Studying The Role of Segregation in the Emerging of Deteriorated Urban Fabrics Case Study: ‘Qāssem-Ābād’ District (Mashhad, Iran)

Unlike what is usually thought, the distress of urban fabric is not only a physical phenomenon, but it is a mix of socioeconomic, political and physical factors that their interaction lead to urban distress.Therefore, the current study aims to study the relationship between segregation and pervasive distress in in the 10th Municipal District of Mashhad. To do this, at first a set of criteria and indexes for evaluating segregation and pervasive distress were recognized in various dimensions, and then with an emphasis on Mashhad's master plan's and census data 1390, the pervasive distress of urban fabrics and the way they are segregated were studied in order to be compared with each other finally.Results indicate that the mere emphasis on physical factors for evaluating urban fabrics' distress cannot make an appropriate understanding of they in which this phenomenon is happening in urban context, and because the studied area's segregation map matches the distress map of the same area, it can be concluded that segregation and the concentration of low socioeconomic classes and become segregated from other groups, are effective in the spread of distress in urban fabrics. In other words, those groups who were not able to be attracted to city's socioeconomic system, become concentrated in some areas of the city and appeal other people with the same characteristics to those areas, just like strong magnets. This concentration of low classes leads to the increase of inefficiency of urban fabrics, a phenomenon which can be called "pervasive distress".