At the beginning of the twentieth century, most countries in response to the complexities and problems of urbanization began their first actions of spatial planning. Switzerland is not excluded from this list and started spatial planning acts from the lowest level and today, after more than a century, is continuing with emphasis on spatial planning principles of sustainability, public and private partnerships and using extensive modeling and simulation techniques and progress. The purpose of this article is to introduce spatial planning system in this country, and consists of three main sections: the first section is a brief introduction on the political, geographical, economical and social situations. In the second section, it examines the background, and difficulties of spatial planning system and section three has put forth some conclusions. Swiss spatial planning system is done in three levels: Confederation, Canton and Communes with emphasis on vertical and horizontal corporation at different levels of planning and autonomy of Cantons.

Spain has had so many evolutions in its urban planning system and it is one of the countries with regional system. Regarding to its successful experience in this issue, this research tries to look over this system. In this respect, we will introduce the general characteristic of this country and will review urban system in its different levels. At the end, we will point to new urban acts and actions. Results show that despite this country’s activity in all national, regional and local levels, there is a strong planning in regional level. In recent years, it has also established new regulations to bridge the gaps in the urban planning system. In recent years, it has also established new regulations to bridge the gaps in the urban planning system.

Zagros forests are a treasure of various valuable species of oak in Iran and the world. Long-term misuse in the past has caused severe degradation in the Zagros forests. Recently these forests have become national but misuses by local people to make living because of poverty and unemployment are continued. In order to reduce degradation and improve sustainability, ecological capability for extensive ecotourism was assessed using multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM), geographic information system (GIS) & remote sensing (RS) in 9150 hectare of Baneh forests. The ecological criteria and sub-criteria affecting the evaluation were selected based on the literature and expert choice. The criteria and sub-criteria were weighted using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Sub-criteria were mapped on 1:50000 scale using available maps, field work and IRS-P6 satellite data. Then sub-criteria maps were classified and classes were scored according to literature review and expert judgments. An extensive ecotourism priority map was created using GIS-based weighted linear combination (WLC) model by MCE analysis. The most important criteria of extensive ecotourism in study area were water resources, landscape and climate. Of the whole area, 450, 7883 & 817 hectare were in 1, 2 & 3 priorities. According to compatibility of extensive ecotourism with present land uses, it can exist in the whole parts of study area ecologically. In addition, this study demonstrated the potentiality of integrating MCDM, GIS and RS techniques for resource allocation in ecotourism planning.

Today, the knowledge of regions’ strong and weak points and the existing gaps between regions is necessary for better planning and programming to deal with them. Using such indexes as economic, sociologic, cultural, sanitary and other indexes which can be good criteria for the position and place determination of these quotients, is the main solving problem factor to achieve economic welfare, sociologic health in assessing stable development. That is the more careful this process is the more effectiveness is expected. Thus in this study three methods of numerical taxonomy, factor analysis and fuzzy logic have been used for the identification of Khuzestan province counties development ranking in 1379 and in 1386. Besides this ranking, comparative analysis of these methods has been done. Results show that the development opportunities of many counties in this province in 1386 compared to 1379 have been destroyed. Results also indicate that condense variability in numerical taxonomy is less than the two other methods. In fact, this method stands between the two methods in the ranking. Perhaps the difference in multiplier is due to standardization which can omit many clustering aspects of criteria. Indeed, it seems that fuzzy logic ranking is more reliable.

In the early years, the rising of the sea level, which is a part of natural treatment, destroyed many buildings, arable lands, residential and commercial areas. It seems that the main reason of these destructions is the diminishing of the legal setback efficiency and the proceeding of human activities. The aim of this study is to introduce the appropriate setback for southern coast of Caspian Sea (Gilan province) on the basis of critical levels of Caspian Sea and the results of coastal vulnerability regarding sea level rise. This setback is composed of two parts, vertical buffer and horizontal buffer. In this study, CVI method (coastal vulnerability index) was used for coastal vulnerability assessment. In this method, five variables were employed as in two sub-indexes, natural and human-induced sub-indexes. The final map is divided into four categories, from low to very high vulnerability. Finally the mean distance from the very high vulnerability category to vertical buffer boundary in every district is introduced as the horizontal buffer.

Industrial revolution, colonialism and spreading of patterns of development and consequently the vast rural and urban migrations and centralism in recent century caused the creation of unbalanced population distribution pattern in Iran. In addition to areas in which inequalities of environmental and productive resources increase space disparity of distribution of populations, in arease like Azerbaijan that have balanced environment and productive resources, this inbalance shows itself. The aim of this paper is to review such inequalities in the urban system. In this regard we used three index categories: Urban primacy, rank-size, and decentralization, and statistical data of years 1335 to 1385 have been assessed. The results indicate lack of equilibrium, concentration and the phenomenon of Urban primacy in urban system of the area, and during the period most indices had decreasing and were going toward the balance.

Nowadays because of various factors, including inappropriate land use, and indiscriminate exploitation of water resources, soil and vegetation, wide areas of the country were exposed to destruction of lands and desertification. Therefore dealing with this situation requires a comprehensive land use program (water and land) and appropriate environment potency. The study area is Patom district of research-educational forest in natural resources College of Tehran University, which is called kheyrud forest. In this research, the map of environmental units was prepared in which each unit contains different ecological condition from adjacent units. Moreover, the information of less stable resources of ecosystem was prepared and then the process of land capability determination was performed using specific models which were extracted from Makhdoum models. The results declared that this district of forest with attention to the work scale (1:10000) has management capabilities for harvesting, protection and ecotourism. To move towards sustainable development, providing the community needs and various expectations of natural resources, forest management should pay attention to the multiple use of forest with regarding to the ecological potency of region

Cities have hinterlands which depend on various factors such as economic power, population, distance and etc. Tehran megalopolis has also numerous hinterlands .Tehran as the capital city of the country is considered at the top of urban system hierarchy and has a very special place from economic, political, educational and etc. points of view. All these abilities cause a daily stream of people from the towns in the vicinity entering for work and business and returning home at the end of the day as their activities are over. Also thousands of university students and professors commute between Tehran and suburban towns every day. Considering all of these items defines Tehran hinterland. Then the question is that what areas would make Tehran megalopolis hinterland? Because of economics, presentation of services and so on determining Tehran hinterland is of a great importance. This paper shows that towns closer to Tehran are more influenced than other ones. The south, southwest and the west of Tehran are more likely to be affected as for the ease of access, concentration of population and economic activities.

Analyzing spatial planning system in different countries could help make appropriate decisions to improve functional system of planning in our country. Belgium, inspite of its limited area, has a unique planning system which is derived from political and social condition. Belgium has a federal system which is composed of three cultural societies and three economic regions. Spatial planning is in the authority of economic regions and each region has a different planning system. In the article general characteristics of the Belgium, urbanism problems and finally a brief of spatial planning system in the country has been presented. Analyzing spatial planning system in different countries could help make appropriate decisions to improve functional system of planning in our country. Belgium, inspite of its limited area, has a unique planning system which is derived from political and social condition. Belgium has a federal system which is composed of three cultural societies and three economic regions. Spatial planning is in the authority of economic regions and each region has a different planning system. In the article general characteristics of the Belgium, urbanism problems and finally a brief of spatial planning system in the country has been presented.

Spatial planning system of a country is the array of its planning systems. Getting familiar with spatial planning system of different countries and their experiences could help for comparison and accommodation so that making decision and defining appropriate planning system could be done. This article has studied the spatial planning system of Portugal and since there are different factors affecting on the system which are geographical, social, economic, historical and political status, they have been mentioned first and then history of spatial planning and its actual planning with different plans and related rules have been explained. The reasons to select this country are its rapid economic growth and consequently other changes of its spatial planning in recent years.Spatial planning system of a country is the array of its planning systems. Getting familiar with spatial planning system of different countries and their experiences could help for comparison and accommodation so that making decision and defining appropriate planning system could be done. This article has studied the spatial planning system of Portugal and since there are different factors affecting on the system which are geographical, social, economic, historical and political status, they have been mentioned first and then history of spatial planning and its actual planning with different plans and related rules have been explained. The reasons to select this country are its rapid economic growth and consequently other changes of its spatial planning in recent years.