خلاصة:
Like other developing countries, Iranian cities are growing and expanding physically at a high speed. For about five decades, the only policy of the urban development plans in the field of urban growth management has been definition of the Urban Growth Boundary (U.G.B.) which is still used without any major modifications. Despite the slight evidences indicating the ineffectiveness of the current policy, there has not been any assured and agreed alternative yet. Today, the waves of new urbanism and other modern paradigms have urged temptations of making fundamental changes in the definition of urban growth boundary. Through an analytic framework, this research investigates the effectiveness of some of the most basic carriers of urban growth in 11 sample cities (each of them introducing one type of Iranian cities). The results of this analysis will illustrate a new vision- a native one - for alternative policies of urban growth management in Iranian cities.
ملخص الجهاز:
The common features of this growth include city expansion along the gateway corridors, formation of peripheral urban villages, a chaotic composition of disjointed zones, legitimacy of underdevelopment, damages to the environment and natural resources, debarment of realization of predicted densities in urban development plans, abandoned and undeveloped lands inside the urban areas (Saeednia, 1996; *Corresponding Author Emaile: majedi_h@yahoo.
com 1This article is adapted from the Ph. D thesis of the Corresponding author (Amir Hosein Pourjohari) titled "How to determine Urban Growth Boundary of Iranian cities" researched in Department of Architecture and Urban Development, Science & Research Branch Tehran, Islamic Azad University, Iran under supervisory of Dr. Hamid Majedi and co-supervisory of Dr. Esfandiar Kharat Zebardast in 2010.
This article is due to investigate current mechanism of defining Urban Growth Boundary and answer the following key question: "Which of the two global patterns of circular (peripheral) growth or development along the transit corridors illustrates the process of expansion of Iranian cities?" The outcomes of this research could be applicable if it could introduce and illustrate the effects of elements/factors which urban growth has shaped around them (urban growth carriers) and should be taken into consideration by new mechanisms of urban growth management.
Along with the selection of case study, the growth process of the cities in different spans of time and the successive changes of the approved urban growth limits in urban development plans (U.
Based upon that, neither the European paradigm (limiting the city peripheries) nor the American approach (channelizing the growth along the transportation corridors) can define management tool of urban growth in Iran.