The Role of Land use Planning in Reducing Energy Consumption: (Case Study : Sarafrazan Neighborhood in Mashhad)

According to available statistics and information, Iran ranks first in energy consumption in the world. Meanwhile, cities are the main consumers of energy (about two-thirds), and Mashhad is no exception. According to this issue, in recent years, planning in order to create cities that are optimal in terms of energy consumption has been considered as one of the most important goals of urban planning; In the meantime, it seems that land use planning at the level of urban neighborhoods, including the densely populated neighborhood of Sarafarazan in Mashhad, can help to optimize energy consumption by influencing different dimensions of the city's form and structure, building patterns, density, and transportation. In this way, this research has been carried out with the aim of verifying the role and effect of land use planning in order to reduce energy consumption in Sarafrazan neighborhood of Mashhad; Therefore, in the first step of this research, in the light of physical and social survey (questioning the residents of the neighborhood), the land use situation of Sarafarazan neighborhood of Mashhad city has been measured from the point of view of energy efficiency. In the next step, based on questioning experts and elites related to the topic of this research and familiar with the scope of the study, he explained the role and effect of land use planning in order to reduce energy consumption in the Sarafrazan neighborhood of Mashhad. The results of this research indicate that there is a significant, direct and strong relationship between the effective categories of land use, including local form and structure, transportation and building sector, and energy consumption reduction at the level of Sarafrazan neighborhood. Also, the effective categories of land use significantly explain the reduction of energy consumption at the level of this neighborhood. Nevertheless, although the land use of Sarafarazan neighborhood in the building sector is somewhat moving in the direction of energy efficiency, but in the two sectors of form and local structure and transportation, basically, the land use of this neighborhood plays a lesser role in reducing energy consumption.