Identifying Physical - Spatial Growth Pattern of Metropolises of Iran (Case Study: Mashhad, Shiraz, Isfahan, and Tabriz)

The fundamental issues to achieve sustainable urban development is to identify a framework of city in an attempt to achieve the desired urban form. In this regard, urban planning’s theorists placed the category of sustainable city in the heart of compact city on the agenda. Today, most researchers consider the compact urban form as the most stable form and view the goals of sustainable development in the urban density. The aim of this study is to determine key development pattern of Iran's metropolitan physical expansion (Mashhad, Shiraz, Tabriz and Isfahan) in the period from 1335 to 1390 (1956 – 2011). The main method used in this research is descriptive/ analytical and hence, the proposed methods Tai (The metropolis’s degree of aggregation, and size) as well as the indicators of Henderson, Herfindahl, absolute entropy Holdren Model are used. In order to calculate the degree of population aggregation in the metropolises, the Jini coefficient and the relative entropy are used. The results of this research show that among the metropolises under study, Mashhad, Isfahan and Shiraz in the past had slow growth and relative density in terms of spatial development. Starting with rapid urbanization, and rapid growth in their areas and unfocussed growth will occur. However, the extent of their distribution is reduced and the tendency towards concentration and aggregation is obvious in recent years. But the situation in Tabriz is different from other metropolises under study. So that by 1375 the area and population growth is almost balanced but after this decade the area has a lot more growth of its population and has a long horizontal expansion.