An Analysis of the Importance of Sustainable Urban Development Indicators in Iran and its Comparison With Global Indicators

Today, the expansion of urbanism has led to many problems for various countries in the world, especially developing countries. Iran is one of the developing countries that in recent years has faced numerous damages due to population increase, especially in urban areas. In recent years, countries in the world have tried to overcome the problems deriving from unsustainable urbanism via using sustainable urban development. Accordingly, the authors carried out this study to determine the similarities and differences among sustainability evaluation systems existing in developing and developed counties and explain the needs of developing countries, like Iran, to improve management of urban areas. Therefore, in the study at hand, the global urban sustainability indicators such as BREEAM Community، CASBEE-UD، GBI Township، LEED-ND، IGBC Green Townships، GRIHA-LD، Green Star, and IUSAF were examined and were compared with the intended system in Iran (IUSI). In this process, the similarities and differences of selected evaluation systems were compared with each other in terms of type and importance level of indicators. The obtained result showed that the urbanism challenges in various countries in the world are different based on the development level and environmental, social, economic, and geopolitical conditions. In addition, the most important indicators of urban development measurement in developed countries were identified as energy, resources and social welfare, smartening, and environment, while the prioritized indicators in the developing countries were determined to be planning and developing the society, managing infrastructure resources, transportation, local security and economy, employment, and – mostly importantly – access to healthy water. Moreover, the findings of this study indicate that via localization of the systems and indicators related to sustainability evaluation for every country, region, or province, a more precise evaluation can be attained. This can offer great assistance to future planning to advance the sustainable development goals.