With a growth rate higher than global GDP, exports, etc., Marine business (especially container transport) has had great effects on the spatial structure of different regions and areas. Ports have an important role in this regard, because they are the main gates of goods import and export in a country. This study explores the structure and interconnection of Iran’s northern ports (on Caspian  Sea) with the ports of other countries neighboring Caspian  Sea due to the great importance of marine transportation and its effectiveness on Iran’s spatial structure interconnection. In order to examine the evolution of the spatial interconnection network structure of Iran’s northern ports at local and international level between the years 1989 to 2019, the model used in this study analyzed the passenger and goods transportation among Caspian  Sea ports of Iran and those of other countries around Caspian  Sea using UCINET software. The results showed that the interconnection of goods and passenger transportation in Iran’s northern provinces (in general) and Iran’s ports on Caspian  Sea (in particular) is not in good conditions. In fact, the connection between Iran and other countries neighboring Caspian  Sea is not so high except for scarce, insignificant cases (i.e., connection with Russia through Amirabad port), and the spatial interconnection of other borders of Iran, especially the southern coastline, is much higher than that of Caspian  Sea coastline.

In this study, the spatial-temporal distribution analysis of housing prices in District 5 of Tehran Municipality and the factors effective on it were investigated. To this end, the data related to housing buying and selling in this district in the years 2018, 2019, and 2020 were used to model the housing price. The results were obtained using GTWR method, which gave in a better measure compared to GWR and OLS methods. The adjusted coefficient of determination in OLS, GWR, and GTWR algorithms were found to be 0.759, 0.798, and 0.835, respectively. GTWR is a method that can model the spatial-temporal heterogeneities that exist in the housing price data. Based on the obtained results, the currency exchange rate (dollar to rial) has the highest effect on modeling housing prices. After that, the physical characteristics of housing – such as its footage and age – are important in modeling housing prices. Finally, the access rate to urban services – such as distance to hospitals, sports centers, educational centers, religious sites, green space, highways, and urban public transportation stations – can improve the modeling of housing prices. The findings of this study show that using dollar-to-rial exchange rate as the independent variable, we can model the housing price with a proper precision.

Recognizing the function and pattern of urban network activity in regional areas to identify potentials and assets correctly leads to effectively guiding spatial planning for achieving creative competitiveness and spatial balance at the regional level. The current research attempts to analyze the spatial pattern of activity accumulation and distribution in the urban network of Khuzestan province using a practical and developmental approach, along with a descriptive-analytical method. Activity and employment statistics of 78 urban points in the province, based on data from the Iranian Statistics Center and the regional survey plan of Khuzestan province, have been cited.The results from spatial autocorrelation analysis and the z-score function, as well as the Repilli k function, show that activities related to the agricultural sector have a cluster distribution pattern in the urban network of the province. On the other hand, the activities of the industry and service sectors in the province follow a scattered pattern. Spatial analysis of the activities in the urban network of the province indicates that due to the proximity of cities to each other and the close employment statistics in each of the agricultural, industrial, and service sectors, the northern parts of the province and the southern part (specifically the ports of Imam and Bandar Mahshahr) show the most areas related to hot spots from an activity point of view. Meanwhile, the service function in the urban network of the province, despite having significant employees, exhibits the most cold spots and dispersion, especially in the central areas of the province.

The location of sanitary landfills is one of the most important environmental issues in cities. If the design of landfills is not appropriate, it will threaten human health. The aim of the current research is to locate waste burial using geographic information system in the city of Bam, this research is applied in terms of its purpose and its method is descriptive-analytical. Based on this, the effective criteria in the location of Bam's landfill were identified, prepared and standardized. Then by digitizing and weighting 8 layers based on the existing standards, including: topography, geology, slope, fault, waterways, communication lines and distance from the city, and importing the mentioned layers into the software environment and forming special burial databases. Waste and implementation of various analytical multi-criteria decision-making models on the existing layers. According to the layers used and the final map obtained, the studied area was classified in the form of four classes: very suitable, suitable, unsuitable and very unsuitable, and it was determined that the most optimal waste burial space is in the southeast of the region, and the least optimal space is in the northwest of the city. There is. The issue of waste management, or beyond that, material cycle management, is one of the main and very important axes of sustainable development today. Therefore, it is necessary to put the necessary infrastructures for the best possible management of urban waste, which has not yet been done and requires proper management and implementation of economic plans.

The present study is a combination of documentary and survey methods in terms of applied purpose. Documentary and field methods have been used to collect the required information and data. Also, according to the purpose of the research, among the households of selected villages, 352 households have been determined as a sample using Cochran's formula. In particular, in this study, using Gephi and GIS spatial analysis software and network analysis methods, the flows and relationships mentioned in the study area have been analyzed in order to form a regional network based on links. And to integrate integrated rural-urban development. The results show that there is a direct correlation between flows and the level of development of rural settlements to form a regional channel. Spatial flows, especially economic flow, and population, have provided the background for urban-rural interactions in the study area, and in the first level network hierarchy, all cities and rural centers are subordinated to the Hanza urban center with the highest score in providing services. In fact, the lack of spatial development planning to regulate the relations and connections, and consequently the lack of attention to the role of the surrounding villages of Hanza, has caused us to not be able to direct the currents and factors that shape and influence these connections which pave the way for the development of the whole system.

Strategic spatial planning is presented as an approach to deal with the chronic challenges facing the sustainable use of space, i.e. the physical-spatial division and the policy-planning division. However, there are major barriers to realizing this approach in Iran, which are affected by its governance and planning system approaches. In this regard, the current research has attempted to identify and explain the major barriers to the realization of strategic spatial planning in Iran with an exploratory approach and a combined interview and targeted Delphi method. The data was collected through a semi-structured interview in the form of a targeted Delphi method in two rounds of 25 experts, and the barriers and related concepts were confirmed, extracted and described using MAXQDA software and Kendall's coefficient of agreement. The results of 405 extracted codes indicated that there are 4 major barriers to the realization of strategic spatial planning in Iran, which are: geographical-spatial barrier (6 explanatory concepts and 26% of the extracted codes), rentier political economy barrier (7 explanatory concepts and 34% of extracted codes), institutional division barrier (7 explanatory concepts and 23% of extracted codes) and structural-spatial division barrier (7 explanatory concepts and 17% of extracted codes). The present study highlights the importance of recognizing and correctly confronting and taking constructive measures against the four mentioned barriers, which are the main sources of physical-spatial and political-planning divisions in the way of realizing strategic spatial planning in Iran.

Since comprehensiveness and integration of development can promise efficient use of the region's potential and improvement of living conditions; Therefore, the current research has aimed to analyze the pattern of integrated regional development at the level of Gilan province. In this context, based on contextual theory, the type of response to this objective was qualitative and based on documentary studies and in-depth interviews with 20 provincial experts including (policy-making, scientific and academic experts, private and government sector). Then, by using MAXQDA software as an effective tool in qualitative data analysis, open and central codes were extracted, and finally, selective coding was done using the potentials of the region and the opinion of elites. The findings and results from the comparison of the components of the desired model show that the key categories in the documentation-field dimension in the sections of causal conditions, focal core, strategies, and consequences, respectively, include cases of lack of synergy and integration of process and product, lack of perspective. Wide and extrapolated from the long-term development of the region, the sector-oriented model with a minimal approach to the place and space of development, the transformation of the spatial organization of the regional system. Also, in the ideological-theoretical dimension, the most important categories in the four sections, respectively, include things such as emphasis on the structure and pattern of decision-making (planning, policy-making, and management), political-territorial-organizational and departmental integration, the necessity of changing social and institutional management and Finally, regional organizations have been recognized as the main actors in coordination for the implementation, follow-up, and review of the sustainable development process. In addition, the relationship between abstract and operational dimensions has shown coordination and alignment in the causal and phenomenon parts and a lack of direct alignment in the strategy and consequence parts. For this purpose, suggestions such as the need to separate propositions and components by sector, territory (spatial areas), the need to rewrite and explain previously repeated codes, review the determination of priorities, real attention to attention to the integration between sectors, territories, Institutions and... have been considered.

Metropolitan regions as a new form of urbanization are expanding rapidly and under the influence of different factors, have different growth patterns. The main purpose of this article is to investigate the evolution of form in the metropolitan area of Tehran under the influence of urban land expansion during the years 1986 to 2016 using the urban land density function. The results of this study show that the trend of urban land expansion in recent years has shifted the shape of the region to a scattered and decentralized pattern. The results of the study of the expansion of urban land in the form of the region at the middle and micro level show that other cities around the metropolis of Tehran have become wider and more scattered over time. Findings show that over time, urban density in urban areas and rural areas and around the metropolis of Tehran has increased under the influence of urban expansion waves.  In the metropolitan area of Tehran, the increase in the boundary between the urban edge and the surrounding areas over a period of thirty years describes the vast urban expansion. In the metropolitan area of Tehran, in recent years, the slope, changes in barren lands, distance from built-up areas, changes in agricultural use, and distance from main roads have had the greatest impact on the expansion of urban land. The rapid growth and urban sprawl in a metropolitan area in metropolitan areas, above all, affect the peripheral areas and cause a disruption of the spatial order, the destruction of natural lands around, increasing marginalization and informal settlement and integration of areas. It becomes a village in the urban space.

As one of the most important and influential urban planning approaches, comprehensive plans can be considered from the different and relevant dimensions and aspects such as the planning system, the content of plans, preparation-approval process, and execution procedure. Hence, this research focuses on the reasons for the inefficiency of comprehensive plans, especially concerning the nature and the substance of this urban planning approach. To this end, in addition to reviewing relevant theories and views, objective instances of the mentioned reasons have been pursued. Therefore, Nowshahr’s Comprehensive Plan was assayed for the ex-post evaluation of plan implementation to assess its efficiency and feasibility in certain aspects, including social and physical dimensions. Following a linear and one-way procedure, inflexibility and lack of realism, single vision and mostly physical solutions, providing too many details based on static and solid frameworks, and the impossibility of accurate predictions are the substantial critical reasons for the inefficiency of urban planning based on comprehensive plans approach. These factors are the challenges that Nowshahr’s Comprehensive Plan also suffers from them identically. The unrealistic approach in determining the city limit, an incorrect policy of using open spaces and increasing density in contradiction with the ecological, touristic, and port nature of the city, failure to realize most of the proposed land uses, and consequently, a severe shortage of service spaces, are among the most apparent objective instances regarding the inefficiency of Nowshahr’s Comprehensive Plan according to the mentioned substantial reasons. Considering the reasons for inefficiency and analysis of the objective instances are an essential strategy that can differentiate the substance of urban plans, especially ones prepared based on the evolution in urban planning and substitution of new approaches, from the old and traditional cases and make them successful more than before.

The usefulness of many forms of spatial studies relies on the nature of the topics under study. Geographers and urban planners have a long-lasting tradition of studying the data derived from spatial issues at regional and urban levels. Nonetheless, no standard has been offered so far on the provision of statistical results in the form of spatial units. Therefore, the results of the previous studies in this field have been influenced by the scale and zoning effects. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of scale and zoning on the spatial unit results. To this end, the rural areas located in the southern parts of West Azerbaijan province were selected. This study adopted the critical positivism approach and used quantitative data collection and analysis. Moreover, this research project was descriptive-analytical in terms of method and applied in terms of purpose.  The statistical population of the study included 1143 villages with an overall population of 418948 in 9 southern cities of West Azerbaijan province. The study was done using 8 indices of rural services, which were composed of 77 indicators in total. Then, the effect of scale and zoning on the results was analyzed. The results showed that the value of Moran’s statistic related to the overall index of rural service distribution level has been 0.39 at city, 0.06 at rural district level, and 0.05 at village level. Accordingly, the distribution of rural services has been clustered at the city level, but has been random at rural district and village levels. Moreover, the results of the rural services overall index was 15.09 at city level, 10.88 at rural district level, and 2.31 at village level. This shows that by changing the spatial unit scale, the results of the spatial distribution of services has totally changed. This finding is true for zoning, too; with a change in the zoning pattern, the results of spatial units have changed. These findings show that the nature of rural service distribution alters with the change in the scale and zoning models.