Urban livability
Hassan Mohammadian Mosammam; pouya Joodi Gollar
Abstract
Highlights
Overall spatial transformation did not undermine the food system, but physical and socio-economic changes threatened its sustainability.
The Tehran metropolitan region has experienced significant spatial transformations.
Not all dimensions of spatial transformation exert the same influence ...
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Highlights
Overall spatial transformation did not undermine the food system, but physical and socio-economic changes threatened its sustainability.
The Tehran metropolitan region has experienced significant spatial transformations.
Not all dimensions of spatial transformation exert the same influence on food systems.
Urban and regional planning can play a strategic role in strengthening food security.
Introduction
The world’s population has reached 8.2 billion and is projected to increase to 10.3 billion by the mid-2080s. Approximately 757 million people experience hunger, while 2.8 billion cannot afford a healthy diet. Iran faces rapid urban growth, the loss of fertile agricultural land, water scarcity, recurrent droughts, land subsidence, dependence on imports, and increasing food insecurity. Yet food remains largely absent from urban and regional planning agendas. This omission is particularly important in the Tehran Metropolitan Region, which has undergone profound spatial transformation. Covering 18,815 km² and containing approximately 15.98 million people, the region has experienced rapid urbanization, fragmented metropolitan governance, agricultural land conversion, environmental degradation, and socio-spatial inequalities. This study conceptualizes food security, food systems, and spatial transformation; identifies major multidecadal transformations in the region; and evaluates their effects on the regional food system. The main hypothesis is that recent spatial transformations have contributed to food-system unsustainability.
Theoretical Framework
The food system is conceptualized as a socio-ecological system formed through interactions between biophysical and social environments. Its principal stages comprise inputs, production, processing, transportation and distribution, consumption, and recycling and disposal. Spatial transformation is understood as multidimensional change in the organization of urban and regional systems over time. The analysis distinguishes three interrelated layers: the physical layer; the network layer; and the layer of activities and characteristics of society and employment. This framework allows the aggregate effect of metropolitan transformation to be distinguished from the contrasting effects of its constituent dimensions.
Methodology
This applied research adopted a pragmatic mixed-methods design combining documentary analysis with a web-based survey. Purposive sampling was used to incorporate the perspectives of actors and researchers associated with food-system issues. A 10-member expert panel evaluated the validity and reliability of the research instruments. The Content Validity Ratio was 0.74 for spatial-transformation indicators and 0.77 for food-system stages; the corresponding Content Validity Index values were 0.81 and 0.80, respectively. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.712 for spatial transformation and 0.835 for the food system. The final assessment comprised 70 indicators: 9 physicals, 19 network, and 42 related to activities and characteristics of society and employment. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses included one-sample t tests, correlation analysis, and variance-based structural equation modeling using Partial Least Squares (PLS-SEM). Tehran and Alborz Provinces were treated as a single case representing the Tehran Metropolitan Region/foodshed because relevant official data are primarily compiled within administrative boundaries.
Results and Discussion
Substantial transformation occurred across all three spatial layers. In the physical layer, the region experienced declining biodiversity, reduced renewable water availability, increased water consumption, groundwater deficits, the drying of shallow wells, springs, and qanats, soil erosion, and growing pressure on agricultural land and ecological capacity. In the network layer, transportation and energy infrastructure expanded, the urban system moved toward greater polycentricity, and regional flows became denser, more multidirectional, and more evenly distributed. In the activities and characteristics of society and employment layer, major changes included population growth and density, demographic restructuring, economic and employment shifts, institutional fragmentation, rising greenhouse gas emissions, and the continued conversion of agricultural land and orchards.
PLS-SEM identified a strong direct relationship between overall spatial transformation and the food system (β = 0.957; t = 11.210). However, the hypothesis that spatial transformation had an overall negative effect was rejected; the aggregate directional effect was interpreted as neither clearly positive nor negative, with a path coefficient of 0.425 and t = 1.96. Disaggregated analysis revealed sharply differentiated effects. Transformation of the physical layer had a strong negative effect on the food system (β = −0.946; t = 2.012), whereas transformation of the network layer had a strong positive effect (β = 0.805; t = 16.65). Transformation of activities and characteristics of society and employment also had a strong negative effect (β = −0.926; t = 62.04). Thus, the aggregate relationship masks opposing mechanisms: network transformation supports food-system functioning, whereas physical-environmental degradation and adverse socioeconomic and employment-related transformations threaten sustainability.
Conclusion
The study demonstrates that food should be treated as an integral component of urban and regional planning rather than as an issue confined to agriculture or the economy. Although spatial transformation as a whole was not found to exert a net negative effect on the food system of the Tehran Metropolitan Region, the physical layer and the activities and characteristics of society and employment generated substantial sustainability pressures. Planning priorities therefore include integrating food into urban and regional planning, establishing an integrated institutional framework at the city-region scale, protecting agricultural land through coherent zoning, strengthening urban and peri-urban agriculture, managing water, soil, and land resources sustainably, developing shorter supply chains and local and regional food-distribution hubs, recovering organic waste for safe and productive reuse, promoting sustainable consumption, and strengthening a polycentric regional spatial structure. The central contribution is to demonstrate that spatial transformation does not affect food systems uniformly; its effects are layer-specific and require differentiated interventions that distinguish transformations supporting food-system functioning from those undermining long-term sustainability.
Urban Design
Monib Talebi; Nina Ghaslani; Atoosa Hassani; Mehrdad Yousefzamani
Abstract
Highlights
In Sanandaj Traditional Bazaar, the shop window is experienced simultaneously as a functional solution and a disruptive element in the lived experience of the market.
By reducing dust, improving order, protecting goods, and facilitating maintenance, shop windows respond to some of the ...
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Highlights
In Sanandaj Traditional Bazaar, the shop window is experienced simultaneously as a functional solution and a disruptive element in the lived experience of the market.
By reducing dust, improving order, protecting goods, and facilitating maintenance, shop windows respond to some of the practical needs of shopkeepers.
The installation of shop windows transforms the fluid threshold between the shop and the passage into a rigid boundary, weakening direct interaction among customers, goods, and shopkeepers.
Shop windows reduce the bodily presence of shopkeepers at the shopfront and, consequently, weaken informal surveillance and the sense of social security within the bazaar.
By limiting touch, smell, and close engagement with goods, shop windows diminish the multisensory quality of the bazaar.
The shop-window-based model is not fully compatible with the occupational structure and social composition of users in Sanandaj Traditional Bazaar.
Introduction
Traditional bazaars in Iranian cities are not merely infrastructures for everyday commodity exchange; they are complex lifeworlds shaped by social relations, collective memory, and multisensory experiences. In recent decades, the gradual introduction of modern retail elements—especially glass shop windows—has posed new challenges to the spatial and social logic of these historic environments. While shop windows are commonly associated with cleanliness, order, security, and visual attraction in modern retail settings, their insertion into traditional bazaars may alter the ways in which people perceive, use, and inhabit these spaces.
The traditional bazaar of Sanandaj represents a distinctive case in this regard. In this bazaar, the extension of goods into the passageway has long created a fluid threshold between the shop and the public path. This threshold is not simply a physical edge but a lived spatial condition in which movement, bodily presence, negotiation, sensory contact, and everyday sociability are intertwined. The emergence of glass shop windows, therefore, is not only a technical change in the mode of display but also a transformation in the lived experience of the bazaar.
Theoretical Framework
The study is grounded in hermeneutic phenomenology, particularly inspired by Gadamer’s interpretive approach. From this perspective, space is not understood merely as a physical container or functional arrangement but as a horizon of lived experience constituted through bodily presence, perception, movement, memory, and interpretation. Traditional bazaars, therefore, are approached as lived worlds in which architectural form, everyday practices, and sensory experience are deeply intertwined.
Phenomenological discussions in architecture emphasize that meaning emerges through embodied engagement with space. Thinkers such as Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty have shown that the human relationship with the world is first and foremost sensory and bodily rather than purely conceptual. Within such a framework, the bazaar is not simply a setting for exchange but a multisensory milieu of seeing, smelling, touching, hearing, moving, pausing, and interacting.
The notion of the shopfront or threshold is central here. In the traditional Iranian bazaar, the boundary between the shop and the passage is fluid and negotiable. Goods extend outward, customers encounter commodities at close range, and the shopkeeper’s bodily presence at the threshold contributes to social surveillance, trust, and everyday interaction. The glass shop window transforms this fluid threshold into a more rigid, controlled, and predominantly visual boundary. Thus, the shop window is interpreted not only as a retail device but also as a spatial and social phenomenon that reconfigures the relationship between body, commodity, perception, and public space.
Methodology
This research employs a hermeneutic phenomenological method to understand and interpret the lived meanings associated with shop windows in Sanandaj Traditional Bazaar. The goal is not to measure variables quantitatively but to reveal how participants experience and make sense of the phenomenon in their everyday lives.
Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 16 participants, including 8 shopkeepers and 8 long-term bazaar users. Participants were selected through purposive sampling based on their rich and sustained experience of the bazaar and their familiarity with both traditional and contemporary modes of commodity display. Interviews continued until theoretical saturation was reached. Each interview lasted between 45 and 55 minutes, and some were conducted in two sessions to avoid participant fatigue.
In addition to interviews, field observations and systematic note-taking were undertaken. These observations focused on the arrangement of goods, the extent to which shops extended into the passageway, patterns of movement and pause, bodily responses to shops with and without shop windows, and the sensory conditions of the space, including sound, smell, and light.
After full transcription, the interview texts were read repeatedly, and meaning units were extracted. At the first stage, 278 initial themes were identified. Through iterative reading, comparison with field notes, and interpretive synthesis, these themes were organized into broader horizons of meaning. Short follow-up interviews were also conducted with some participants to clarify ambiguous points. Finally, drawing on Gadamerian hermeneutics, a fusion of horizons between the researcher and participants was achieved, resulting in a set of final themes that informed the interpretation.
Results and Discussion
The findings show that shop windows in Sanandaj Bazaar are experienced as both beneficial and problematic. On the positive side, they help protect goods from dust, improve cleanliness and order, reduce the effort required for daily display arrangements, enhance security, and, in some cases, facilitate circulation by limiting the spread of merchandise into the passageway.
However, participants also viewed shop windows as incompatible with the traditional character of the bazaar. By replacing the open and fluid threshold between the shop and the passage with a rigid glass boundary, shop windows weaken direct interaction among customers, goods, and shopkeepers. They also reduce the visible presence of shopkeepers at the shopfront, which in turn diminishes informal social surveillance and the sense of collective safety.
In addition, shop windows reduce the bazaar’s multisensory quality by limiting touch, smell, and other forms of close engagement that are important in many local trades. Participants further noted that most occupations in Sanandaj Bazaar do not structurally require shop windows and that their use often reflects imported modern retail models rather than local needs. Finally, shop windows were perceived as socially out of place, as they introduce a sense of formality and luxury that may alienate many of the bazaar’s regular users, particularly villagers, low-income groups, and older people.
Conclusion
This study shows that the introduction of shop windows into Sanandaj Traditional Bazaar is not simply an architectural modification but a transformation with spatial, sensory, and social consequences. Although shop windows offer practical benefits, such as reducing dust, protecting goods, and easing some of the everyday burdens of shopkeeping, they also disrupt key qualities of the traditional bazaar. They formalize the threshold between the shop and the passage, reduce the bodily presence of shopkeepers, weaken natural surveillance, limit multisensory engagement, and conflict with both the occupational structure and the social composition of the bazaar.
The findings suggest that modernization policies in historic bazaars should avoid one-size-fits-all, shop-window-centered approaches. Instead, interventions should be context-sensitive and grounded in the lived experiences of users. Three considerations are especially important: first, the mode of display should be compatible with the sensory and functional requirements of each trade; second, the living threshold between the shop and the passage should be preserved and reinterpreted rather than replaced by rigid barriers; and third, the social composition and aesthetic expectations of the bazaar’s primary users should remain central to any design or policy decision.
Urban Planning
esmail Dalir; Morad Nasiri; Saman Abizadeh; Masoomeh Amoozadeh
Abstract
Highlights
Significant spatial inequality in urban safety exists across Ardabil, with District 3 ranked highest and District 5 lowest.
Social trust, building quality, and sense of place are the strongest determinants of urban safety.
Physical and social factors exert greater influence than technological ...
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Highlights
Significant spatial inequality in urban safety exists across Ardabil, with District 3 ranked highest and District 5 lowest.
Social trust, building quality, and sense of place are the strongest determinants of urban safety.
Physical and social factors exert greater influence than technological and managerial indicators.
An integrated, multi-dimensional policy approach is essential to address the interplay of physical, social, economic, environmental, and governance factors in urban safety.
Introduction
Urban safety and security are multidimensional and key phenomena in urban studies. A safe city is one that, while reducing physical and psychological threats, provides the basis for promoting the sustainable well-being and security of its citizens. In examining the relationship between safety and the urban environment, two basic dimensions can be considered: the social dimension, encompassing behavioral and institutional aspects, and the structural dimension, encompassing physical and spatial characteristics related to urban safety and security. From this perspective, urban safety requires the simultaneous analysis of physical, social, service-related, and perceptual indicators. Safety assessment in urban environments is also commonly conducted based on two categories of criteria: objective criteria, such as crime statistics, accident rates, and infrastructure quality, and subjective criteria, including citizens’ perceptions of safety, in which factors such as lighting, visibility, and social cohesion play important roles. In addition, indicators such as the quality of green spaces, air pollution, access to health services, employment opportunities, and the level of preparedness for natural disasters can also influence urban safety. Overall, the combination of these indicators and their comprehensive analysis provides a more accurate understanding of the state of urban safety and security.
Theoretical Framework
Studies in the field of urban social geography indicate that urban safety and the quality of the urban environment are directly related. Urban safety encompasses the reduction of violence, crime, corruption, natural disasters, and accidents. Urban safety indicators include physical-spatial dimensions (land-use mix, building quality, and street lighting), social dimensions (citizen participation and trust, and social cohesion), economic dimensions (wealth distribution and access to opportunities), environmental dimensions (green spaces, pollution, and flooding), and infrastructural and technological dimensions (CCTV cameras, digital security, and smart systems). Theories and approaches in this field address objective and subjective factors (fear of crime and the broken windows theory), environmental design (CPTED, defensible space, and crime prevention through urban design), social activities (everyday activities and participatory security), new and digital technologies (smart cities and digital security), environmental factors (risks and environmental quality), and comprehensive approaches (social order, spatial justice, third places, the right to the city, and human-centered safety). These theories emphasize that urban safety is a multidimensional phenomenon and that improving it requires the simultaneous integration of physical, social, economic, environmental, and technological indicators.
Methodology
This study employed a descriptive-analytical approach to identify key urban safety variables across physical-spatial, social, economic, environmental-infrastructural, and technological-managerial dimensions. Primary data were collected through field surveys using a structured questionnaire administered to 383 residents of Ardabil aged 15–65 years, selected through stratified random sampling. Expert evaluations (n = 10) were conducted using the snowball sampling method to assign weights to the indicators. The data were analyzed using SPSS, and a combined WASPAS and TOPSIS approach was applied to rank the five urban districts based on their levels of safety and security, allowing for a nuanced assessment of the relative influence of each variable.
Results and Discussion
The findings of this study indicate significant variations in urban safety and security across the districts of Ardabil. According to the ranking, Districts 3, 1, 2, 4, and 5 showed descending levels of urban safety. TOPSIS analysis identified the key influencing factors in order of importance as follows: social trust, building quality, sense of place, street lighting, wealth distribution, access to employment, green space quality, CCTV coverage, flood safety, civic participation, land-use mix, access to healthcare, air and noise pollution, access to online urban services, and smart traffic management. Social factors (trust, participation, and sense of place) had the greatest influence, followed by physical-environmental factors, while managerial and technological factors had the least influence. Overall, urban safety in Ardabil reflects the interplay of social capital, built-environment quality, and urban governance, highlighting the need for an integrated, multi-dimensional planning approach.
Conclusion
The study revealed that urban safety in Ardabil is unevenly distributed across districts, with social factors such as trust, participation, and sense of place playing the most decisive roles, followed by physical-environmental conditions, while managerial and technological indicators showed weaker influence. These findings highlight that urban safety is not solely the outcome of policing but also results from the interaction among social capital, the built environment, and governance. Therefore, adopting an integrated and multi-dimensional approach is essential to improving urban safety and equity across the city.
Urban Planning
Hashem Dadashpoor; Mana Vahidbafandeh; Mohammad Mehdi Panahi; Maede Dadashpour
Abstract
Highlights
Interaction among institutions at the local, national, and international levels is essential for establishing effective and transparent governance in sister-city relations.
By moving beyond the traditional symbolism of sister-city partnerships, urban diplomacy has increasingly focused ...
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Highlights
Interaction among institutions at the local, national, and international levels is essential for establishing effective and transparent governance in sister-city relations.
By moving beyond the traditional symbolism of sister-city partnerships, urban diplomacy has increasingly focused on issue-oriented network coalitions to strengthen local soft power.
The sustainability of transnational urban mechanisms depends on rational decision-making, institutionalized implementation, and data-driven evaluation to enhance learning and resilience.
The effectiveness of sister-city relations requires a transition from broad, non-binding agreements toward selective and limited forms of cooperation based on institutional capacity and clearly defined shared issues.
Introduction
In recent decades, the city has moved beyond its traditional role as an administrative unit of national governments to become a major arena for transnational action. International relations and urban studies increasingly view cities as networks of human, knowledge-based, and institutional capital capable of participating in diplomacy, meaning-making, and the exercise of soft power. Alongside the shift from state-centered models toward multi-level governance, this transformation has contributed to the emergence of “city diplomacy” as a form of local foreign policy. Within this framework, cities act as intermediary actors, managing relations, negotiations, and transnational cooperation through intercity networks and international institutions.
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework of this study views sister-city relations as a practical mechanism of city diplomacy within a multi-level governance framework. In this context, cities operate as transnational actors and strengthen their development capacities and soft power through institutional, economic, cultural, and knowledge-based cooperation. The framework combines three approaches: the institutional-functional approach, which focuses on governance structures and operational mechanisms; the network approach, which examines interactions within international city networks; and the development-oriented approach, which emphasizes policy learning, knowledge transfer, and sustainable urban development. Together, these approaches guide the analysis of the literature and the identification of the main dimensions of sister-city relations.
Conceptualizing City Diplomacy and Sister-City Relations
Sister-city relations refer to international agreements established between two or more cities in different countries with the aim of promoting economic, cultural, social, educational, scientific, and environmental cooperation. These relationships are generally non-binding in nature; that is, they are primarily established through memoranda of understanding and, unlike formal intergovernmental treaties, do not impose legally enforceable obligations. Nevertheless, in practice, they may lead to stable and long-term cooperation.
Historical Development of Sister Cities and Their Role in City Diplomacy
The origins of sister-city relations can be traced back to the period following the Second World War, when local communities in war-affected countries, particularly in Europe, sought to rebuild trust, promote peaceful coexistence, and reduce international tensions. Some of the earliest examples of such cooperation emerged between cities in the United Kingdom and Germany and focused primarily on cultural, educational, and social exchanges aimed at fostering solidarity among local communities. Although these relationships were initially symbolic and peace-oriented, their functions gradually expanded in parallel with changes in the international system.
Methodology
This study employed a systematic review to collect, evaluate, and synthesize academic and policy evidence on city diplomacy and sister-city relations. Through thematic analysis, it examined the development of the literature and identified key components relevant to the governance and policymaking of intercity relations. This method was selected because the literature is dispersed across the fields of international relations, urban planning, multi-level governance, and network studies. To reduce selection bias and improve transparency, the search and screening process followed the PRISMA framework.
The review covered English-language sources published between 2000 and 2025 and Persian-language sources published between 1385 and 1405 in the Solar Hijri calendar. International databases included Scopus, Web of Science, Springer, and Google Scholar, while Persian sources were retrieved from SID, Magiran, IranDoc, and Noormags.
In addition to academic publications, relevant policy and strategic documents on municipal international relations, particularly those related to Tehran and national intercity cooperation, were reviewed. Their inclusion enabled an assessment of the gap between academic knowledge and practical implementation.
Results and Discussion
Publication trends show a steady increase in research on city diplomacy and sister-city relations, with the highest volume of publications recorded during 2020–2025. The literature is structured around three interconnected layers: governance and institutional regulation, strategic implementation, and learning and networking. “Multi-level integration” emerged as the dominant theme, supported by institutional networking, data-driven decision-making, and structured implementation. Overall, sister-city planning can be understood as a dynamic, network-based, and learning-oriented process.
Conclusion
The effectiveness of sister-city relations depends on institutional coherence, rational decision-making, structured implementation, and network-based cooperation rather than on symbolic agreements alone. Sustainable outcomes require long-term institutionalization, effective municipal coordination, and continuous learning. In Iranian cities, institutional fragmentation, managerial instability, and weak evaluation mechanisms remain the main barriers to effective city diplomacy.
Acknowledgment
This article is derived from the research project entitled “Designing a Strategic Planning Model for the Tehran Metropolis to Utilize the Capacities of Sister-City Partnerships,” supported by the Tehran Municipality Research and Studies Center.
Urban Management
Ali Riahi Dehkordi; Amir Shakibamanesh
Abstract
Highlights
An integrated framework links multilayer urban digital twin architecture with risk reduction, preparedness, response, and recovery across the crisis management cycle.
Natural and human-made crises are comparatively examined to clarify how urban digital twins support effective management ...
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Highlights
An integrated framework links multilayer urban digital twin architecture with risk reduction, preparedness, response, and recovery across the crisis management cycle.
Natural and human-made crises are comparatively examined to clarify how urban digital twins support effective management across distinct contexts.
Urban digital twins enhance situational awareness, city visualization, simulation, prediction, and resilience within complex urban crisis management processes and decision-making.
Implementation challenges are classified across data, infrastructure, modeling, cybersecurity, governance, and organizational acceptance within urban digital twin systems and practices.
Localization requirements and enabling conditions for digital twins are identified for developing countries, with particular emphasis on implementation in Iran.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
The growing frequency and complexity of natural and human-made crises, alongside concentrated populations, infrastructure, and economic activity, have made crisis management a central concern in planning and governance. This issue is particularly significant in developing countries facing deteriorating infrastructure, limited resources, institutional misalignment, and social vulnerability. Iran’s seismic exposure, climatic diversity, uneven urban expansion, and exposure to natural, industrial, and social hazards require a shift from reactive management toward anticipatory, data-driven approaches.
Traditional crisis management often relies on cross-sectional data, fragmented organizations, and post-event decision-making. In complex cities, where infrastructure, communication networks, population behavior, and decision-making interact, such approaches have limited capacity to predict cascading impacts or identify effective strategies.
Urban digital twins connect cities with dynamic digital representations for monitoring, prediction, scenario testing, and intervention. Yet the literature remains fragmented, architecturally inconsistent, predominantly focused on response, and lacking a framework that links technical structures to the full crisis management cycle. This study examines their effects on decision-making, coordination, and resource allocation across risk reduction, preparedness, response, and recovery in natural and human-made crises.
Theoretical Framework
The framework integrates crisis management, urban digital twins, and smart urban governance. Crisis management is treated as a cycle comprising risk reduction, preparedness, response, and recovery. These stages are interdependent: response should facilitate recovery, while lessons from recovery should contribute to reducing future risks and strengthening preparedness. Effective management therefore requires the preservation, transfer, and continuous updating of knowledge throughout the cycle.
An urban digital twin is a dynamic, multilayered system that synchronizes physical and digital spaces, analyzes urban behavior, and simulates potential decisions and interventions. Its five layers comprise physical assets, populations, infrastructure, and sensors; virtual representations; historical, real-time, and external data; mathematical models, machine-learning algorithms, and simulations; and services such as dashboards, warnings, decision support, and infrastructure control.
A bidirectional loop transfers sensor, satellite, drone, social, traffic, modeling, and historical data into the digital model. Artificial intelligence and cloud, edge, or fog computing process these inputs. Outputs are returned as models, dashboards, warnings, scenarios, and commands. Three major capacities emerge: situational awareness and visualization; simulation and predictability; and collaboration, policymaking, and resilience.
Methodology
This qualitative, interpretivist, fundamental–developmental study employed a structured conceptual review. Deductive reasoning was used to apply crisis-management theory and digital-twin architecture to the classification of evidence, while conceptual synthesis was employed to reconstruct relationships among system structure, data flows, analytical capabilities, and crisis-cycle stages.
Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar were searched for publications from 2009 to 2026 using combinations of crisis management, hazard management, digital twin, urban digital twin, digital twin city, and smart city digital twin. Most of the selected studies were published between 2020 and 2025. Direct relevance to concepts, architectures, data models, applications, hazard types, and implementation challenges guided inclusion. Recent sources were prioritized, while foundational studies were retained. Seventy-four articles were selected.
The analysis standardized crisis concepts and stages, compared architectures based on layers, inputs, processes, and outputs, examined capabilities before, during, and after natural and human-made crises, and classified data-related, infrastructural, systemic, organizational, and governance challenges. The findings were synthesized into a model linking technical architecture, decision-support capacities, crisis types, management stages, and institutional requirements.
Results and Discussion
Findings show that urban digital twins transform fragmented information into coherent, dynamic, decision-ready representations. By integrating historical and real-time data, physical and behavioral models, and alternative scenarios, they shift crisis management from reactive activity toward a more anticipatory, adaptive, and learning-oriented process. They support rather than replace decision-makers by reducing uncertainty, comparing interventions, and accelerating coordination.
During risk reduction and preparedness, digital twins identify physical, infrastructural, and social vulnerabilities, map hazards, predict cascading impacts, evaluate preventive strategies, and support training, evacuation exercises, route assessment, and public awareness. During preparedness and response, sensors, the Internet of Things, satellite and drone imagery, traffic data, and social sensing generate real-time situational awareness. This enables rapid damage assessment, identification of critical areas, prioritization of relief efforts, allocation of equipment, safe evacuation routing, active decision support, and, in some cases, infrastructure control. During recovery, comparisons of pre- and post-event conditions, analysis of damage, identification of weaknesses, and prediction of secondary hazards support reconstruction, policy revision, institutional learning, and resilient rebuilding.
Natural-crisis applications emphasize physical hazard processes, spatiotemporal analysis, and infrastructure vulnerability. Flood models combine hydrological, environmental, and population data; earthquake models integrate buildings, infrastructure, seismic information, and post-event imagery; and fire models simulate fire and smoke propagation, emergency routes, and evacuation. Human-made applications emphasize operational monitoring, behavior, security, and rapid control, including failure prediction, pollutant-release simulation, threat analysis, crowd-bottleneck detection, exit optimization, and emergency coordination.
Both crisis groups follow a common logic: data acquisition, situational representation, consequence simulation, intervention comparison, recommendation transfer, and model updating. Differences concern data types, processing speeds, uncertainty, and model characteristics. Natural crises generally require environmental and terrain-based models, whereas human-made crises depend more heavily on real-time behavioral, security, and operational data.
Challenges include poor data quality, heterogeneity, missing information, sensor noise, the absence of standards, communication failures, and weak integration among information models and geographic information systems. Cybersecurity, privacy, data ownership, unclear governance, organizational resistance, undefined responsibilities, and weak participation may further undermine implementation. Technical models may also neglect social realities, local knowledge, and spatial inequalities.
For Iran and similar contexts, implementation requires digital infrastructure, clear legal frameworks, technological capacity, and organizational acceptance. Pilot projects, interoperable spatial databases, emergency communication networks, data-sharing protocols, and institutional cooperation can support localization. Maturity depends on data synchronization, predictive validity, infrastructural resilience, organizational interoperability, and social legitimacy.
Conclusion
Urban digital twins can support crisis management by connecting cities, real-time data, simulation models, and decision-making processes. Their effectiveness requires reliable data, interoperable standards, robust communication systems, cybersecurity, transparent governance, collaboration, and citizen participation. They improve resilience only when developed as human-centered, learning-oriented ecosystems embedded within broader crisis governance.
Urban Planning
Mojtaba Rafieian; Nafiseh Zahed
Abstract
Highlights
This study conducts a systematic literature review and qualitative analysis to examine research on Family-Friendly Cities published between 1995 and 2025.
Bibliometric analyses identify major research trends, thematic clusters, and research gaps within the Family-Friendly City literature.
The ...
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Highlights
This study conducts a systematic literature review and qualitative analysis to examine research on Family-Friendly Cities published between 1995 and 2025.
Bibliometric analyses identify major research trends, thematic clusters, and research gaps within the Family-Friendly City literature.
The qualitative analysis develops a framework comprising six principal dimensions of the Family-Friendly City.
Family-Friendly City planning has evolved from a primary emphasis on physical infrastructure toward broader objectives of sustainability and urban livability.
The limited body of research conducted in the Global South underscores the need for context-sensitive urban approaches that respond to local socio-spatial conditions.
Introduction
The rapid growth of urbanization and the increasing complexity of family life have encouraged scholars and urban planners to reconsider the relationship between urban environments and family well-being. The concept of the family-friendly city (FFC) emerged in the mid-1990s as an approach aimed at creating urban environments that support diverse family structures, improve quality of life, and strengthen social sustainability. Since its emergence, various cities have developed policies and planning strategies addressing issues such as housing affordability, public spaces, childcare services, transportation accessibility, and social inclusion.
Despite growing attention to this concept, the literature still lacks a comprehensive theoretical understanding of what constitutes a family-friendly city and how its dimensions and indicators should be defined. Existing studies have often focused on specific aspects of family life, such as family-friendly housing, child-friendly environments, workplace policies, or social services, resulting in a fragmented understanding of the concept. Moreover, previous research has mainly concentrated on developed countries, particularly in North America and Europe, while family needs and urban challenges in developing contexts remain insufficiently explored.
Therefore, this study aims to address this knowledge gap by systematically reviewing existing research on family-friendly cities and developing an integrated conceptual framework. The study seeks to answer three main questions: How has the concept of the family-friendly city evolved over time? What are the main dimensions and indicators that define this concept? And what conceptual framework can explain the characteristics of a family-friendly city?
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical foundation of this study is based on the understanding that the family-friendly city is a multidimensional urban approach located at the intersection of family needs, urban planning, sustainability, and social justice. Unlike earlier approaches that primarily emphasized physical improvements, contemporary interpretations consider the city as a supportive environment for families across the life course, including children, working parents, older adults, single-parent households, and multigenerational families.
The concept draws upon broader urban theories related to sustainable development, livability, inclusive planning, and social well-being. A family-friendly city is understood as an urban environment that provides equitable access to affordable and diverse housing, safe public spaces, accessible transportation, employment opportunities, social services, and participatory governance mechanisms.
Based on the qualitative synthesis of previous studies, this research conceptualizes the family-friendly city through six interconnected dimensions: spatial, social, economic, environmental, governance and participation, and temporal dimensions. These dimensions reflect not only the physical characteristics of urban environments but also social relations, institutional arrangements, family participation, and work–life balance.
Methodology
This research adopts a systematic review and qualitative synthesis approach to examine the evolution and characteristics of family-friendly city studies. The literature search was conducted in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, covering publications from 1995 to 2025. The inclusion criteria focused on studies directly related to family-friendly urban planning and excluded studies limited to workplace family policies or non-urban family services.
Following the removal of duplicates and the application of screening criteria based on the PRISMA protocol, 57 articles were selected for final analysis. The study employed bibliometric techniques, including citation analysis and keyword co-occurrence analysis, using VOSviewer software to identify research trends, conceptual networks, and major thematic clusters.
In addition to the bibliometric analysis, a qualitative review of the selected studies was conducted. Through qualitative coding and thematic analysis, key concepts, dimensions, indicators, and conceptual relationships were identified. This combination of quantitative mapping and qualitative interpretation enabled the development of a comprehensive conceptual model of the family-friendly city.
Results and Discussion
The findings reveal that research on family-friendly cities has experienced a fluctuating growth pattern between 1997 and 2025, with a significant increase in publications after 2019 and a notable turning point around 2020. The United States represents the leading geographical context, accounting for the largest share of publications and citations, indicating a strong concentration of knowledge production in North America and Europe.
The bibliometric analysis identifies several major thematic clusters, including social and perceptual dimensions, housing and public space, urban planning and mental health, life course and diversity, sustainability and livability, urban policies and family, and urban development. These clusters demonstrate a conceptual transition from early studies focusing mainly on physical infrastructure toward broader approaches emphasizing sustainability, social inclusion, and quality of life.
The qualitative analysis indicates that the family-friendly city consists of six major dimensions. The spatial dimension emphasizes affordable housing, accessible services, safe public spaces, and sustainable transportation. The social dimension highlights social capital, community interaction, diversity, and family support networks. The economic dimension focuses on employment opportunities and economic conditions that support family stability. The environmental dimension addresses safety, sustainability, and healthy living environments. The governance and participation dimension emphasizes family involvement in decision-making processes. Finally, the temporal dimension considers work–life balance and the changing needs of families throughout different stages of life.
The findings also reveal that family-friendly planning should not be interpreted merely as the creation of attractive urban spaces for middle-class families. Some studies indicate that urban renewal and family-oriented policies may reproduce social inequalities when they overlook issues such as displacement, affordability, and spatial justice. Therefore, a truly family-friendly city requires an inclusive approach that recognizes diverse family forms and varying socio-economic conditions.
Conclusion
This study provides a comprehensive review of the evolution, theoretical foundations, and dimensions of the family-friendly city concept. By integrating bibliometric evidence with qualitative analysis, it develops an interdisciplinary framework that moves beyond fragmented interpretations and presents the family-friendly city as a multidimensional urban planning approach.
The results demonstrate that the concept has evolved from a narrow focus on physical facilities and housing toward a broader framework integrating sustainability, livability, inclusion, governance, and social justice. The proposed framework highlights that creating family-friendly cities requires coordinated attention to spatial structures, social relationships, economic opportunities, environmental quality, participatory governance, and the temporal needs of families.
However, the dominance of studies from North America and Europe and the limited attention given to cities in the Global South remain important research gaps. Future studies should investigate how cultural, economic, and institutional differences influence the implementation of family-friendly urban policies across diverse urban contexts. Overall, the family-friendly city approach provides a valuable conceptual foundation for developing more inclusive, sustainable, and livable urban environments that support families across different stages of life.
