The structure of urban development planning in our country has non-flexible, inefficient foundations, and the functional geometric approach that theoretical and methodological inadequacy of its paradigm, namely planning focused on its weaknesses and inefficiencies, is transparent, confirms it more and more. In this process, the strategic planning approach, with transforming the planning structure within two parts of the decision-making and decision taking, has proposed some flexible, transparent, and participatory foundations in the field of urban development design. Exercising this approach requires recognizing the priorities, influences, and challenges ahead to understand its existing reality in the urban development process. In this regard, the present study has been carried out with the "application-development" nature and with the "descriptive-analytical” methodology. The sample population of the research is 50 experts and elites related to the research topic selected in a targeted Delphi manner. The analytical tool of the research, due to the goals, is the FLLS model and the structural equation modeling AMOS. The results indicate that: policymaking is the most important stage in the strategic decision-making structure; the stage of reforming and reviewing the plans is the most important stage of the decision-taking strategic structure. These two possess the highest priority for structural changes in Isfahan metropolis. Explaining the Structural Relationship of the Structural Steps to explain the Strategic Planning Implementation in Isfahan's Metropolitan Area shows the significance of the structural relationship and the weighted regression coefficients achieved in this process. It shows the importance of the stage of the reforming and reviewing of the plans in explaining the structural relationship rather than other stages.

One of the important strategies that have been taken into consideration in the last half-century to counter regional imbalances, caused by the increasing growth of large cities, is the creation of small cities. Due to the availability of some facilities and services, small cities are considered as one of the important centers for bringing balance to regional development. The method of the present research is a descriptive-analytical one, and the purpose of this research is to study the status of changes in the urban system of the small cities of Alborz province in order to bring balance to the regional sustainable development. In order to find out the status of small cities in the urban system in a 30-year period (1986-2016), rank-size models, as well as entropy and balance sheets models were used, and then their role in bringing balance to the regional development was evaluated. The results of the study show that the Entropy coefficient without counting the small towns, will still have imbalances. The rank-size logarithmic model, by counting small cities with the slope of the line amounting to -1.94 and without counting small cities reduced to -1.21, indicating the undeniable role of small cities in the urban system. Also, the results of the balance sheet model show that component changes are mainly intra-class and are due to the growth of cities. Moreover, concerning the process of changing villages to cities, changes resulted from the formation of new cities can be seen only in 2006.

Foresight analysis in land-use planning lets decision makers overcome complexity and reduce uncertainty through a focus on key drivers. This study attempts to identify the most important drivers of change in land use/cover planning in Gorgan Township with the participation of managers and academic experts towards a desired future. The approach is normative and the required data were obtained through investigation of scientific literature and land-use planning documents of Golestan Province. Interviews and meetings with experts also inform the process. Following a literature review, 77 effective factors on the future of land use/cover in the Province were identified. Among these, 22 representative factors were selected according to expert opinions. Two groups, totaling 70 people, consisting of managers of organizations in Golestan Province with links to land use planning and academic experts were asked to answer an online or in-person questionnaire of the effective factors. The structural analysis and cross-impact matrix were applied to the data. According to the result, the factors “Imperative policies”, “Technology”, “Governmental Services” and “Transportation and energy infrastructure” are the key drivers of change in land use/cover and affect the implementation of land-use planning in Gorgan Township. Both groups approved the "Imperative policies" as the most significant key driver which can affect other factors.

Natural and human hazards have caused vulnerability and resilience concepts receive much attention. Investigating the vulnerability and resilience of cities and regions shows the readiness and capacity of cities and regions to reduce the effects of disasters. If the situation of the city and the region is high in terms of resilience, Infrastructure, economic and social conditions of the residents have the ability to recover and return faster to a state of equilibrium. Besides, emergency services would be done properly. In this research, resilience was investigated on a regional scale with the purpose of assessment regional resilience dimensions in the townships of Khuzestan province. The research method is analytical-descriptive and in terms of purpose is applied. The data were extracted from the Planning and Budget Organization of Khuzestan Province`s database. The data are divided into economic, social, infrastructural, health, and environmental dimensions and 26 indicators. In order to analyze the data and weigh indices, Shanon entropy was employed. The townships were then ranked by use of WASPAS technique. The results showed that Ahvaz, Dezful, Khorramshahr, Shadegan, Shoosh, Azadegan, Shoshtar, Abadan, Izeh, Ramhormoz, Andimeshk, Behbahan, Baghmalek, Mahshahr, Ramshir, Omidieh, Karoun, Hamidieh, Masjed Soleiman, Bawi, Gotwand, Lali, Hendijan, Indica, Haftkel, Hoveiza, and Aghajari ranked 1st to 27th respectively. Undoubtedly, based on the Khuzestan province`s special position and its multi-cultural aspect, despite its rich natural resources, border situation and putting away the resiliency would result in a big crisis for the whole system. Also, the results showed that Khuzestan province resiliency related to spatial inequality.

The present study uses a structural analysis method to seek out the most likely scenarios for the development of Alborz province on the horizon of 2032. The required data and information for the research have been collected through a territorial development study (Survey Questionnaire) as well as expert interviews within the framework of the Delphi model. The statistical samples of the study were 30 employees of relevant institutions and urban-regional researchers. For data analysis, MICMAC software has been used to analyze the interactions of variables, and Morphol software has been used to compile scenarios. Finally, the results showed that the issue of water resources and drought, and the issue of the destruction of gardens of the province are due to the irregularity of construction. Similarly, the issue of industrial production, environmental pollution increase, and the burnout of factories in the horizon of 2032, with three replications of the catastrophe scenario in the developed scenarios are three serious and major threats for the development of Alborz province up to the horizon of 2032. Nonetheless, the capability of being at the neighborhood of Tehran province and the use of demographic, economic, and other capacities of Tehran province in all three scenarios were identified as the desirable scenarios. Also, in each of the three scenarios, the capabilities of the "big and strategic industries" and "province tourism" were identified as the most intermediate scenarios, which indicates the importance of these three capabilities in the development of the province in the horizon of 2032.

Landscape fragmentation is the most important challenge in urban development. This challenge prevents the flow of materials and energy in the region. These changes affect ecological characteristics. In this regard, ecological networks are considered as tools for conservation planning. Therefore, satellite images were used in the years 2006, 2011 and 2017 to evaluate the ecological networks of Karaj Metropolis. The Classification and preparation of land map conducted based on land cover and with the support vector machine algorithm. Landmarks were also used to assess the status quo and the process of changing heterogeneity, continuity, and communication-isolation networks in previous years. The results showed that the trend of criteria changing in the study area is not desirable. The inappropriate process of changing of Space landscape heterogeneity criteria, the conjunction of the same spots across the land, and the optimal communication reduce the ecological function and the consequence is a decline in the sustainability of ecological networks. Also, due to the decreasing trend of metrics in green spots, especially human green, and the increasing trend of metrics in construction and open spots, in sum, it can be concluded that the ecological function and the ecological network characteristics of the landscape are following a descending trend.

Much quantitative research (and some qualitative cases) has been done on the role of small- and medium-sized cities in regional development. The present article is also in this line, but with a slight change in the structure of the breakdown in the approach to the subject and the analysis of the problem, and the multi-faceted analysis of the data using the Fuzzy Inference System. The purpose of this research, with regard to the title, is developmental-applicable and has a descriptive-analytical approach. The FIS application and increasing approach has four stages (in general): its Database and Fuzzification; the rules base; the engine; and the Defuzzification. In the glimpse (Knowledge Base), regional development indicators (10 indicators) and variables (more than 70 variables) in four pillars of regional development (economic, physical, infrastructure and human development) for the small- and middle-sized cities of Kurdistan province (9 cities of the city centers Except for Saravabad) were selected and mapped in 2006 and 2016, and then a detailed analysis of the process was performed on the data. The final result of this paper is that although fluctuations in the development of the inland region of the province have been observed, regional development changes (relying on economic indicators) have been consistent with changes in the urban hierarchy (demographic projections). Thus, with the decline of concentration and concentration in Sanandaj, we see an increase in the role of small- and middle-sized towns in the urban-regional development of the province.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the situation in Qom and its regions in terms of the water poverty index, which identifies the zonal differences and the dimensions and strengths and weaknesses of each. The basis for determining the Water Poverty Index is the Sullivan method, which is a weight linear combination of components (resources, costs, environment, capacity, and access). The required data were collected through related organizations and analyzed in the framework of this method. There is a difference between the five sections of the county in terms of poverty. Weakness in resources is a common feature among zones, which is significant in some zones and moderate in the others. Also, in terms of human capacity, almost all regions have a good status that can be regarded as a strength. Water consumption management, as the most important option, should be at the forefront of planning and considering the inability to expand water resources. Currently, more than twice as much of renewable water resources are being extracted. The best way to manage water poverty is to make optimal use of available resources and capacities and to focus on research principles, rather than the expansion of water resources in a variety of ways, which can increase the territorial imbalances, domestic disturbance, and lack of control on consumption and so on.

Studies on spatial planning in Iranian history has experienced more than seven decades of programming, But has never been implemented and a firm determination for its operation has not been seen so far. This is an applied and developmental research, descriptive and analytical in method. research and data collection has been made through questionnaires and Delphi techniques. In this study, using cross-impact analysis and cross-impact matrix software to perform complex calculations were performed MICMAC. The results showed ,effective factors on implementation of spatial planning; Tehran province is regional political polarization, Tehran as a development pole in this province and being placed on the west to east and north to south corridors and the necessity of the province interaction with neighbor regions was determined and suitable solutions to overcome barriers in the way of implementing spatial planning in Tehran province, have been suggested in this study.

In recent decades almost of land use changes without taking capabilities and limitations of environmental have caused environmental problems and known forms of soil degradation and aquatic ecosystem pollution. The purpose of this investigation is determining how to mitigate the effects of future land use changes in Tajan watershed by investigating ecological potential as a strategy for natural resource conservation. Therefore, the land change modeling (LCM) was used for the analysis of possible future land useand then using Geographic Information System (GIS) and multi-criteria analysis (linear weighted combination) was determined the most sustainability of agricultural areas. The results showed that during the period from 2010 to 2040, 34 739 hectares of forest land use were declined and 27 071 and 7668 hectares of agricultural lands and pastures will increase respectively and the 3473 hectares of the most susceptible areas possible change from forest to agriculture and pasture were extracted. So expect to assessing changes land use based on the ecological potential in the future can protect Hyrcanian forests for the prevention of unprincipled changes in the coming period in this region.