Socio-Spatial Studies

One of the most fundamental executive policies of governments during development programs is creating balanced regional development. Regional inequalities are cited as reasons for growing social unrests, political instabilities, and disintegration. In Iran, these inequalities have been growing at an alarming rate leading to serious problems. So, analysis of development level of regions and consequently, identifying interregional and intraregional inequalities is of great importance in the way of adopting appropriate development policies. The aim of this study is evaluating development level of sub-provinces of Iran and exploring existent inequalities. A system of 54 indicators of different dimensions of regional development was constructed and submitted to Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for this purpose. Analysis of Coefficient of Variation (CV) was also applied to reveal regional inequalities about different dimensions of development. The results of this research showed that there are obvious differentiations among sub-provinces in development level. In addition, spatial distribution of sub-provinces with regards development level indicates that an intensive system of core and periphery exists in the country. So, it is necessary to reduce regional inequalities in Iran to pave way for greater national integration, increase in economic growth and more political stability. 

In land use and transportation planning, mixed land uses usually are those various and consistent land uses which have been within a single structure or close to each other. Mixed land uses in different societies are used for different purposes. In some of these societies, mixed land uses are appropriate strategies in mixing the housing types in a small scale in order to enhance the identity of old cities. In other societies they are used as a mean to revive the worn out areas and speed up economic developments. Even some societies use them to create the suburbs' centers. In this regard, the aim of this study is to evaluate the mixed land uses in Tehran's Bryanak neighborhood. For this purpose, the most important criteria and sub-criteria are compiled to determine the situation of the mixing land uses in this neighborhood, and by using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and questionnaire an appropriate and measurable framework is provided to measure and present strategies for the preservation and promotion of mixed land uses. The results indicate that the final score of this neighborhood was calculated as 3.08 that is very close to the "average" and indicates that the situation of mixed land uses in Bryanak neighborhood is average and some actions should be taken to improve conditions for the development of mixed land uses in this neighborhood.

The main purpose in this research is recognition of dimensions of sustainable architecture. Today, one of the most necessary complicated and delicate specifications of architecture that architects face with is the issue of stability in various types of its comments and interpretations. The issue of sustainability is interpretable and general from many aspects. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize the qualified of this adjective (architecture and its related categories). In the record of bringing this discussion up, we face with titles such as Green architecture², Sustainable development³, etc. But the purpose of this article is the study of the nature and recognizing the circumstances and essence of sustainability in all fields that architecture involves in. The innovation of this study is attentive to creating the recognition and feeling the fact of dimensions of sustainability that is studied in procedure of library research, a case sample, and proposal of common but insufficient ideas related to this discussion. This article is devoted to 3 point of views including main environmental, cultural (value), and technical, and it tries to take the proposed topics under the subjection of this 3 factors in an orderly way (presenting a modern pattern) and the minor factors are studied under the subjection of these 3  main factors.

Information technology by removing the barriers and omitting geographical boundaries washes out the physical distances and dissolves many problems. But at the same time this concern is existed that information technology causes more separation between social classes and so creates a society that divides into two groups that one group is "possessed" and the other "do not possessed" the technology. Accordingly, one of the main challenging issues that social universe has encountered with, is inequality of information and communication technology indicators among regions, which called "digital gap". In order to achieve standard development and to provide geographical and spatial justice, removing the digital gap between regions, and equal and public accessibility of geographical units must be considered as the main priority of planning in field of ICT. The presented research by purpose of spatial analysis and ranking of counties in Isfahan province tries to improve information and communication technology and reduce digital gap. The research method is descriptive- analytic and for ranking and rate of difference among counties the Topsis algorithm is used. The results show that level of possessing ICT was not equal among counties in a way that counties divided into four groups of very high, medium, low and very low, that only the counties of Isfahan is located in very high  group. The dispersal coefficient between counties is 5% that confirms the difference in spatial distribution of indicators. And also there is a direct relationship between development of ICT and population and urbanization percentage, in a way that most of facilities are located in a counties with high percentage of urbanization. At the end some solution is suggested in order to remove the digital gap between counties.

Crises have always caused many, and sometimes irreparable, damages and injuries to human nations having had adverse impacts on indices of society, economy and environment. Therefore analysis and optimum management of these crises are the priorities in the states around the world. Access to valid and up-to-date information plays the pivotal role in proper and timely programming and performance on managers’ and responsible organizations’ side in various phases of the crisis management cycle. While more than 80% of the required information in crises actually have a local and geographical nature, utilizing the modern technology of GIS with special capabilities in modeling, combining and analyzing the data can be effective and impasse-breaking while analyzing vast layers of information in both phases of prediction and strike of crises. A good knowledge of the crisis-causing factors before their strike or prediction of the essential arrangements to prevent or reduce their affects or aftermaths to the least is one of the base procedures in the management of unexpected events. In this direction, precision in properly locating the installations and passages of the pipes and canals would be immensely important; bearing in mind the key role of continuation of serving essential arteries; particularly water and sewage installations, in controlling and preventing the expansion of crises, and preserving public health and hygiene on the one hand, and the significant expenses of construction or reconstruction of these systems on the other. Thus, through this study, we have discussed how to exploit the creation and production procedures in purposefully locating water and sewage installations and also their other usages in designing, management, programming and development of these installations, in addition to introducing the geographical information systems and clarifications of the creation and production procedures. The location of urban water and sewage facilities is very effective in increasing the resilience of natural disasters through the use of the geographical information system.

Perception and employing our ancestors’ properties is of highest importance if the approach of our ancestor’s knowledge share be due to recreating creative designs in accordance to urban space and modern neighborhood. The fundamental needs of human or physical needs of architecture are adoptable because they seek to find a good framework to compare and rank different designs regarding the aesthetic aspects. Through this the strength and weak points in different architecture design particularly in local architecture of Iran can be specified. To do so, by examining Bazar and Timche and comparing and contrasting them with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the present study aimed to present a system to rank the aesthetic elements in them. Concepts such as introvert and extrovert in houses, linear and central structure, enclosure, geometry, and space that are the results of the elements of Bazar and Timche have some material and meaning qualities that can be ranked. The benefits to use such perspective by contributing tools such as hierarchy of basic needs provide us with having required confidence toward completeness of a design.