Urban development strategy document and its compliance with the urban planning system in Iran, a case study of Sanandaj city

Chapter One

Research Overview

Introduction:

In a world that is rapidly increasing urbanization, the role of cities as a means of economic growth is more important. This issue has made the need to use informed decisions and adopt new approaches in urban development planning inevitable in less developed countries that are facing an unprecedented increase in the rate of urbanization. Urban development strategy is a tool that can help cities in using the opportunities of urbanization and enable the city to create more opportunities by developing planning institutions. Urban development strategy is defined as a process oriented, developed and supported through participation in order to promote equal growth in cities and their surrounding areas in order to improve the quality of life of all citizens. Therefore, having a strategic view regarding investment and growth in order to take advantage of opportunities for cities is vital.  Urban development guide so far with the participation of local and national official institutions in some cities of countries such as Brazil, Madagascar, Mauritania, South Africa, Nigeria, Rwanda, Morocco, etc. Compiled and implemented, it has been able to achieve major successes in the field of reducing poverty, improving the quality of life and improving urban management. In our country as well, which is facing the excessive growth of the urban population, the use of the ruling views on the comprehensive plans in the urban development system has not been able to solve the problems and problems of the cities properly. Therefore, the use of urban development strategy in the country's planning system can solve many issues and problems facing the country's urban society and provide more opportunities in the field of urban growth and development. In this research, by recognizing the major changes affecting the urbanization process of the world and Iran and the evolution of planning in these countries, the need to apply the urban development strategy approach in order to improve the quality of urban life, increase citizen participation, and use highly flexible plans in the country's urban planning system has been tried. be explained.

1-1- Suggested view

Change and transformation in the urban environment is inevitable, many factors and forces including social, cultural, economic, technological and environmental forces are effective in the process and intensity of these changes. These factors (natural or artificial, individual or social, planned or unplanned) form, The size, structure, and spatial organization of cities affect them.

The intensity of changes in the urban environments of developing countries is more than that of developed countries. These changes, along with the increase in the rate of urban growth, have caused many challenges in urban issues, which lead to the following questions, where will the new residents live? What land will be used? Who is responsible for protecting them? How are their differences and conflicts resolved? Facing such challenges has made it inevitable to plan for conscious decisions in the future, however, making decisions in the manner of "strategic decision-making" in the realm of urban management in developing countries, where many cities are growing at an unprecedented rate, is not a common practice. In order to create a participatory decision-making process in developing countries and to reduce the level of urban poverty, the Coalition of Cities Organization promotes the formulation of "City Development Strategy [1]" as an effective tool. The CDS process has been universally welcomed in terms of the important achievements it can bring in terms of reforming the urban management system, making institutions accountable and clarifying processes. This document is closely related to the issue of poverty alleviation and improving the quality of life of the poor in developing countries and urbanizing societies. The special point that has been emphasized in CDS is the attention to the implementation phase and not the compilation of the document as the ultimate goal. The urban development strategy document for the growth of cities in line with social justice is prepared through the cooperation and broad participation of society in order to improve the quality of life of all citizens, especially the poor, and its main goal is to provide sustainable development through the creation of social capacities for everyone's participation.

Urban development guide document so far with the participation of local and national official institutions in some cities of countries such as Brazil, Madagascar, Mauritania, South Africa, Nigeria, Rwanda, Morocco, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Vietnam, Yemen, Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt, Bulgaria and so on. It has been compiled and implemented.

One of the cities where the CDS document has been implemented so far is the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. The CDS document in this city was adapted with the approval of the World Trade Organization [2] to the urban development plans of the city of Johannesburg, which were implemented in the form of igoli plans, and the CDS document was compiled. Although the igoli plan [3] had new ideas, Lee still had many flaws such as insufficient consultation, low participation, low sensitivity towards workers and consumers, and lack of transparency in responding to the needs of citizens. Of course, most of these problems were solved with the implementation of CDS.

The process of preparing an "urban development strategy" (CDS is a relatively new thing for developing countries, including Iran, which have less familiarity with decision-making systems, strategic decision-making, and strategic implementation. The focus of the mentioned process on "implementation" (and not just the drafting of the document) and the strategy's reliance on a participatory visioning are major features that usually do not have much history in the traditional planning systems of societies like Iran. The use and localization of modern planning and urban management tools can be a positive step in the direction of reforming the affairs of Iran's cities. But the point that should be noted here is that the introduction of a new document into the country's official planning documents in terms of creating content, hierarchy and legal legitimacy requires a suitable platform. First, by properly understanding the process of preparing and implementing the urban development strategy document (CDS) and examining the cities in which this document has been compiled and implemented so far, to examine the degree of compatibility of this document with the country's urban planning system. In this regard, the city of Sanandaj has been selected as a case study due to its special location and potentials in order to examine the degree of adaptability of the aforementioned approach. The development plans of the city of Sanandaj have been based on comprehensive and detailed plans, due to their special features, these plans have not been able to provide the right strategy for the development of the city of Sanandaj, this has caused the formation and expansion of many informal settlements in and around the city. Therefore, in this research, comprehensive and detailed plans of the city of Sanandaj have been examined and evaluated, and then the development strategy document of the city of Sanandaj will be prepared and compiled. 

1-2- Background and history of the research topic

Since 1998, the World Bank[4] developed a new approach to help develop cities, which was called the Urban Development Strategy (CDS). The aforementioned approach is a collaborative approach that relies on the participation of stakeholders[5], including businessmen, cultural leaders, local governments, social groups, the national government, non-governmental organizations, people's organizations and citizens (freely). Meanwhile, the cities of Qazvin, Bandar Anzali and Shahrood have been selected as sample cities for the preparation of the urban development strategy document. In addition, cities such as Shiraz, Isfahan and Mashhad have also prepared an urban development vision document. Studies have been done on the cities of Qazvin, Shahroud and Bandar Anzali, but due to the lack of completion of these studies, the documents related to them are not available. Nevertheless, in the next part, explanations are given about the city of Qazvin, whose documents are accessible. In addition, in the framework of studies of Qazvin city, references are also made to Mashhad city development strategy document, which is given in continuation of these two domestic experiences, global experiences in the cities of Alexandria, Egypt, Peshawar, Pakistan and Kathmandu, Nepal are discussed.

1. Qazvin urban development strategy document: In this document, not only the regional and national priorities and advantages of Qazvin city have been discussed, but also the positive and negative effects outside the borders of the country to Qazvin have been taken into account as much as possible. Therefore, one of the advantages of using strategic development in Qazvin is the use of benefits that are outside the territory of Qazvin city and so far they have not been directly paid attention to.