Analyzing Sustainability of Urban Areas and prioritizing its Development using TOPSIS (Case Study of Gorgan City)

Today cities especially big cities have been faced to overpopulation growth and mass physical development. Awareness of positive and negatives aspects of economic, social and environmental of urban development can be critical factors to reduce current deficiencies and achieve socio-economic welfare and sustainable development. Therefore this research aimed to identify urban sustainability measures satisfaction of living environments among five urban areas of Gorgan. Using survey method 120 samples selected by random sampling techniques and questionnaire tools was used for data gathering. Pearson correlation test and Kruskal-Walis was used to data analysis. Moreover using TOPSIS techniques urban areas was classify based on satisfying access to service centers, local security, environment quality, participation tendency, community attachment and social trust. Results showed significant difference among urban areas based on sustainability measures and urban environment living. Areas 1, 3 and 5 are favorite situation, area 4 is in mediate and area 2 is in low position. Some recommendations such; citizen participation, balanced distribution of urban landscape and monitoring of urban experts in urban spatial expansion according to sustainability criteria and measures were provided for policy making.