سید حسین بحرینی

The Abkooh neighborhood, once a rural village west of Mashhad, now faces critical urban challenges that have prompted various interventions aimed at revitalization. Initially, Abkooh was located seven kilometers from Mashhad, remaining a rural area until its formal inclusion within the city limits in 1972 as part of Mashhad’s comprehensive urban development plan. However, as the neighborhood evolved within the expanding city, it experienced substantial socio-economic, physical, and legal issues, largely due to its incompatibility with surrounding urban areas. Legal disputes involving prominent landowners, Astan Quds and Awqaf, have further exacerbated these challenges, deteriorating Abkooh’s quality of life and diminishing its integration with the city. Despite several development plans aimed at reinvigorating its identity, Abkooh today represents a vulnerable urban fabric, lacking essential qualities that contribute to a livable urban environment.Theoretical Framework
Deteriorated urban areas like Abkooh often evolve within a complex historical, social, and economic landscape, yet face structural and functional deficits that limit their livability. Unlike other urban spaces, improving place quality in such areas demands a context-sensitive approach with distinct intervention priorities. In this study, “place” is understood as more than a physical environment; it encompasses the lived experiences, cultural meanings, and social interactions that define it. Place quality, in this sense, refers to an amalgamation of characteristics that not only enhance the physical space but also fulfill residents' needs, improving their quality of life and fostering satisfaction.
The phenomenology of place quality emphasizes the exploration of lived experience, viewing place as a multidimensional concept shaped by social, emotional, and physical factors. Within deteriorated urban areas, this study examines place quality through five main dimensions: perceptual-semantic, physical, socio-economic, functional, and environmental. The phenomenological perspective allows for a more profound understanding of these qualities by considering the personal and collective experiences of residents.

This research begins with an extensive review of theoretical approaches to place quality in deteriorated urban areas. The secondary research phase involved analyzing relevant national and international academic works published since 2000 using MAXQDA2018 software. To ensure validity, survey methods and interviews with urban design experts were conducted. The subsequent phase employs a first-person phenomenological approach, aiming to capture the lived experiences within Abkooh.
Over five weeks, researchers conducted site visits twice daily, in the mornings and evenings, each lasting three hours. Observational field notes, semi-structured interviews, audio recordings, and handwritten accounts were used to document resident experiences, drawing upon participant-observation techniques. Qualitative content analysis, supported by MAXQDA2018, enabled the systematic exploration of interview data. Additional data collection methods, including participatory observation, photography, and sketching, were employed to create a comprehensive record of findings.

The research findings reveal significant challenges and opportunities within the Abkooh neighborhood regarding place quality. Analyzing these factors through the Abkooh Quality of Urban Life Improvement Plan underscores the limitations of conventional evaluation methods. Specifically, library-based studies or expert-driven priorities alone fail to provide a realistic assessment of place quality in deteriorated urban areas. Phenomenological approaches, which respond to the unique attributes of each location, yield more precise and contextually appropriate insights.
The phenomenological evaluation identified six key dimensions that influence place quality in Abkooh: socio-economic, legal-management, physical, perceptual-semantic, environmental, and functional. Notably, the presence of a legal-management dimension is an essential addition due to the legal complexities surrounding land ownership in Abkooh. Furthermore, findings indicated that the prioritization of these dimensions varied throughout the three phases of research, underscoring the importance of flexible and adaptable strategies in urban intervention.

Effective urban planning in deteriorated neighborhoods like Abkooh must prioritize the relationship between individuals and place, focusing on the unique qualities and challenges of each neighborhood. Understanding place quality necessitates immersing oneself in the essence of the neighborhood without preconceived notions or standardized frameworks. Therefore, each deteriorated urban context must be approached as a unique phenomenon, evaluated through the eyes of its residents rather than solely through expert-driven or theory-based models.
Phenomenological methods highlight the distinctive attributes of place quality that may differ from theoretical or authority-led approaches. Simply relying on checklists and criteria derived from theoretical models or global best practices often fails to capture the complex reality of place quality in deteriorated urban contexts. By focusing on the lived experiences of residents, phenomenological approaches yield a deeper understanding of how urban spaces are perceived and experienced, leading to recommendations that more accurately align with community needs.
Incorporating this resident-centered perspective in planning processes enables cities to develop more inclusive and livable environments that address the specific needs and desires of inhabitants. By preventing gentrification and fostering a sense of belonging, phenomenological approaches encourage long-term resident retention and community cohesion, allowing neighborhoods to evolve without losing their identity.

The development of information and communication technology in the 20th century and the entry into the information age in the field of change in the global political and economic environment have seen many developments. Entering the information age has provided the foundation and root of the construction of the neoliberal government since the 1970s, and it has included changes in the current structures in its projects. Under the banner of these changes, the reorganization of capitalism can take place by describing the changes by informants. The economics of information provides an overview of the components of the economy and new changes, considering Castells' belief in connecting those components in the concept of "space of flows" as opposed to "space of places". Because of this, the city faces a new nature of space. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to reread the concept of space and urban space and its changes under the influence of the development of information and communication technology.

For this purpose, using the systematic review method, articles related to the effects of information and communication technology development on the city and urban space and place have been extracted, examined, and analyzed. This started by searching for valid articles and was done by studying the abstract and research results of more than 100 articles, monitoring them, and finally selecting 42 articles after entering the Excel software environment. The published articles are in English and between the period of 30 years, 1990-2020.

The review and analysis of the articles have separated the sub-branches related to the change of urban space and place due to the development of information and communication technologies into four main areas: urban design, urban planning, urban participation, and travel patterns. According to the results of the analysis, the areas and sub-areas effective in creating changes in the urban space and place were extracted, and shared spaces and dedicated spaces related to the four main areas were presented.

The development of information and communication technology will affect urban spaces and places in different ways and different aspects. Therefore, there is a need to reorganize urban activities and urban space and place. Information and communication technology can play a role as a factor in strengthening urban space, improving the quality of public spaces, and improving the performance of urban spaces. Therefore, the valuable location values multiply and affect the issue of location. Keyword

The advent of the information age in the 20th century due to the great changes in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) has led to the prevailing approach to maximizing the solution of urban problems for advancing urban planners, designers, and policy-makers. The rate of growth and extensive development of urban studies has provided a wide range of interactions between its different sections. Coinciding with its growing trend, the corona virus has been spreading around the world since December 2019, re-examining the role of ICT.

Theoretical Framework :

There is a lack of domestic research on ICT and the city. Given the existence of the gap and the importance of considering the area in urban studies, the purpose of this article is to identify, extract, and provide an interactive research space between the development of ICT and the subfields of urban studies in order to introduce and classify topics, approaches, methods, and results.

Using the method of systematic review, the content of published foreign scientific research was reviewed and analyzed. This was carried out with a search for valid articles, a study of the abstracts and research results of more than 150 articles and their review, and a final selection of 93 articles after entering them into the Excel software environment.

The selected articles have been published in English in the period of 30 years between 1990 and 2020. Monitoring, examining, and extracting the key themes of the articles led us to 8 categories, including 1) urban policy, 2) electronic participation, 3) smart city, 4) city structure and spatial organization, 5) travel behavior, 6) digital gap, 7) public space, 8) and competitiveness, and 30 sub-themes. About 90% of the articles have been published in reputable scientific journals, and the rest appear in books and conference proceedings. An examination of the frequency of articles shows the growing worldwide trend in concern for this field in urban studies in recent years. According to the analysis made in the research, the use of ICT is applicable to planning theories at all levels, including the two levels of access and data processing and communication independent of time and place. These technologies enhance and promote the development of networks, social cohesion, and smart development of the city. The digital gap is intrinsically related to digital and urban inequalities. In network-oriented cities and societies, the issue of communication poverty is as important as traditional poverty. Many discussions have been raised by researchers on the impact of ICT on the structure and spatial organization of the city. Despite the initial premise of using the technology, which was to reduce concentration and increase urban dispersion, two more approaches, the centralization approach and the dual approach, have also been proposed in the field. The development of ICT has profound consequences on urban economic competitiveness. ICT is the basic driver for smartness in cities. A provider of access to the transfer of information and planning tools, granting the opportunity to share modes of transportation and work from a distance, the technology is of considerable importance for transportation systems. The relationship between the urban public space and technological developments and the development of ICT with the spread of the corona virus has been taken into consideration. Recent studies show that the spread of the corona virus has multiplied the use of ICT, which will definitely change the severity of its impact on the city and urban planning and design more rapidly. Therefore, this article is presented in order to explain the various dimensions of this issue.

Given the application of ICT in the field of urban planning, it is comprehensible that the creation of links with urban planning and design has proceeded slowly despite the increasing development of telecommunication technologies. It is necessary to consider the complex relationship between the city and ICT. On the one hand, the relationship has raised the challenge of polarization, inaccessibility, and urban injustice, and on the other hand, it has involved benefits such as increased participation and social networking, urban innovation and creativity, and urban sustainability and intelligence. In fact, it is necessary to fill the gap between ICT and urban planning. The central solution framework of the smart city is based on the city rather than intelligence. One of the most important challenges discussed in the previous studies is the issue of accessibility among different social classes. In spite of the initial hypothesis that the importance of place is reduced as that of distance decreases due to the development of ICT, place still matters. The point to be considered in regard to the relationship between the density and spread of the corona virus is the absence of a direct relationship between its population density and death. In fact, the ever-increasing development of ICT and the persistence of policies of closure and maintenance of social distancing during the pandemic are themselves factors effective in the development of digital facilities and technologies in the city. Urban spaces are changing and transforming due to the development of new technologies. In fact, the urban space paradigm established in 2020 promises the emergence of virtual open spaces. Future studies will be focused especially on an understanding of the shift towards the digital space and the emergence of a combination of the real space and the virtual space in developed countries. Moreover, it is necessary to know the social dimensions of urban spaces according to the conditions imposed by the corona virus in order to understand the type and method of changing the shape of the public space of the city and social interactions. Finally, the study and review of the valuable articles published in the area of ​​the interface between the city and ICT has raised wide, diverse issues that require familiarity, mastery, and theoretical specialization besides their practical applications for policy-makers, planners, and urban designers and managers.

In the present world, cities have become the main place of economic activity and growth, and the richest cities are those which have developed the permanent birth of the entrepreneurial process. However, urban management has the necessary capacity to provide resources, motivate citizens and lay the groundwork for urban entrepreneurship.The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of good urban governance indicators for the development of urban entrepreneurship in Hamedan and also to investigate the correlation between the indicators of good urban governance and urban entrepreneurship in Hamedan.This research is in the category of descriptive researches in terms of applied purpose and method.In order to collect data, two methods of document analysis and survey have been used. The research tool is a questionnaire.Spearman correlation test and structural equation method under smart PLS software were used to analyze the collected data.According to the results of Spearman correlation test, there is a significant relationship between the indicators of good urban governance and urban entrepreneurship with a 95% confidence level. Based on the values of correlation coefficients, urban entrepreneurship has the most relationship with the index of efficiency and effectiveness and the least relationship with the index of strategic perspective.he results of structural equations also showed that the effect of urban governance indicators on urban entrepreneurship in Hamedan is equal to 78%, so governance indicators have a positive and significant effect on urban entrepreneurship in Hamedan.Among the indicators of good urban governance, decentralization, efficiency and effectiveness, rule of law and participation with beta coefficients of 0.81, 0.80, 0.78 and 0.77 have the most impact on urban entrepreneurship in Hamedan, respectively. Therefore, the move of Hamedan urban management towards good urban governance with an entrepreneurial approach can lead to the development of entrepreneurship, employment and reducing unemployment, and ultimately the growth of the urban economy.

The theoretical foundations of the development of information and communication technology are essentially pursued with a focus on the concept of impossibility and inequality. The results of various theories and actions related to the development of this type of technology in the city, provide a lot of evidence about the inconsistent effects of information and communication technologies on urban space and place in the context of cities. Therefore, in order to find the nature and direction of changes due to the development of these technologies in the city, the main question of the present article is to find the components affecting the development of these types of technologies and determine their development process. The main purpose of this study was to identify the factors and components affecting the relationship and how information and communication technology affects the city and urban space and place and to find their relationship with the categories extracted from the theoretical literature in order to determine the urban policy trajectory.The research based on the qualitative method of interviewing elites with 15 specialists and university professors in the fields of urban planning, sociology, transportation and urban geography until theoretical saturation has been conducted in a semi-structured manner, based on a questionnaire designed in the form of 15 open-ended questions. Findings show that based on 6 main categories (value of physical space, new concept of time and distance, optimal technology-based urban development, freedom of activities from the spatial component, replacement of face-to-face activities, favorable urban traffic), 4 dimensions (social, political-economic , Physical and infrastructural), 36 main components and 121 sub-components were extracted, studied, refined and classified in the form of two characteristics of reinforcement (64 components) and limiting (57 components). Accordingly, the policy resulting from these two approaches, the urban planning system undergoes a fundamental change and transformation, and certainly affects the urban management and planning system of Iranian cities. Therefore, the present study tries to present effective factors, components and policies in the two directions of deterrence and propulsion in the form of conceptual matrices.

Numerous, various, and sometimes conflicting definitions of Islamic city by Iranian and non-Iranian researchers have resulted in confusion about its concept as far as physical views are concerned. The challenge arises from the combination of two complex and wide-ranging categories: ‘city’ and ‘Islam.’  It is not easy to establish a connection between these two broad multi-layered (from surface to internal layers) concepts since it requires a deep theoretical and practical foundation.

This paper aims to examine the concept of city in authentic religious texts. The best source which helps to understand the truth of the Islamic city and its meaning is the Quran.

This research draws on an exegetical-analytic method. About the Quran as the main source of the research, it deploys an exegetical-interpretive method, and for this purpose, we have relied on the well-known Quranic exegesis, al-Mīzān. Moreover, to compare the Islamic theory of city and that of Orientalists about an Islamic city, the advantage is taken of the analytic-comparative method.

Given the results of this Quranic research, we conclude that the concept of an Islamic city goes beyond forms and physical bodies, amounting to a cultural (doctrinal-behavioral) aspect. The theory of Quranic city highlights three main ingredients of the conceptual structure of a city—that is, people, law, and urban government—and stands against the predominant physical approach in mainstream research. The Quranic utopia is an axiological-normative concept constituted by human relations. In this Islamic-Quranic utopia, a city consists of a combination of one’s relation with God, oneself, others, and nature in terms of different political, economic, cultural, and physical systems.

After several decades of public participation becoming one of the important principles of planning discourse, and the emergence of local and popular institutions such as the city council in the political and social structure of the country, the real role and position of this institution in the urban planning system It has not been determined and is facing many questions and ambiguities. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the role and position of this institution in the urban planning system. Using content analysis of current laws and regulations and the results of surveys of citizens, city council members and academics with the method of qualitative and content analysis and interpretation of the findings, the necessary analysis was done and finally showed the results of the research; Despite the definition of the role and position of various and independent of the three powers (decision-making, supervisory, legislative, facilitator, etc.) for the city council institution by current laws, there are not enough legal requirements for the decisions of this institution and also the process of preparation and The approval of the plans has followed a centralist structure and no effective and decisive position has been defined for the local institution of the city council. Factors such as; Limited legal powers, lack of urban planning knowledge of council members, etc. have weakened the position of this institution in the urban planning system.

Historic areas as a cultural heritage and reflection of past generations lives are the identity and potential of cities inner development. The excessive growth and evolution of cities has caused social, physical, environmental and economic problems in these areas. Utilizing regeneration approaches considering the principles of sustainable development can exert a strong influence over upgrading urban livability in different aspects. The main objective of this study is to identify the principles and factors of sustainable regeneration in historic areas of Rasht. The required data for this research was collected through library studies and questionnaires. The scope of the study are 400 Rasht citizens who live in historic areas of the city and are selected using Cochran formula. Spss software, One-sample Statistical T-test and multivariate regression are used in order to analyze the data. The results indicated that after the regeneration, community based principle has a desirable condition among the principles of sustainable regeneration and the principles of holism and procedural respectively were assessed below the desirable average. Moreover, some of the factors of holism and community based principles were considered one-dimensionally and the principle of procedural and legal factors does not have a desirable condition and are not in the direction of achieving an urban sustainable development. Eventually, the sustainable regeneration research model was built with an emphasis on legal factors in the mentioned region.

Since long time ago, theoreticians and intellectuals of urban and non-urban fields have concerned themselves with providing outlines and portraits of, and thoughts about, utopia. In principle when it comes to utopia, everyone complains about the status quo, looks for a solution under utopia so as to improve the situation, and provides an imaginary or actual outline of utopian features. There are very few people, nevertheless, who provide an outline of dystopia in order to give an indirect account of the features of utopia.

In this paper, my goal is to consider the Quranic dystopia so as to find out more about the features of Quranic utopia.

In my inquiry into the concept of Quranic utopia in this paper, I have deployed a reverse method; that is, I unearth the features of utopia via those of dystopia. In my references to the Qur’an as the main source of the research, I have deployed an exegetical-interpretational method relying mainly on al-Mīzān in order to understand Quranic verses.

In this research, I have identified four city-related concepts in the Qur’an: balad, qarya, madīna, and miṣr. The word, qarya, is synonymous with dystopia, and balad denotes utopia, and by considering them together, we can account for Quranic utopia.
Qarya or the Quranic dystopia is a city whose people are not believers—they do not believe in God, the day of resurrection, the prophethood of prophets, and the imamate of the Imams, and do not do righteous actions. They are obstinate and vicious, they are deniers, polytheists, unbelievers, and oppressors. These are people who seek more pleasure, more wealth, unlimited freedom, greater domination, more general praise, and in a word, they love this world and seek no goals except the enjoyment of this world. When the Qur’an deals with the features of dystopia, it is mainly concerned with lifestyles, beliefs, moral attitudes, and conducts of people of “town” (qarya) and its rulers, and rarely does it deal with anatomical features thereof.

Features enumerated by Fārābī for his dystopias are compatible with those of the Quranic dystopia. Moreover, through a comparison between contemporary cities and Quranic dystopias, I conclude that contemporary cities are in a regressive direction towards qarya.

Development of communicative action theory in urban planning, has introduced new perspectives in the contexts such as public interest, urban justice, equal social and economic opportunities, empowering deprived urban classes, rejecting the dominance over nature, participation of people, and rejection of the sovereignty of power and money. Considering that the way of achieving urban sustainability is to pay attention to social dimensions along with economic and environmental dimensions and to establish a balanced relationship between them, this research considers communicative action theory as one of the most important areas of sustainability, and believes that for going toward the sustainability; a relationship between stakeholders should be exist from the lower policy levels to the highest levels, and sustainability will not be possible if this discourse and communication is distorted. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between communicative action and urban sustainability. In this regard, research hypotheses have been developed that indicate a significant relationship between communicative action and urban sustainability in Tehran city as a case study.

In this paper, the concept of communicative action includes indicators which are presence in urban space, communicative rationality, critical point of view and social capital; and the concept of sustainability includes the dimensions which are social, economic, environmental, physical, institutional and political; and the relationship between these mentioned variables and dimensions has been investigated. This research is descriptive-analytical. The theoretical framework of this research is based on documentary studies and its operational part is conducted with quantitative analysis based on field study. Based on multistage cluster sampling, region three in the north, region ten in the center and region nineteen in the south of Tehran city were selected. These regions were located on the basis of development indicators such as “housing, education, employment, demographic indicators, access to information; and infrastructure” and were identified respectively as developed, moderate developed and underdeveloped region. Sample size was divided according to the distribution of the population of the administrative neighborhoods of the regions and ultimately (according to the sampling rules) the results will be generalized to the whole city of Tehran. The number of samples based on the Cochran formula was estimated to be 384 that were distributed in proportion to the number of neighborhoods in each of these three regions. The research hypotheses were analyzed by SPSS software.

Reliability of the researcher-made questionnaire of this paper was measured by Cronbach's alpha test and shows that the questionnaire has a high reliability. The questionnaire is also based on content validity and has been reviewed several times. Structural validity (factor analysis) was measured using the KMO test, which indicates the fitting of the data, and the Bartlett test, which suggests that there is the possibility of performing factor analysis on research data. The ten extracted factors are the result of 55 items that have been used in subsequent analyzes.Communicative action analysis was performed based on four components of presence in urban space, communicative rationality, critical point of view and social capital. According to Kruskal-Wallis test, at 99% significance level, the communicative action is different among three regions of Tehran City, so that the third region with the average score of 161.27 has the highest communicative action. These differences indicate that Tehran does not follow a single pattern. But in all three regions, social capital is the highest among the other indexes.The Pearson correlation test was used to identify the relationship between communicative action and urban sustainability. The relationship between communicative action and urban sustainability is significant using Pearson correlation test with a confidence level of 99%, and Pearson coefficient of this relation is about 0.617 in Tehran, which indicates a high correlation between these two concepts. In other words, the reduction or increase of communicative action has a direct and high impact on the sustainability of the city.The results also show that the relationship between communicative action and sustainability is different between the three regions. Thus, the correlation between these two concepts in region three by using Pearson coefficient is 0.635 which is more than of region ten with Pearson coefficient of 0.507 and of the nineteen region with Pearson coefficient of 0.381.In this research, the relationship between communicative action and various dimensions of sustainability has also been evaluated. The relationship between communicative action with social, economic, environmental, physical, institutional and political dimensions of urban sustainability has been measured by Pearson correlation test. The results show that the relationship between communicative action and all dimensions of sustainability is significant at 99% confidence level and the relationship between communicative action and political dimension of sustainability with coefficient of 0.613, social dimension with coefficient of 0.608 and institutional dimension with coefficient of 59.22 is higher among other dimensions.

The results show that the changes in communicative action have a direct and significant impact on urban sustainability and all its dimensions; and strengthening communicative action can lead to increase all dimensions of sustainability in Tehran city. In addition, the relationship between communicative action and sustainability varies between the three urban regions. Results show that this relationship in region three is greater than that of region ten; and in the region ten it is more than region nineteen.The third hypothesis of this research is devoted to the relationship between communicative action and the income. The results show that there is a positive and poor correlation between these two variables. With the conclusion of the second and third hypotheses, it can be concluded that the relationship between communicative action and sustainability in a region is more appropriate with the economic conditions. By substantiating the assumptions of this research, its claim to consider communicative action as one of the most important areas of sustainability is accepted.

A review of the literature on the subject of urban planning education in the developing countries shows serious challenges in formulating the content of education in these countries. One subject is the relation between content of education in these countries and the role that planners play. No doubt the education content of what planners need should be in congruence with the professional role and position of planner in the society. In other words, before defining the education content, we should make it clear what kind of planner we intend to train and what do we expect of this planner to do. On these basis, this critical question may raise that what role urban planner essentially play in the developing countries and to what extent the content of education in these countries should adapt to this role? A brief review of the literature indicates that two general roles of active vs. advisory (or technician role) have been dominant in urban planning. Choosing between these two would imply different education content. The education content consists of three elements of knowledge, skills, and values, each of which has its own unique details. The importance of these sub-elements is different in different roles of planners. In the active role, the main knowledge needed is substantive/fundamental, the most important skill is communicative, and it is value or normative based. In the case of technician role, on the other hand, the dominant knowledge is procedural / applied, skills are technical and analytical and values are not important. In this article, the role of urban planner in Iran, as a developing country, will be analyzed, and, then, the most important knowledge and skills which are relevant to this role will be defined. In other words, this study intends to find answers to the following questions: What is the role of urban planner in Iran, as a developing country? What are the most important knowledge and skills needed by urban planners in developing countries? And finally to what extent the related educational contents are prioritized on the basis of actual role of planner? The study of planner role in the developing countries, and Iran as a case study, shows that the dominant view for the planner role is technician or advisory role in the decision-making process and the main focus is on preparing urban development plans at different scales (from national spatial planning to specific detailed plans). Planners are actively involved in physical studies. Reflection of the planner role on the education content in the developing countries shows the dominance of procedural / applied knowledge which are courses with physical orientation such as studios, urban space analysis, introduction to urban planning, urban design methods and GIS (versus environment, economics, social issues), and technical and analytical skills(versus communication skills) and values do not play any role in this regard. These results shows that there is a conformity between urban planner's role and educational content in Iran as a case study for developing countries.

Islamic city” is a term coined by mostly French Orientalists who had undertaken structural studies of cities in northern Africa, they provided some characteristics of cities they had observed (and not all cities with Muslim residents), and attributed the characteristics to the Islamic city, notwithstanding the fact that some of these characteristics went back to climates, and others to the interminglement of cultures, manners, and customs of a land with the Islamic culture, which were not directly related to existential and legislative doctrines within the Islamic worldview. Therefore, in order to scrutinize the concept of city in Islam, we need to consult its most important source, that is the Quran, as well as the tradition, so as to home in on existential and legislative characteristics of the Islamic city. In this paper, we deploy methods of phenomenology and textual interpretation to inquire the notion of city, and we have gleaned four concepts (“balad,” “qaryah,” “madina,” and “misr”) from the Quran. Features of these concepts are elaborated by drawing on exegeses provided by prominent religious scholars and a survey of relevant hadiths. These features are then compared with theories of Orientalists about the Islamic city as well as modern theories of urbanization and features of contemporary (Islamic) cities. Studies show that in the Islamic Sharia, there are specific instructions for people’s lifestyle, which determine the conditions in which they live in the city, and in the end, the city is formed and its structure is constructed in virtue of such lifestyle, along with other factors (cultural, geographical, etc.). What is known today as the Islamic city is far from aforementioned doctrines, and cannot thus be property described as Islamic city. A city is Islamic if its interiors and exteriors are both Islamic.

Lack of attention to the “dynamic” concept of the landscape, the “holistic” approach to it, and the use of conventional methods in the study of urban development projects has shaped an urban landscape that is unable to meet the demands of its inhabitants over time. Therefore, considering the ineffectiveness and divergence of the study method in the urban development plans of Iran and given the variability of today’s city, it is necessary to adopt an appropriate approach to today’s urban conditions. Landscape Urbanism theory, with a general approach to the concept of landscape and accepting the uncertainty of the evolving city, has raised a new field in the global literature. This theory, with an approach to confronting the complexities of the contemporary city, sees the “landscape” as an active phenomenon over time and emphasizes functional dimensions beyond its purely aesthetic aspects. At present, there are criticisms about putting the theoretical aspects of this approach to practice. Since the highest application of this theory is in the field of landscape architecture, most of its criticisms relate to the field of urbanism knowledge, the application of its theoretical framework to the city scale and the lack of executive instances. In this regard, the correct understanding and analysis of the theoretical issues of urban planning and its adaptation to the concept of sustainability, as a basis for thinking, can reveal its hidden dimensions. It is clear that further research on the application of this theory, along with the formulation of design principles, is an important factor in reducing the gap between theory and practice, solving structural problems and identifying the potential of this new approach to urban planning. The purpose of this research is to describe the theoretical framework of “landscape urbanism” theory as a new approach in urban design that aims at achieving a sustainable landscape. This study tries to emphasize the “procedure” and “substantive” dimensions in the design of sustainable urban landscape while developing the theoretical framework of this approach based on sustainability concepts. In this regard, the present paper seeks to confirm the following statements: - Understanding the dynamic concept of landscape and its “holistic approach” in today’s urban conditions leads to the formation of a landscape that can be “sustained” on a time scale. - The “stability” of the city’s main structure, along with the “flexibility” of open urban areas and urban neighborhoods against the changing conditions and needs of the community, can provide the ground for the formation of a sustainable landscape in the present situation. - The approach of “landscape urbanism”, as an efficient approach in the studies of urban development projects in Iran, in addition to “substantive dimensions”, needs a “infrastructure” for realizing its theoretical framework in the field of action. Based on the results of the research, the concept of sustainability in the theory of landscape urbanism includes the “stability” of the main structure of the city and the “change” of activities and programs proportionate to the changing conditions over time. Thus, the theoretical framework of landscape urbanization, with the features of “uncertainty” and “change”, can be used to design “open spaces” within and around the city as well as “urban neighborhoods” that are more “adaptable” and “flexible”. In this regard, the emphasis is on participatory planning from the bottom up, the design of the process-oriented with an integrated approach from regional to local scale in the urban landscape, and on the local identity.

Speed as a matter of mobility lies at the core of the modernity. It overcomes the physical distances by various modes of transportation, and is able to distribute data and information through telecommunication tools. Generally, the challenge created by speed is its sudden and hasty effect in a physical or even virtual environment which can lead to non conformities and a kind of disruption in present function of the system and would be harmful to the new agent, the environment itself or other users of it. So the pervasive impact of speed in changing communities and the human settlements is revealed. In detailed point of view, the study of variety of technological tools and the plurality of physical infrastructures in Shiraz urban structure shows the emergence of multiple speeds that led to the complexity, extension and dispersion of the city. Therefore, this amount of change in a short period of time caused a serious problem especially in measurement and evaluation of the city's structure. On this basis, the goal of this article is to gain a comprehensive view of speed, furthermore achieving an interrelationship between speed and urban structure is considered. This is investigated and analyzed through four speed ages extracted in both global and national scale. The objectives would be obtaining the urban corridors in the structure of Shiraz city in four speed ages which has the highest potential of mobility and this is coinciding with the definition of speed extracted in the epochs mentioned before. The proof of this claim is performed through space syntax analysis and its most practical criterion which is called the integration value. Moreover, in order to carry out a comprehensive and detailed investigation of speed in the present age, the study of different modes of transportation comprised of bus corridors, special taxi corridors and metro stations is done. Also the network analysis in physical context which has been done through space syntax, is applied. Besides, the virtual infrastructure of two main telephone portables in Iranian networks including Irancell and MCI coverage is studied. The overlapping of the above maps results the multi mobility-multi speed corridors in the structure of Shiraz which is comprised of a wide range of speed between minimum and maximum rate in the categories of natural speed, mechanical speed and virtual speed. These corridors achieve their multi functional characteristics through a historical and evolutionary process. The aforementioned corridors are the main streets ending to the five entrances of Shiraz city, number of corridors agglomerated in central part of city, and many east-west corridors versus few north-south corridors scattered in different city directions. As a result, in order to make a coherent and integrated structure, it is important to consider proper distribution of corridors in the north-south direction along with east-west direction also making an appropriate connection between these directions is suggested. The augmentation and reinforcement of south and east corridors together with north and west, also strengthening and emphasizing on the corridors connected to the peripheral settlements is recommended.

The Lack of attention to the "dynamic" concept of the landscape, the "holistic" approach to it, as well as the use of conventional methods in the study of urban development projects, has shaped the urban landscape that is unable to meet the demands of its inhabitants over time. Therefore, considering the ineffectiveness and divergence of the study method in the urban development plans of Iran with the variability of today's city, it is necessary to adopt an appropriate attitude to today's urban conditions. Landscape Urbanism theory with a general approach to the concept of landscape and accepting the uncertainty of the evolving city, has raised a new field in global literature. The purpose of this paper is to use the Landscape Urbanism theory to change the method of studies in urban development projects of Iran, especially the "Comprehensive Quality Improvement Document for Urban Landscape." The methods of this qualitative research are "Content Analysis, "Comparative Study" and "Case Study". The results of this study show that the use of Landscape Urbanism theory in Iran requires understanding theoretical content, updating the urban landscape rules and improving the status of local institutions in the urban design and planning process.

The concept of legitimacy along with its close meanings and implications such as righteousness, justification, validity, etc. has always been one of the domains of interest in political structures and public and even private systems. However, despite the rhetorical use of this concept in the current discourses in the political arena, its implications in the specialized sub-systems of a government, including an urban planning and development system, are less discussed. In this study, an attempt was made to investigate the dimensions and factors of legitimacy of an urban planning and development system through reviewing scholarly literature, as well as interviews with 23 experts and elites in the field of urban planning in Iran. The results showed that there is no significant difference and epistemic gap between the content of the studies in global literature and the total perception of the domestic experts regarding the dimensions and factors of legitimacy of an urban planning system. In total, 17 factors of legitimacy in four dimensions, namely, political-social, legal, normative, and technical-functional were identified. Subsequently, through interviewing 16 out of 23 of the participating experts, the internal relationship and potential interactions among these factors were investigated by ‘fuzzy cognitive mapping’ method. Finally, based on the composite indicator resulting from the averaged normalized value of three indicators, namely, frequency, centrality, and total intensity of potential impact of each factor and dimension on other factors in the network, the factors and dimensions were sorted out based on their score. The results revealed that the legal dimension had the highest score overall and the political-social, technical-functional, and normative dimensions ranked next in order.

Studying the failure and ineffectiveness of urban development plans in Iran has been considered by many researchers. In the meantime, the decisions of urban managers cannot be denied in strengthening these challenges. If we look closer to the matter of them, it seems that "ethics" is a point that is sometimes not explained properly or is sometimes forgotten. At the same time, the shortage of models and codified ethical principles allows each person to take action that is perhaps the best in his view but is not ethically optimal. So this research aimed to offer an ethical decision-making framework for urban managers in developing plans. The framework divided the ethical decision-making to procedural and substantive approaches. The substantive-oriented approach is focused on analyzing the context and procedural approach is focused on the ethical decision-making process. To study this framework, "Comprehensive Plan of Abasbad Lands (ratified in 2005)" was chosen as a case study and its processes, from procurement to implementation, were analyzed by the substantive view. Due to the emphasis of study on the role of urban managers, its implementation process also was analyzed from the procedural approach viewpoint.
The research method is mixed-method; in other words, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. The research method was simultaneous type that it carries out qualitative and quantitive methods simultaneously and both with the same purpose. In fact, the common goal of both methods has been a response to the single theoretical framework. In quantitative part, survey and questionnaire were used for data collection. The Directed content analysis method has been used in qualitative part to analyze the open questions of the questionnaire, documents, laws, etc. To achieve valid results of statistical sampling, the snowball technique was used. The study population included all experts, scholars and urban managers dealing with the plan and total of 23 questionnaires were received. Quantitative data analysis used nonparametric statistics, such as Friedman test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Kruskal-Wallis test.
Substantive analysis of ethical decision-making in the processes of procurement to implement plan shows that as the process moves from procurement into the implement, it gets farther from ethical content and this difference is more pronounced for the project implementation. For the procedural dimension of ethical decision-making that particularly addresses the implementation of the project, it was shown that as procedures get closer to ethical decision implementation, its desirability is reduced. The results lead to the analysis of challenges that urban managers are facing. Some of the main challenges of ethical decision-making in preparation and approval processes can be stated in the ineffectiveness of the urban management system and the impact of individual factors. Also, challenges facing the implementation process include duality in the nature of land management, external pressure against the ethics and imbalance to provide both private and public interests. Another notable result of this study is a high convergence of responders and lack of impact of their personal positions, which leads to higher reliability of the overall results of the study.

The old cities of Iran have different qualities that some of them cannot be seen in contemporary cities. Experiencing the invasion of cars and people’s new life style during the last century, old city gradually lost their forms and function. Such changes caused new challenges and demands by which various qualities of old cities have been altered or vanished forever, as urban cohesion and wholeness. Cohesion and wholeness are two related concepts where the former one is a fundamental condition to reach the later one. In this paper, wholeness is defined as an integrated system, consisted of different elements and their relations which can tolerate no changes, since a trivial one may change it into another system. Moreover, cohesion is considered as an important quality of relations between different elements of the whole. Although cohesion can be seen with various scales in different layers of cities, the layer that is emphasized in this paper is the built environment.For the theoretical framework of this paper, we used complexity theory with emphasis on Christopher Alexander and Nikos Salingaros theories about wholeness and coherent urban form. We extracted principals of urban coherence to evaluate the cohesion of central part of Shiraz and to make design guidelines to achieve cohesion. These principles are: coupling, diversity, boundary, forces, organization, hierarchy, interdependence, and decomposition. And also a wide range of valid records, documents, and maps are used which enabled us to illustrate the main structure of this old city, before its destruction in Pahlavi era. Taking into account all of these principles, we focused on these questions: does cohesion exist in the ancient area of this city? Can we find some application of these principals in the old city that could be as a foundation for design guidelines?As our first contribution, we used the principles and evaluated their existence by applying them to an old area of Shiraz city which dates back to the Zand dynasty. Due to our promising results, mentioned principles can be seen in old city. On one hand, the existence of these principles in the old city means that the old area follows the rules of complex system theory so it emphasizes that the old area is a coherent area. On the other hand, it suggests some design principals and patterns that can be considered as a foundation for design guidelines towards coherence and coupling contemporary city. Our second contribution is a design guideline for cohering contemporary cities by connecting two adjacent areas. These guidelines are: complementarity of adjacent areas, increasing the permeability of area in its edges, reducing unlimited views, reducing parcel size of edges, reducing the distance between adjacent areas, increasing the permeability of edge parcels, priority of pedestrian movements, increasing the diversity of functions, increasing the diversity of forms, and increase the homogeneity of parcels in a street. By using these guidelines we can increase the connectivity of two adjacent areas in the first step and increase the cohesion of the whole city in the last step.... Key words: Wholeness, Form Cohesion, Complexity System Theory, Urban Form Principles.

While there are crucial debates about urban planning education - whether to have both undergraduate and graduatelevels, or only graduate level education, 70 percent of urban planning students in Iran studied in undergraduatelevel. There are different ideas in this issue. Some believe that urban planning education should be presented justat the graduate level. Some, on the other hand, accept the interrelationship of urban planning decision-making onother disciplines, but emphasize on the abilities of the planner with undergraduate education and also the possibilityof getting into urban planning field at the age of 18-19. Some experts focus on the importance of urban planningat the undergraduate level since 1991 and believe that undergraduate education of urban planning become soimportant because of financial problems.Main question in this paper is: “could there be and any justification for the undergraduate education in urbanplanning in Iran, or not”? Questioners and interview methods were used to collect the required information. A totalof 187 questionnaires were filled by planning directors and instructors, lectures and graduates of eleven universitiesthroughout the country. In addition 12 depth interview has been done by famous planners in Iran. We asked themabout the necessity of undergraduate level of urban planning and role of this level graduates in society.The study results show 87.2 percent of respondents think that undergraduate education is necessary in urbanplanning in Iran. The result of the interviews also shows the same idea. They noted to some reasons like independentidentity for urban planning, society need, expanding urban challenges and lack of professional people and experts,infusion of holistic view from 18 years old, good effects of graduates, short time for familiarity with urban issues ingradate level (2 year), introduction for choosing future branch, preparing urban experts of governance and otherorganizations. People who were against undergraduate level stated some reasons like interdisciplinary identity ofurban planning, unmeaning less subjects and contents, overlapping between undergraduate and graduate lessons.Based on this research undergraduate level is necessary for urban planning in Iran because of professional andacademic reasons. It is expected that urban planners with Bachelor degree more deal with urban topics with smallerscale and less complexity (such as the comprehensive plan of rural and small towns) and participation in gatheringdata and describing the status quo in the urban development plan for different scale. The key point is revising ineducational content in graduate level and focusing on make it more proficiency and analytical.The remarkable thing is increasing in the number of undergraduate students in urban planning especially in somekind of universities like Islamic Azad, Payamenoor and nonprofit University. Because of the weakness of the ratioof the number of students to lecture in this kind of university, the subject would be a serious problem in urbanplanning. In addition, this increasing is not based on the market demand and it could lead to a lot of problems forgraduates of Bachelor's in urban development.... Key words: Urban Planning Education, Undergraduate, Graduate, Justification, Iran.

This study aims to investigate the role of wind speed and wind direction in ventilation condition and pollutants concentration in street canyons with different aspect ratios through using ENVI-met software in a quantitative and experimental way. The results demonstrate how the combination of different wind variables (direction & speed) with different aspect ratios of canyons, can alter the ventilation condition, flow pattern and also pollutant concentration inside the urban street canyons. The result of simulations in some sections of Valiasr and Taleqani streets considering three different ratio of height to width proportion (0.3, 0.65 and 1.5) for the canyons, and two minimum and maximum threshold values for wind speed (1 m/s and 2.5 m/s) in west and south west direction, showed that increasing the wind speed to all directions (in this case west and south west) in a canyon with different aspect ratios (in this study 0.3, 0.65 and 1.5) can improve ventilation condition inside the canyon and reduce pollutants concentration within it. When the wind direction is perpendicular to the canyon, by increase of aspect ratio, the pollutant concentration will significantly increase inside the canyon, whereas the parallel wind direction in the same test shows opposite results. The findings of this study as well as subsequent findings resulted from combination of different concerned variables, as a general framework can help urban designers and planners to decide on the geometry and direction of street canyons.

Climate has always been one the main factors of designing urban spaces in Iran since past centuries. By analyzing urban spaces it can be concluded that different cities have different urban spaces due to climate differences. One of the main reasons of the differences in the type and orientation of urban spaces is the climate as one of the key factors in designing these areas. Regarding climate in designing is equivalent to involving the users of the space, basically because climate adjustments can encourage more people to use the designed spaces.Hence,it can be saidthat climatic spaces are humanistic spaces as well. Therefore, climate directly influenceculture and plays a decisive role both inthe body and behavior of theusers. Thus,it could have a very effective role in how people use or how they behave in designed spaces.
Materials and A mix of several methods has been used for more compatibility with research purposes. This used library documents and has a comparative-analyticalmethod. The basic dataand the research background information have been gathered through documentative method and from library resources. For the fieldwork, the descriptive method (describing the phenomenon) has been used. Then, people patterns of behaviors were studied by an interpretative-qualitative method in each climate to analyze and infer the discussions in order. And at last, a comparative method has been used to analyze the results in order to set out urban design criteria. In this comparative method, it was tried to compare people patterns of behavior in two cold- mountainous, and hot and humid climates, and to analyze its results to elicit criteria for urban space design considering the effects of climate on the user behaviors. In this research, the people behaviors were studied, analyzed and compared in two different seasons of the year (the hottest and the coldest seasons) by the use of serial photography.Thus, people different patterns of behaviors in different climates and the ways they use the spaces were investigated,by the observationa set of design criteria could be developed to be applied in the design/redesign of urban spaces to improve their qualities.
The theory In general, people uses of urban spaces may have two stages: Presence in urban space.
Tendency to continue to stay in the urban space.
There are two kinds of qualities in urban environment. First, the qualities which are the main requirements of people presence in public spaces, i.e. primary qualities. Second, the qualities encouraging people to stay in the space for a longer time. Meanwhile, there are some qualities like climatic comfort which playeffective role in both primary and secondary qualities. This very important factor is in full adaptation with human physical characteristics and is the main requirement of people presence in the space. It alsoplaysan undeniable role in the way people use the space and behave there. Climatic comfort can increase the number of opportunities to use the space. If the space is designed with consideration of all aspects, including the userbehaviors, it can be used by all people in various periods of time during the day, and in different seasons.
Design guidelines in hot and humid climateare formulated. Theyemphasizeon the role of climate to determine people patterns of behavior.
Here, regarding the achievements of local observations and the recognition, the design criteria are proposed at two different scales, the city scale and the site scale.
Location ofthe space in the shade: Thisis the most important factor affecting the use of space in hot and humid climates. If the open space includes shaded parts, people preference to stay there will increase. Therefore, locationin the shade can be considered as an important requirement forpeople use of space in this climate.
Other factor is natural ventilation and the space orientation parallel to the wind flows: This is the second factor affecting the use of public spaces in hot and humid climate. Natural ventilation of open spaces happens by the airflows coming from the sea. It helps the localsreduce the high unpleasant humidity in this climate, so it encourages passersby to stop and stay in the space.
To avoid designing vast urban open spaces in hot and humid climate.
Making orientation ofthe open spaces toward the sea to moderate the hot weather and reduce the humidity by the sea airflows. Local observations also verify that successful spaces in this climate have perpendicular orientation to the sea to benefit from its cool airflows for natural ventilation.
Formulating design guidelines in cold and mountainous climate emphasizes the role of climate todetermine people pattern of behavior:Local observations in Shahr-E- Kord show that the two fallowing factors have determined therole ofpeople use of space in cold and mountainous climate.
Maximizing the direct sunshine: It is a positive point for the open spaces in the cold winter weather of mountainous climate, because it helps the space to be more welcoming and favorable for people.
Not to be windward: This factor also has direct effect on how people attend and behave in the space. The researcher’s observations and notes in cold and mountainous climate show that the spaces which are exposed to direct wind flows are not favorable for people.
For designing open spaces and its proposed land uses, it is better to locate attractive uses at the southern and east-southern side of the space, because it helps to provide favorable sunlight for the space during cold winter days and facilitatesthe use of space for people.
In the cold and mountainous climate, it is better to design urban spaces in form of small squares because it reduces the entrance of wind flows and provides people with climatic comfort. It must be mentioned that vast squares in this climate can benefit from the increased direct sunlight and heat.But the effect of the increased airflows in thesespaces is highly unfavorable and disturbs the climatic comfort. Thus,they are not recommended.
It is better to design crowded spaces as semi-open spaces, because enclosed and covered spaces are more favorable in all seasons for theirshelters from the sun, wind, rain and snow.
In cold climates, it is important to use types of plants which prevent spaces from undesired wind, while not casting shades during cold seasons, since trees can provide favorable shades for summer time.
The results and findings of this research are presented in a set of operational and applicable recommendations, some of which might seem unimportant.But they are undeniably essential. Simple solutions for ordinary problems of existing urban spaces can lead to significant improvements in the space vitality and people social life. William White expresses the extract of his long term studies in one sentence: “people seat where the seating exists.” This sentence might seem clear and typical, but it is very important and can notably change the life of a city. Thus, the simplicity of changes does not mean that they are inconsiderable. It might be possible to change the destination of a space simply by adding shelters and awnings or providing sunny spaces in cold and mountainous climates and shaded spaces in hot and humid ones.

Urban planning education consists of three main components: knowledge, skills and values. The present research focuses on the evaluation and comparison of urban planning curriculum of undergraduate courses in Iran with 10 countries around the world. To determine the importance of each lesson in Iran, 312 questionnaires have been completed by three groups of students, graduates and professors in the field of urban planning. To determine the importance of lessons in global scale, internet search and site visit, 10 different universities have been used to identify which lessons are being thought. The results show that the basic lessons extracted from literature review are taught at universities around the world. Most of the courses are offered in the curriculum of undergraduate curriculum planning in Iran too. The major difference is the emphasis on the teaching of environmental and social issues. While these are less important lessons in Iran, they taught in all schools surveyed. These differences can be viewed from social and environmental look at the global level against technical view to urban planning in Iran.

Recently, the presence of residents and their behavior in the urban space have become so important that manycontemporary urban theorists view the presentera as the “turn of urban space and what is happening in it”. The importance of urban behaviors and activities could be discussed from different points of view. In the contemporary literature of urban design, the mutual interaction between urban behavior and different urban aspects including cultural, political, social, economic, natural environment and public health are concentrated. For example, recent researches demonstrate that residents’ walking in the urban spaces have a significant impact on the reduction of blood pressure, decrease in anxiety, prevention of osteoporosis and type II diabetes, moderation of body mass index, and the enhancement of overall physical and mental health. Hence, it could be easily claimed that all of the contemporary urban design movements have put an emphasis on the increase, intensification, qualification, and diversification of urban spaces to the extent to which different behaviors could be done in urban spaces. In this regard, the harsh attributes of climate is seen as a barrier to residents’ urban behaviors. One of the main functions of environment (natural and man-built) is ordering the life-world of live creatures. For millions of years, natural environment has imposed its requirements on the life style of living organisms. In order to survive, creatures had the options of 1) adopting to the environment or 2) modifying and moderating the environment. The main difference between human kind and other organisms is that other creatures communicate to their surrounding environment only through the adaptation process; whereas humans, through a dialectic process, change the environment in a way to reduce its imposed order and consequently benefit from more freedom and autonomy. Indeed, one of the main purposes of changing the natural environment into a man-built environment is for the autonomy psychological need. This dialectic approach which believes that human kind simultaneously affects and is affected by his soundings environment is known as the organismic approach in anthropology. One of the aspects humans have sought to moderate is the harsh climatic features. It could be claimed easily that in a great deal of human intervention in nature and, in other words, in most of the global historic architecture and planning phenomena, the importance and effect of climatic comfort could be recognized. Environment and space could either be a deterrent or limiting role in urban behaviors, or they could be supporting and encouraging. Today, there is no doubt that the environment could determine the possibility or probability of specific behaviors. The first approach is known as possibilitic and the second one as probabilistic. In any approaches, the environment imposes the order in three dimension of behavior: 1)Time, cycles or period of behavior 2)Type of behavior 3)Relationship in the behavior In regard to time, the environment determines the period, frequency and time interval of behaviors. It is observed by Gehl and Gemzoe that the number of Copenhagen citizens in the urban spaces in summer days is two times more in comparison to winter days. In warm seasons their continuity of presence in urban spaces are four times more and their density in spaces are eight times more than in cold seasons. In regard to the typology of behaviors, the environment has a significant impact on which behaviors (necessary, optional or social) are permitted to be more prevalent. The environment strongly influences the proportion of recreational-purposive behaviors and staying-passing behaviors. Above all, the environment strongly determines the avoidance behavior or approaching activities be done. The importance of the last differentiation is due to the effect they could have on residents’ mental health. The avoidance behaviors are done in order to decrease the insufficiency, deficits, stress, tension and anxiety. Hence it could not lead to happiness but only relief, sedation, and palliation. In opposition to this, the approaching activities which would not be done according the environmental impositions but based on personal will and tendency, would meet the person’s autonomy and psychological need. Consequently, this kind of activity leads to high performance of the residents, their happiness, good mood, and mental health. To clarify, Gehl and Gemzoe, in studying the urban behaviors in Copenhagen, observed that in the winter, residents walk faster and with longer steps whereas in the summer times they move calmer during their roaming and rambling. In other words, in the winter people were avoiding of the harsh, cold temperature whereas they have more autonomy about what they like to do in the summer. As mentioned before, the aim of this research is to investigate the impact of climatic features on the urban spatial forms and behavioral patterns. The research method is comparative study between urban behavioral patterns of warm and dry climate in one hand and moderate and humid climate in the other hand. The data of the behavioral patterns have been gathered thorough observation (timed photography). This type of photography is a random method for collecting the behavior pattern data in the specific period of time. It must be considered as the visual-behavioral research. Discussion of Results & The analysis of urban behavior in warm and dry climate shows that the density of behaviors is the most in the morning of winter days and the evening of summer days. In this period, proportion of the optional and social behaviors in comparison to the essential behaviors is the most. In addition to these, in the summer evenings, the sitting on the projected edge of pools is also the most. This is because of the increased humidity and a little decrease in the temperature of the air. In opposition to this, in the morning of the hot season and in the evening of the cold season, urban behaviors is the least. In this period, the urban spaces are greatly devoid of optional and social behaviors. The residents’ passing ways are strongly determined by the shadows in morning of summer days and the sunlight in the evening of winter days. The analysis of urban behavior in moderate and humid climate demonstrates that behavior density in the summer is significantly more than the ones of the winter. This shows that in this climate, the effective time cycle is seasonal, not daily. Low difference between temperature of days and nights (due to the high air humidity) lead to the decrease in the daily cycle effect on behavioral patterns. In this climate, the appropriate condition makes a vaster range of behaviors possible (including walking, sitting, watching, being watched, eating, talking). Due to high humidity and cloudy air, the proportion of indirect sunlight is more than direct sunlight. Hence, all sides of urban spaces are used almost equally. Despite this, the center of space benefits more from the air circulation and consequently attracts more people to itself. This study shows that the climatic condition has an impact on both typology of the urban behaviors and the time cycles these behaviors cause in urban spaces. This impact in the harsh climates is significantly more and consequently the necessity of considering the climatic design criteria in them is much higher. It should be also noted that climatic design requirements of different climates are various. In moderate and humid climate, the relationship of the humidity and air circulation are important whereas in the hot climates, temperature, radiation and reflection must be taken into consideration. Studying the historic spatial-formal patterns in the warm and dry climate shows that air circulation is welcomed to extent to which air circulation does not make over sweating. It is better that the entrance of new air be located in a situation that transmits the humidity to all parts of urban space. In the cold season, the strategies must be completely different. The space must be protected from the cold winds. Hence, the main axis of the space must be located along the summer winds and perpendicular to the winter ones. In designing the places for people to sit, including the edge of space and urban furniture, in addition to the temperature resistance, considering the temperature capacity is also important. Investigating the historic formal-spatial patterns of warm and dry climates, also demonstrate that the plan of space in this climate must be to condense and be concentric, the building density should be high in order to make the shadows as long as possible. In this climate, usage of opaque white, caved, rough and textured surfaces were prevalent. In opposition, application of the shiny surfaces and long windows were prevented. In this climate, usage of different kinds of green elements have been widespread. In spite of this, it must be noted that planting covering elements such as grass in this climate because of great need for water is contrary to the environmental sustainability. Finally, usage of the deciduous trees for benefiting from the sunlight in the winter days is also common. In the historic spatial-formal pattern of the moderate and humid climate, according to the fact that shadows are less important in comparison to the air ventilation, not only the attached buildings it avoided, but also, in order to conduct the appropriate winds to the spaces, distance between the surrounding buildings deliberately has been kept high. Reduction of buildings height besides usage of slope roof, Gorberos and avoidance of planting bushes in the center of space have enhanced the ventilating of space.

There has been extensive debates about the similarities and differences between urban planning educations in developed versus developing counties. Some believe that increasing interdependence among nations، an ever greater need for cross – cultural cooperation، is required to close the gap in skill and knowledge between developed and developing countries and shrinking international borders make it necessary to have universalism in planning education (Amirahmadi،1990). On the other hand significant differences in value systems، stages of development، and socio – economic priorities between developed and developing countries make some fundamental differences in education in developing countries which could not be ignored (Burayidi،1993). In fact، urban planning education currently offered in the developed western countries may not be quite relevant and adequate for the students in the developing countries، which is due to fact that there exist real challenges in developing worlds (Banerjee، 1990). These challenges make it necessary for urban planners in developing countries to have some specific skills to be successful in a world with different planning processes، compared to developed countries. For example، while the proposed plan should be accepted by the public or residents of a neighborhood in a developed country، it only needs the approval of certain elected/selected officials in developing countries. This means that although communication skill is the most important skill in developed countries (Gospodini & Skayannis، 2005)، it is the technical role which is the most important skill of planners in the third world countries (Diaw، Nnkya، & Watson، 2002). It becomes، therefore، obvious the required skills to be taught to planning students in developing countries، such as Iran، are not quite similar to that of developed countries. This paper has two objectives. First، attempt will be made to prioritize urban planner''s skills، at the undergraduate and graduate levels، in developing countries، using the case of Iran، and second، to survey how much planning education in Iran has been successful in training this skills. A total of 341 questionnaires were filled by planning directors and instructors، students and graduates of eleven universities throughout all over Iran. The results of this research show that there is a crucial difference between urban planners’ skills in developing vs developed countries which comes from difference in preparation and approval procedure of urban development plans in these countries. While the most important skill required for planner in developed countries is communication skill; it is not the case for developing ones. For an urban planner in Iran، it is the team working، technical، and data collecting skills in the undergraduate level، and analytical skills، oral presentation and problem defining in the graduate level that are regarded as the most important skills for planners. Managerial skills، such as ability to prepare a budget program and project management is less important، both for planners with undergraduate and graduate degrees. Planning education in Iran is at the moderate level in training planning skills. It is more successful in training analytical، technical and oral presentation skills while management skills، relation with other planners and official are neglected.

Theory is a tool for descriptions, interpretations, predictions and recommendations so it is inevitable in the field of urban design. In other words, urban design can’t be done without any theory; whether there is any awareness about the existence of this theory or not. There are several reasons for clarifying the importance of theories in urban studies. Friedman stated three basic requirements for urban theories: prediction, prescription, evaluation and judgment in the action. Also Lang stated that theory in “chaotic situations helps understanding” and “saves the ideas and knowledge”. Variety of theories in the field of urban studies and particularly in urban design indicates that the typology of theories is important. Typology helps to classify and organize topics in the mind. Yiftachel and Tiryakian classify three basic principles for typology which are: correcting ambiguities and missing concepts, organized by definition of parameters of a topic, and facilitating the creation theory by defining the characteristics of the main components for further research. Development of urban design theories on the one hand and the need to understand and analyze their content to use on the other hand, explain the need to identify the nature of new approaches in typology of urban design theories. Among all the existing issues of urban design studies what has the greatest impact on the nature of cities is urban quality of life that is rooted in the people’s lives and fulfilling the demands and needs of its residents. Quality of life is one of topics in many fields. It began on 1930s and continued through researchers’ efforts to define, evaluate and measure quality of life from different perspectives. Nevertheless the beginning application of this approach in urban studies referred to 1980s. Although the quality of life has attractiveness and common sense but there isn’t yet an accepted definition. Experts and organizations in different disciplines have provided different definitions for quality of life. Considering different definitions for quality of life, it can be used as an attractiveness of a location and the degree of compliance and expectations which is received by individuals. In other words, it is affected by objective and subjective aspects. The aim of this study is to explain a conceptual framework in order to investigate the nature of the urban quality of life approach in urban design theories to understand the main issues and different aspects in this field. Process of research is based on typology of urban design theories. It also has developed a framework and some parameters for doing research. This framework is provided based on library studies and scientific resources. The nature of this approach is explained by comparative and analytic method. Arguments and analysis are done by complaining the properties of urban quality of life with different types of urban design theories. Parameters that considered in this study to explain the nature of quality of life in urban design theories include: philosophical orientation, topic, foundations of studies, the relationship between human and environment, environmentalfactors, epistemic and scale application. Based on this analysis, the nature of urban quality of life approach in urban design theories is: This approach is based on understanding and interpretation of objective and subjective factors of existing conditions. On the other hand it provides general and specific values for the desired future conditions which can be categorized in positive-normative theories. Quality of life identifies and interprets the economic, social and environmental current status of the city and provides processes in urban planning and urban design for the improvement of urban life values so we can categorize it in substantive and procedural theories. This approach considers both environmental and human domains. In other words, it does not only focus on objective or subjective domains, it tries to improve residents’ subjective perceptions based on physical changes so classify in probability environmental theories. Quality of life is classified in three-component theories because it considers physical, activate and mental thinking domains. Residents and subjective aspects have a significant role in urban quality of life approach and it’s possible based on negotiation with them and participation of them in planning process, so this approach is close to experience-oriented approaches. This approach is applicable at different geographical scales, from over-city to neighborhood scale, however, indicators, components and concepts are different in every scale.