Explaining the relationship between city form and social sustainability (Case study: 22 districts of Tehran metropolitan)

Social sustainability is a subject that has attracted the attentions of researchers since the early years of 21st century. Social, economic, and ecological sustainability are considered as the three components of urban sustainable development. On the other hand, the urban form, as an important component of the city comprises communication networks, public transportation systems, pedestrian and bicycle accesses, spatial structures, spatial distribution of activities, housing and settlement size, natural phenomena and non-spatial aspects which all are important for studying and analyzing a city from different viewpoints. Considering the interdependence of the components of this concept with different dimensions of the city, its role on different aspects of sustainability, including social sustainability, would be indisputable. The emergence of urban sustainable development concept pushed the international NGOs and planners to introduce new frameworks for redesigning and reorganizing of cities in order to achieve the sustainability. A critical review of these approaches suggests a disagreement upon the most desirable form of urban sustainability. Social sustainability, due to its intangible nature as well as its focus of mankind and his interactions is subject for such contradictions. The present study was seeking to explain the relationships between the components of urban form and social sustainability in 22 districts of Tehran using a descriptive-analytic research method. Quantitative models such as factor analysis and linear regression as well as resident’s questionnaire (2200 questionnaires were completed among 22 districts of the city) and SPSS software helped the researchers to navigate this route. The findings of the present research showed that there is a significant relationship between the main factors of urban form and the factor of combined social sustainability indicators in all 22 districts of Tehran. Social sustainability indicators included citizen’s access to local services, social security, participation rates in social and group activities, interaction with other residents or social groups, residence satisfaction, and access to affordable housing for citizens. It was also determined that districts 5 and 6 had the highest scores in terms of social sustainability in Tehran.