cities. Developments in industry, agriculture, and services provide the main explanations for the rate of urbanization in the literature on urban economics. Moreover, wage differences between urban and rural areas, the general rate of prices in urban areas, and educational expenditures have been factors affecting the rate of urbanization in theoretical and experimental studies.MethodologyIn this study, the spatial econometric approach was used for analysis of the model. Spatial econometrics is a subfield of econometrics that deals with the interactions between geographic units. Units can include postal code, city, municipality, district, province, government, judiciary, country, etc., depending on the nature of the study. Spatial econometric models can also be used to explain the behavior of economic agents and other geographic entities, such as individuals, companies, and governments, if they are interconnected through a network. Given the advantages of the spatial econometric method, this study aimed to investigate the effects of factors affecting urbanization in thirty provinces of Iran during the 2006-2017 period using a spatial econometric panel data method.Results and DiscussionIn this study, the Eviews and Stata software was used for analysis of the data. The results of the stationary test indicated that the model variables were stationary. Based on the Moran test results, there was a positive spatial autocorrelation in the study data. Other results also confirmed the the spatial Durbin model compared with other models. The results of the Chow and Hausman test also confirmed the superiority of the panel data to the pool data and of the fixed effects to the random effects. Other results demonstrated that the added value of agriculture, industry, and service had significant positive effects on the rate of urbanization in each province and the neighboring provinces. These results indicated that the development of the agricultural sector and the use of new technologies, and thus the increase in the productivity of the agricultural sector, led to the release of part of the labor force working in the agricultural sector in rural areas and their transfer to urban areas and employment in the service sector. The higher wage rates in the service and industry sectors also functions as a recruitment factor, attracting the liberated labor force from the rural sector to the urban sector, which was also demonstrated in this study. In contrast, the increase in the price index of the urban sector, which increased the costs of migration from rural to urban areas, could function as a repellent factor with adverse effects on migration from urban to rural areas. This was similar to the increase in the area of agricultural land in rural areas, which could hinder or delay the transfer of rural population to urban areas. Another factor that played a key role in urban-to-rural migration was the rural unemployment rate, which could encourage the unemployed to migrate to urban areas.ConclusionThe results of this research demonstrated that the variation in urbanization rate cannot be analyzed in one dimension, and a set of factors effective in the process of urbanization development in Iran need to be considered in the analysis, including a range of economic and geographic factors. In recent years, the focus on cities and regions has been resumed, but this focus on the role of cities and regions does not necessarily resemble the prevailing belief in the early twentieth century that the benefits of aggregation are driving growth in large cities and rich countries. Today, the driving forces of urbanization are different in different countries and even different regions of a country. The results of this study demonstrate that the Iranian economy needs a planned urbanization with a powerful policy for development of the agricultural and industrial sectors for the overall development of urbanization in Iran. Another proposal is to set the government as the main policymaker. In the first place, the government, the most important player in the society, must adhere to the rules in which it plays an important role. Secondly, the government’s policy orientation must be clear to all economic actors.
Urban Design
Abstract
Urban design involves the arrangement and design of buildings, public spaces, transport systems, services, and amenities. It is the process of giving form, shape, and character to groups of buildings, neighborhoods, and the city in whole. Urban design is about making connections between people and ...
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Urban design involves the arrangement and design of buildings, public spaces, transport systems, services, and amenities. It is the process of giving form, shape, and character to groups of buildings, neighborhoods, and the city in whole. Urban design is about making connections between people and places, movement and urban form, nature and the built fabric. It draws together the many strands of place-making, environmental stewardship, social equity and economic viability to create places with distinct beauty and identity. On the other hand, implementation tools offer different mechanisms for the delivery of quality urban design outcomes, and are used by a range of professionals to manage, motivate and organize urban design projects. While being disparate, these tools focus on the means of building quality urban design projects. Implementation can therefore be considered throughout all stages of an urban design project. A number of these tools focus on discussing and resolving design issues before the execution of a project. They can help clear roadblocks in the design process, provide collaborative management structures, and develop creative design solutions. Also, project implementation (or project execution) is the phase where visions and plans become reality. This is the logical conclusion after evaluating, deciding, visioning, planning, applying for funds and finding the financial resources of a project. After careful planning of the project, one will be ready to start the project implementation phase, the third phase in the project management life cycle. The implementation phase involves putting the project plan into action. It is here that the project manager will coordinate and direct project resources to meet the objectives of the project plan. As the project unfolds, it is the project manager’s job to direct and manage each activity, every step of the way. That is what happens in the implementation phase of the project life cycle: you follow the plan you have put together and handle any problems that comes up. The implementation phase is where you and your project team actually do the project work to produce the deliverables. The word “deliverable” means anything your project delivers. The deliverables for your project include all the products or services that you and your team are producing/performing for the client, customer, or sponsor, including all the project management documents that you put together. Along with the rapid growth of urbanization and the formation of urban development plans, urban design experts try to improve the quality of the environment. However, the field of urban design is a young and emerging field in the world, especially in Iran where it is considered as a fledgling discipline. The findings show that, in the current situation of Iran, the power-related criteria (political, administrative, economic and knowledge) attract the highest attention and the criteria related to dialogue, participation and interaction (public participation, legal interaction) are with the lowest levels of attention. An interactive model based on a reasonable balance between top-down and bottom-up approaches, drawing from Foucault’s theory of power and Habermas’s theory of communicative action, is suggested to better realize urban design projects in Iran.
Urban Planning
Keramattolah ziari; mahsa haji; asad moradi
Volume 4, Issue 15 , August 2015, , Pages 37-52
Abstract
Although the rate of urbanization in developed countries remains in a suitable position and is under control, the continued rapid growth of urbanization in developing countries (such as Iran) is quite evident. This issue of providing shelter and adequate housing in the country has turned into a ...
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Although the rate of urbanization in developed countries remains in a suitable position and is under control, the continued rapid growth of urbanization in developing countries (such as Iran) is quite evident. This issue of providing shelter and adequate housing in the country has turned into a serious crisis and has global-scale problems. Housing has an important role in satisfaction of the the physical, emotional and social needs of people. In addition, housing can serve to promote social justice and reduce the relative gap between different social classes. Moreover, it has an important role in economic solidity and social constancy of community and national development. The qualitative and quantitative indicators of housing are one of the key measurement tools for development in of countries. Although worldwide the analysis of housing indicators and the their role are very important, they are not used in codification of housing policy in Iran. Therefor policy and decision-makers have no knowledge of housing indicators`in decision making and their impact on residents. The goal of this research is a comprehensive recognition of housing conditions in the urban areas of Iran and the transition process of quantitative and qualitative indicators of housing in Kurdistan Province and the city of Marivan will be assessed comparatively in the period 1966 – 2011. . The research method used was analytic – descriptive and based on analysis of secondary data. The results of this research show that quantitative indicators of housing desirably proceeded from 1966 to 2011. Although the scope of the study in terms of housing and household density of residential units have had relatively favorable conditions, there is a distance in reaching the desirable conditions in other quantitative indicators (household members per room and residential unit). Furthermore, qualitative indicators of housing have come a long way from 45 years ago, but some housing units in urban areas are made from semi-durable and non-durable materials. Most housing units in urban areas of the country have exhausted their habitability and are in need of modernization and improvement. In terms of occupation, the property in urban areas of the country had an upward trend until 1986(68/98 per cent). The main reason for this being law enforcement of urban land and land transfer. However, from then to 2011 a downward trend occurred in the country which reached 56/57 percent in urban areas. The rate for Marivan was 53/94 percent and 56/34 percent in urban areas of Kurdistan Province. In addition, renting from 1986 to 2011 followed an upward trend (33/18 percent).Although the rate of ownership of property is different in different societies and high property ownership rates is not an indicator of favorable housing conditions, according to our cultural norms a decline in household ownership must be a sign of increased gap between social classes and low-income groups (particularly the first and fourth deciles) This is a manifestation of the effects of inefficient policies of the past, especially for low-income housing groups. Thus, index and housing standards should be flexible enough to meet the needs of users in different parts of the country to link with their cultural preferences and be based on preferences of residents.
Urban Planning
Naser Barakpur; Farnaz Mosannenzadeh
Volume 1, Issue 1 , March 2012, , Pages 41-60
Abstract
Nowadays, one of the governmental challenges throughout the world is energy efficiency in creating cities. In this context, land use planning and its tool (density, uses distribution, etc.) plays a vital role in reducing energy consumption in cities. Serving as one of the key players in the field of ...
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Nowadays, one of the governmental challenges throughout the world is energy efficiency in creating cities. In this context, land use planning and its tool (density, uses distribution, etc.) plays a vital role in reducing energy consumption in cities. Serving as one of the key players in the field of energy in the world, Iran has to apply this tool in order to establish energy efficiency in its cities. The main objective of this paper is to study and to compare the method of integrating energy consideration in land use planning regulations and urban development plans in Iran and U.K. It is a comparative study in which, first, the land use planning alternatives for energy consumption reduction in cities were explored through literature review. Thereafter, an analytical comparing between Iran and U.K. with reference to the legal framework of land use planning for reducing energy consumption in cities and the way of implementing these regulations in the development plans was carried out. Our results revealed that the land use planning role in reducing energy consumption in cities has been ignored, whereas, integrating energy consideration in land use planning can enhance the sustainability development of the Iran cities. Since there is no data on considering energy in land use planning in Iran cities, our findings can be used by the national planning public and governmental authorities in order to integrate the energy consideration in land use planning and urban development plans.
