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.

The sustainable physical-spatial development of Mashhad urban complex is the prerequisite of attaining sustainable regional (provincial) and national development. This necessitates paying attention to the development of scenarios that set the ground for the development of Mashhad.  In the study at hand, it was tried through the participation of the provincial managers and academic experts to identify first the key drivers of physical-spatial changes in the rural settlements of Mashhad urban complex and then the scenarios effective on the physical-spatial development of these settlements. This study was applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of research method. The data was collected through library research, document analysis, and survey (interview) methods. Examining scientific resources, 69 factors effective on the physical-spatial changes were identified, which were grouped into five dimensions. Then, 29 participants in two groups, namely the managers of the related organizations and academic experts, were interviewed. Data analysis was done based on future research techniques, including Schwartz model, structural analysis, and interaction analysis, using Micmac and Scenario Wizard software packages. The results showed that 512 scenarios have weak compatibility, and only one scenario has strong, sustainable compatibility (zero incompatibility) (2.8 percent of possible scenarios are credible). The first scenario, which is in positive direction, has the overall interaction effect score of 771 and compatibility value of 7, while the second scenario that expresses the fairly favorable conditions for the future of rural settlements has the overall interaction effect score of 736 and compatibility value of -2. The third scenario, which has the compatibility value of -3 and the overall interaction effect score of 695, can be one of the possible scenarios for the future physical-spatial changes in rural areas, too.

As city framework, the city spatial organization is a broader and more comprehensive concept than city spatial structure. In fact, the spatial structure tends only to the physical structure of the city, while spatial organization takes also into account the examination and identification of various functions, including economic, social, transportation functions. In addition, high-rise buildings – as phenomena that have flourished in the past decade in Hamedan and are still growing – have always got influenced by various factors and have affected various urban aspects such as spatial-physical, economic, social, environmental, and traffic dimensions. In fact, in addition to the effects of this issue on the physical structure of the city, they have brought about many changes in the spatial and functional organization of the city such that changes in the daily commuting to shopping centers, offices, etc. in the city are clearly observable. On the other hand, the previous studies have rarely addressed the effect of high-rise buildings on the spatial and functional organization of the city in major areas of business. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze and evaluate the effects of high-rise buildings in the form of major modern central business districts on the spatial-functional organization of Hamedan city. This study was applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of method. Moreover, in order to collect the required data, the documents related to urban development plans, field observations, interviews, and questionnaires were used. Then, to analyze the obtained data, the spatial-locative analysis models in GIS environment were adopted. The conceptual model of this study provided 8 indices for the analysis of the effects of modern high-rise CBDs on city spatial-functional organization, and each of them was analyzed spatially. The results of the analyses indicated that in the single-core spatial organization of Hamedan city, there is a high concentration on the central part of the city, but this concentrated area is expanding and new urban cores are emerging due to various factors. One of the reasons for the appearance of these new cores is business-office high-rise buildings. Another noteworthy finding of this study is that the majority of these newly emerging urban cores are growing along Buali-Jahannama road. Therefore, due to the changes in the spatial-functional structure of the city, paying more attention to urban infrastructures and flexible planning should be among the main priorities of the city management.

City Development Strategy (CDS), which aims at reducing poverty, bringing about sustainable development, enhancing participation, and creating good urban governance, has attracted the attention of many Iranian scientific circles. This approach can replace the previous inflexible plans for the removal of the future crises in all cities of Iran. It is clear that in case the novel city development strategies are not used and the old methods and policies are exercised, the problems of Iran cannot be solved. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of Malard city using Meta SWOT model and to propose effective strategies to achieve sustainable development of this city. This study was descriptive-analytical in terms of research method, applied in terms of purpose, and mixed-methods in terms of approach. The statistical population was comprised of 50 managers of Malard city. Based on the obtained results, the reduction of water resources, excessive migration (especially the increase in the share of Afghans in city population composition), and social harms are the main obstacles to the sustainable development of Malard city that need to be taken into account in the strategic development planning process of this city. Moreover, among the factors effective on the sustainable development of Malard city, the suitable grounds for agricultural activities and   conversion and complementary industries as well as ethnic and cultural diversity have strategic fitness.

It has been years since innovation was first introduced as a driver of economic development. In addition, after a decade of attention to the regional innovation system policies in the Yazd province, this approach has not shown any positive effect on the development of the province. Thus, this study set out to provide a suitable model for the regional innovation system development in Iran following the investigation of the Yazd province as a case study. To this end, this study used the exploratory factor analysis and relative importance index to identify and analyze the key factors effective on the development of regional innovation system. The findings obtained from the opinions of experts and actors of this field showed that the three factors of human resources; the Science and Technology Park; and growth, innovation, and creativity centers in Yazd Province have the highest importance among all studied factors. This reveals the concentration of finances, policies, and projects on these factors and ignorance of other factors. In the light of the importance and the designated priorities, the factors of innovation system in Yazd province were classified into five groups. These included human and social resources, innovation infrastructure, innovation processes, business dynamics, and endogenous development. It can be concluded that so far, the concentration has been on the elementary stage of regional innovation system model – which essentially functions as the input for the system – and the innovation system in Yazd province is in its early stages. Accordingly to the obtained model of the study, the regional innovation system development in Yazd province needs concentration on the three groups of factors, i.e., innovation processes, business dynamism, and endogenous development.

One of the policies that has been taken into account by many countries to develop sustainable tourism is the development of touristic towns and villages in a centralized manner and the prevention of haphazard, unplanned contractions that destroy environment, sociocultural context, and economic structure of the touristic attraction sites. This policy was enacted by the Iranian cabinet in 2017. The purpose of this study was to present a methodology to identify the spaces suitable for the development of touristic towns and villages. The study was applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of methodology. As the input of the analytic model, the spatial territory of Mazandaran province was divided into 23007 spatial units, each covering 100 hectares. Then, the development of touristic towns and villages were evaluated and prioritized. In this article, the combined index of “the priority of the development of touristic towns and villages in Mazandaran province” was made by combining exploratory factor analysis and network analysis (F’ANP) based on 14 factors effective on the development of touristic towns and villages. The resulting map was then trimmed based on four control indices. The findings of the model showed that the three factors of “environmental potential and transportation infrastructure,” “the quantity and quality of serving the tourists,” and “tourism investment potential” are effective on the prioritization of Mazandaran province spaces in order to develop touristic towns and villages. The results of study demonstrated that the development of touristic towns and villages in this province is possible in the middle and eastern side of seashore, in limited areas in the eastern plains, and in the eastern and western mountainous lands.

The progress of smartening cities on the one hand and the requirements of urban sustainability on the other hand have paved the way for transition to the sustainable smart city. The study at hand was carried out to present an optimal model of smart city from the viewpoint of sustainable urban development. This study was an applied research project in terms of purpose and a cross-sectional survey in terms of research method and data collection timespan. The statistical population included urban management managers and experts. The optimal sample size was determined to be 384 using Morgan’s table and the participants were selected via simple random sampling method. The data was collected through a questionnaire that had been validated through construct, convergent, and divergent validity measures. Using Cronbach’s alpha and combined reliability measures, the dependability of the questionnaire was confirmed. To validate the smart city model from the viewpoint of sustainable urban development, the partial least squares regression and Smart PLS software were used. According to the obtained results, the smart urban infrastructure and smart governance are the two cornerstones of the model that have the strongest effects on the creation of a smart city based on sustainable development. The effectiveness rate is decreased in the subsequent levels and the variables at the same level show mutual interaction. By affecting the smartening of transportation and influencing the technology-based smart businesses, these factors lay support to smart economy and environment. Then, through smart structures and smart people, the sustainable urban development can be attained, which in turn leads to smartening the city.

As the distinguishing boundaries between upper and lower levels, regional plans and programs have an effective role in bringing about coordination between planning levels and improving their effectiveness and functioning. Due to the importance of planning and the results obtained from regional programs, the study at hand set out to examine plans at national, regional, and provincial levels based on regional approach with an emphasis on Gilan province plans. In this study, qualitative research method was used, and to classify the existing knowledge, the required data was divided into research analysis units, namely the plans and programs at the three foregoing levels. These were then analyzed using content analysis and document analysis methods in NVIVO 12 software. After data analysis, 96 open codes were achieved. The homogeneity of the open codes of each of the three levels led us to extract the main axial code titled “region-oriented approach in plans and programs at national, regional, and provincial levels” along with three other secondary axial codes, namely “holism and movement toward abstract and stereotypical concepts and issues,” “regional plans following macro plans,” and “lack of a regional decision making mechanism at the province level.” It is noteworthy that the highest regional approach presence was found at province level with 49 open codes.

Despite having abundant wealth, power, and resources and making great efforts to bring about regional balance, there is a deviation from spatial equality in Iran’s structure, which has led to the establishment of center-periphery structure as the dominant model in Iran. This structure has been created due to many factors, forces, and currents. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to present a theoretical model of spatial inequality in Iran using Lynham’s theorizing method. There were five steps in the application of this method. In the first method, i.e., conceptualization, the theoretical model was developed using meta-synthesis method and MAXQDA software. The obtained model entailed a host of concepts and components. These included  context-based  theory-driven discourse, centralization and making the periphery dependent, the reverse results of development plans, unequal power relations, inequality of benefits and wealth (economic inequality), inappropriate policymaking and management, weak local and regional management as opposed to central power, unbalanced distribution of population and activity in geographical spaces, and unbalanced distribution of natural resources. These concepts, grouped into ideological, economic-political, and contextual discourses, have created spatial inequality and center-periphery relationship in Iran.