Urban Sprawl in Iranian Cities: A Morphologic and Demographic Look

2014

Urban sprawl is a well-researched topic and its negative effects on transportation, environment and social interactions are shown in many studies. However the related literature mainly comes from developed countries, and the developing countries, particularly those located in the Middle East and North Africa have a small part. This paper investigates the presence of urban sprawl in the urban developments in the periphery of the mid-sized and small large cities of central Iran. Yazd and Kashan are taken as case-study cities. The observation criteria are based on the urban sprawl definitions that are accepted and widely used. The four measures that are observed in case of these two cities are discrepancy between urban growth rate and population increase, decrease in population density, leapfrog and scattered developments, and lack of public open spaces. The findings of the study show that urban sprawl is seen in the urban development pattern of both cities. This sprawl partially started in 1970s and increased dramatically after 1980. The paper argues about the necessity of more in-depth studies about presence and morphology of urban sprawl in mid- sized and small large cities of Iran and other countries of the Middle East and North Africa.

Recently a number of studies have focused on urban sprawl in the Iranian cities and the negative impacts of such development pattern. Although in a general view the phrase “urban sprawl” is used for fast and sometimes uncontrolled urbanizations, but there are dissimilarities between the urban sprawl in the western societies with the so-called Iranian urban sprawl. This paper discusses these differences as part of five main aspects that are mentioned in the internationally recognized urban sprawl definitions. Suburban sprawl, single-use developments/zoning, disconnected street network, low accessibility of the new developments, and commercial strip development are the aspects that are descriptively discussed as the main differences between the two types of sprawl. The main point of the discussion is that due to the wide range of similarities, which are briefly introduced, the type of the fast outward urban growth that is observed in the periphery of the Iranian cities can be defined as a part of the universal urban sprawl trend. Finally a definition is suggested for explaining urban sprawl in Iran.

Anuário do Instituto de Geociências - UFRJ, 2016

Physical development is one of the requirements for urban growth. The uncontrolled urban growth especially for metropolis areas often results in undesirable phenomena such as environmental destruction, city creeping, creation of rural-urban environments and so forth. Today, urban sprawl has changed to a knotty problem for many developing areas. Urban sprawl has been known as a varied concept when it deals with automated development and low-density development. It has a significant effect on surrounding ecosystems. Tehran metropolis-known as the capital of Iran-is not excluded from this rule because sprawling has been intensified during 20th century and will have continued despite existing planning, rules and programs. In this respect, the present study attempts to examine and to assess sprawl in Tehran metropolis with Heldren model. The results indicate that the proportion of population growth in Tehran metropolis is generally more than the proportion of urban sprawl. Overall, between 1956 and 2011, the degree of Tehran physical growth was 73.3 percent owing to the population growth whereas 26.7 percent owing to city sprawl. Presence of a green belt around the city, emphasis on compact city and controlling the building are solutions that this study proposes to prevent Tehran sprawl.

Territorios en formación

Urban sprawl as a low-density, planned or unplanned, unlimited and discontinuous expansion in peripheral areas of the cities is traditionally considered one of the global challenges. Iran has confronted with urban sprawl over the past four decades. The present study aimed to review and compare the relevant literature in developed and developing countries in order to study the drivers of urban sprawl particularly, the most crucial ones in Iran as a developing country in the Middle East. Accordingly, it was found that the processes of urbanization and particularly socio-economic conditions affected urban development areas in Iran. Based on the findings of previous studies, fast urbanization, land policies, and shortcomings in the planning system are the most influential drivers of the urban sprawl in Iran considering that these drivers work with each other instead of working in separated lines.Resumen La expansión urbana como una expansión discontinua, planificada o no planificada, il...

Urban sprawl is one of the main important phenomena threatening the spatial structure of cities and affecting the overall quality of them. This paper studied the urban growth pattern and sprawling of Kazerun, a medium-sized city in the south of Iran. Using the population and land use data available from secondary formal sources, the growth pattern was compared to national statistics. Furthermore, two well-known landscape metrics included Holdern and Shannon indices were applied to measure the extent of urban sprawl. As a qualitative research methodology, some experts (n = 30) working in governmental agencies were asked to explain the causes and effects of urban sprawl in the case study area. The results confirmed that several factors including the former masterplans affected the urban development pattern of the area. Moreover, a number of physical, environmental, economic and social impacts were discovered as the consequence of current fragmented growth pattern. Finally, a set of applicable policies are recommended to overcome sprawl and to achieve a more balanced development.

Journal of Urban and Regional Analysis, 2020

Urban sprawl has become a remarkable characteristic of urban development worldwide in the last decades. Urban sprawl refers to the extent of urbanization, which is a global phenomenon mainly driven by population growth and large scale migration. In developing countries like Iran, urban sprawl is taking its toll on the natural resources at an alarming pace. The purpose of this paper is to study urban growth and effective factors on them in the city of Urmia, Iran. We used quantitive data of the study area from the period between 1989 and 2007, and population censuses of Urmia. To measure the model of urban growth, Holderness and Shannon’s entropy were employed. The Urmia case is interesting for several reasons: first, it is a case of very fast urban growth even for a developing country; second, it illustrates how the fastest rates of urban sprawl may correspond to middle size cities rather than to large centers. Third, it portrays a land substitution process in which agricultural lan...

Cities, 2018

Urban Sprawl, as a low-density, unplanned, unlimited and sporadic physical expansion towards suburban area is one of the worldwide challenges facing spatial development planning in recent years. In a great part of literature on urban sprawl, dealing with this phenomenon depends on controlling two main factors of "population growth" and "per capita land consumption". This study is to propose a comprehensive framework for dealing with this phenomenon emphasizing the case study of Shiraz Metropolitan Area (SMA) in Iran through identifying the drivers stimulating these two factors. Analyses were carried out by using spatial analytics, mathematical and statistical methods such as Holdern analysis, path analysis and other statistical analyses. Investigating the drivers and factors, the article suggests that unlike many reviewed experiences, "per capita land consumption" is not the main factor in SMA's Sprawl. Instead, "population growth" due to employment opportunities, higher relative household income and affordable housing policies are the main drivers. Furthermore, attracting creative class through development of knowledge economy and ICT infrastructures has adversely influenced urban sprawl. In addition, automobile-oriented developments have exacerbated this phenomenon by stimulating city expansion towards invaluable natural and rural areas. Thus, in order to control the phenomenon under study, it is necessary to take into account these factors in planning priorities and allocation of resources considering the causal relations between them.

The urbanization trends in Iran during last decades had been accelerated by high rate of rural-urban migration along with rapid socioeconomic and political changes that formed unbalanced urban growth in Iran. The paper investigates the impact of growth of population and distribution of urban population in Iran from 1956 first census of Iran to 2006 and discuss about the major cities like Isfahan Shiraz Tehran Mashhad and Tabriz to observe the unbalance population. In 1996, the population size was 19 million that 6 million (31 per cent) distributed in 199 urban settlements. Since 1956, the proportion of urban population increased gradually. The proportion of urban population increased to 68.5 per cent in 2006 living in 1012 urban settlement. Population has increased rapidly and also there was an increase in the number of cities, but the main part of the population is concentrated in few largest cities.

Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, 2014

Accelerating urban growth and land use/cover changes places increasingly pressure on the natural environment and human welfare and have become a global concern. Iran, as a developing country, is also experiencing growth of its urban areas during the last decades by high rate of ruralurban migration along with rapid socioeconomic and political changes that has resulted in degrading environmental quality in many parts of Iran, particularly in the metropolitan areas such as Isfahan. Therefore, developing methods for assessing different urban growth planning scenarios and simulating urban expansion is critically important. The main goal of this study was simulating future urban expansion of Isfahan Metropolitan area from 2010 to 2050, by making use of cellular automata methodology in the SLEUTH modelling. The model was calibrated using historical data extracted from a time series of satellite images. The input data required by the model including Slope, Land use, Exclusion, Urban extent, Transportation and Hillshade were obtained from satellite images based on supervised classification. This research used the four images of Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) and Thematic Mapper (TM) acquired 1976, 1990, 2001, and 2010. Two scenarios were planned to simulate the spatial pattern of urban growth. The first scenario was historical urban growth, which permitted urban development maintenance of the historical trend and the second scenario was a more compact growth as an answer to hypothetical policies and the lack of land to decrease urban spreading. Calibration of the SLEUTH model for Isfahan metropolitan area showed a high spread coefficient, which means that the predicted mode of growth in Isfahan is "organic" or edge growth. In Isfahan metropolitan area, topography was also shown to have an enormous effect in controlling the urban development. The results of this study invites many opportunities for further studies in many other regions which are experiencing growth of their urban areas and can be useful for planners, and policy makers to implement preventative or controlling factors in advance and make more informed strategic decisions.

Journal of Geography and Regional Planning, 2011

Rapid suburbanization in urban system of Tehran province has been driven by the government's policies in past decades, transport system development and land price differences between metropolises and Periphery area. Cities in Periphery area grew rapidly during 1966 to 1986 as families moved there in anticipation of jobs. The non-appearance of jobs resulted in poor social services, gridlocked freeways and long travel distances to metropolises for job. The aim of this paper was to investigate how population settlement pattern in urban system of Tehran province USTP have been changed during 1966 to 2006. Methods adopted for this purpose were Mehta index, entropy coefficient and urban development model. Furthermore, for more analysis paper was supported by some theories such as system theory, primate city theory, basic economy theory, suburbanization theories, etc. Secondary data used in this paper were collected from governmental organizations (statistical data and map). Results show that growth of big cities in number and in population is the most considerable change which has been happened in urban system of Tehran province (USTP). What make it critical is their short distance from Tehran and Karaj. The paper argues that although distribution both in urban population and in urban points occurred during 1966 to 2006. But it is very important that where the destination of population flows. Because of their short distance, big cities exert double pressure on infrastructures of metropolises and agricultural lands in periphery area. The paper recommends seeking new structures for management in USTP because roots of change pressure extend beyond individual city.