هادی سروری

In today's world, metropolises face numerous environmental, social, and aesthetic challenges that directly affect the quality of life and happiness of their inhabitants. Consequently, creating favorable living conditions and improving the quality of urban spaces have become central concerns in the development of sustainable cities. Public art emerges as an effective tool for enhancing urban spaces and enriching the living experience of city dwellers. Through the creation of creative and aesthetically pleasing environments, public art can strengthen social interactions and increase overall citizen satisfaction. Despite this, existing studies exploring the impact of public art on creative placemaking and the development of happy urban spaces, especially from a methodological perspective, encounter significant challenges. This research focuses on analyzing the methodologies employed in studies on public art, creative placemaking, and happy urban spaces, identifying weaknesses in research methods, and providing recommendations for improvement. Special attention is paid to examining data collection and statistical analysis methods. The findings of this research are expected to improve the quality of studies in this field and serve as a foundation for future inquiries.

Theoretical Framework:

2.1 Public Art:Public art, as an essential tool in contemporary urban design, is used in public spaces to enhance social interactions and improve urban identity. From sculptures and murals to graffiti, public art actively shapes the visual and social experiences of citizens, influencing cultural identity, social relationships, and the overall quality of urban environments.
2.2 Creative Placemaking:Creative placemaking refers to the innovative process of using art and culture to enhance the economic, social, and physical characteristics of a place. This approach promotes collaboration among various community sectors, aiming for economic revitalization and the strengthening of local identity through artistic and cultural initiatives. As a developmental strategy, creative placemaking necessitates the active participation of artists and cultural organizations to improve aesthetics and social cohesion.
2.3 Happy Urban Space:A happy urban space is designed to promote the happiness and well-being of its citizens. By addressing emotional and social needs, such spaces foster a sense of belonging, increase life satisfaction, and provide positive experiences. The design of happy urban spaces should aim to enhance the quality of life and public welfare for all.

This research employs a mixed-method approach with an applied nature. Utilizing a "Meta-Method" study framework, the research examines and analyzes existing literature in the fields of public art, creative placemaking, and happy urban spaces. For primary data collection, scholarly articles published on Google Scholar were reviewed using selected keywords. The study's statistical population consisted of articles published between 2013 and 2023. Initially, 331 relevant articles were identified, from which 26 were selected based on the research objectives and the quality of their content. Content analysis and open coding methods were employed with the help of Maxqda software to analyze the collected data. The aim of this study is to provide a structured and in-depth analysis of the relationships between public art, creative placemaking, and happy urban spaces, contributing to a deeper understanding of their role in enhancing urban quality of life and social interactions.

The findings of this research were analyzed using Saunders' "Research Onion" model, which organizes research processes into seven layers. The results indicate that most of the reviewed studies have employed an interpretative approach, utilizing various qualitative analyses to explore public art, creative placemaking, and happy urban spaces. Additionally, critical and positivist approaches were observed, albeit to a lesser extent. Many of the studies adopted inductive methods to investigate relationships and causal factors. The research is primarily descriptive-analytical, providing detailed descriptions and analyses of the issues. A significant portion of the studies focused on the role of public art in cultural and social regeneration, as well as the promotion of urban identity. While quantitative research in this area remains limited, the use of mixed methods can lead to more comprehensive analyses and facilitate the development of more effective urban spaces, enhancing the role of public art in improving the quality of life.

The present study's review of research in the fields of public art, creative placemaking, and happy urban spaces reveals a valuable interconnection between these concepts. While researchers have examined these topics independently, their intersections and combined effects have received less attention. Studies on happy urban spaces, in particular, are scarce. This research, through the use of Saunders' framework and a systematic review of articles published between 2013 and 2023, shows that approximately 80% of the research utilized qualitative methods, 12% employed quantitative methods, and 8% used mixed methods. The most common focus was on "the relationship between spatial patterns of public art and creative placemaking in community development," while the least explored area was "increasing happiness in urban spaces through public art." Furthermore, studies in this century have placed limited emphasis on the impact of public art on creative placemaking and happy urban spaces, with comparative and critical studies also being sparse. The lack of qualitative analytical tools is evident in these studies. Based on these findings and the identified limitations, it is recommended that future research prioritize broader comparative and critical studies, incorporating diverse research methods, both qualitative and quantitative. Focusing on the influence of public art in creative placemaking and promoting happy urban spaces, especially in developing countries, can significantly enhance urban environments and improve citizens' quality of life. The development of qualitative analytical tools, such as interpretive and inductive methods, will be essential in disentangling and understanding the relationships between public art, creative placemaking, and happy urban spaces, encouraging further research in this field.

Today, criticism is one of the main pillars of the prosperity of science and art in advanced societies. However, in the architecture, the criticism remains abandoned without a clear and specific mechanism and so far, it's not been able to emerge as a specialized activity and regulated process. The Insufficient efforts to research architectural criticism reflect that “the importance and necessity” of this topic is not yet clearly understood. Therefore, this paper seeks a response to the question of what are the components of the importance and necessity of architectural criticism as stated by domestic and foreign scholars? And What are their priorities?

In this research, first by defining the meaning of “the importance and necessity” and then by extracting its components, the opinions of 100 domestic and foreign scholars and critiques who have researched about architectural criticism during the last thirty years have been studied. The collected information has been encoded and classified by adopting a qualitative approach of the directional and inductive content analysis method by using MAXQDA 2020.

Then the results of information analysis have been achieved in form of 174 sub-categories, 41 categories, and 10 super-categories which present the main components of the importance and necessity of architectural criticism based on the opinions of the selected scholars and critics. These 10 components include 1. The special place of architecture is a complex interdisciplinary and meta-disciplinary, influential on and influenceable by different sciences. 2. The special place of architectural criticism as a key field of study in architecture.3. Architectural criticism creates the link between architects, researchers, critics, and users. 4. The existence of several problems in the architecture. 5. The existence of differences in the definition and nature of architecture and issues related to this field among architects and scholars. 6. The existence of various crises about architectural criticism. 7. The impact of criticism on the growth and promotion of architecture. 8. Promoting the culture of scientific and disciplined criticism and improving the quality of architectural criticism. 9. Turning architectural problems into crises. 10. The Continuation of the process of decay and inefficiency of architectural criticism. 

Furthermore, Analyzing the results shows that the major emphasis of scholars is on the component of “the existence of a crisis and problems about architectural criticism”. Also, the statistics captured from the study of scholars and critics show the severe shortage and absence of professional architectural critics in Iran compared with the West and more neglect of this important category in the country.

A city requires city brand and appropriate strategies for beneficiaries, especially tourists; hence, city development plans can affect the type of city brand orientations. Accordingly, this study was conducted to identify the effective factors to design structural equation modeling (SEM). SEM was employed to rank the factors and find the correlation between them using Forner-Larcker Matrix. This was an applied-correlational study in which, data were collected through convergent mixed methodology, library study, questionnaire, and Semi-structured interviews. Birjand was chosen as the research field and a statistical sample was chosen at descriptive statistics using purposive and snowball sampling methods. Accordingly, 19 subjects were selected from urban experts, and 381 tourists were chosen at the quantitative step using simple random sampling. findings obtained from interviews implied that some points should be considered for the city branding of Birjand. The factors include the significant militarily and academic impact of Birjand on historical aspect and service-based economy of the city, cultural capitals, and the arts that are forgetting, immigration, and implementing the development-driving plans. The research model indicated that city development plans had the highest positive effects on the landscape and mental image regarding city branding plans. Moreover, According to the correlation between components, the highest relationship was between mental image and landscape (0.66).

As the main factor of advertising in the last century and as the newest one, environmental advertising is one of the building components of the city landscape. Although advertising is one of the methods of beautifying the urban landscape, sometimes people use urban spaces for advertising regardless of their visual beauty. The landscape of urban spaces is affected by many factors. Environmental advertising is one of the most important influencing factors in terms of urban spaces due to its close relationship with the body of the city and also an objective factor in people's eyes. Therefore, the role of environmental advertising in the urban landscape is of great importance, in order to develop an organizing plan or to modify urban views. The purpose of this research is to measure the effect of environmental advertising color on the urban landscape in Felestin Street, Mashhad, in order to use it to improve the quality of the landscape in this area. In this research, by using a questionnaire and a population of 352 people and spss software, information related to advertising boards in Felestin was collected and by using analysis methods and Spearman's correlation test and multiple regression, as well as field observation and collection, the resulting information was processed. has been The results obtained from this research show that there is a significant relationship between the color of environmental advertisements and urban landscape, and the attention to color in environmental advertisements, according to the investigations and the use of Spearman's test, where the significance level was less than 0.05. It has a direct effect on increasing the quality of urban landscapes, and in particular, according to the obtained regression coefficient (0.04), it can be concluded that the color of environmental protection has little effect on the urban landscape of Felestin Street.

Turbulence and unexpected events have significantly impacted cities, accelerating the process of urban growth and development. In this ever-changing urban landscape, utilization of scenario planning tools is crucial for urban planners. The northwest district of Mashhad is a key area within the master plan of the city. Notably, this area is characterized by rapid and extensive construction. The following research question guided this study: "What are the potential future scenarios for urban development in the northwest area of Mashhad?" The research was purposefully applied in terms of methodology and employed a descriptive and analytical approach. Both documentary and field methods were utilized for data collection, while the Delphi method and Smicprob Expert scenario planning were employed for data analysis. The results of scenario development indicated that the third scenario held the highest probability at 17%. According to this scenario, 4 events were continuous with only one event not occurring.

The main axis of this research deals with the method of creating and developing architecture based on the qualities that respect the relationship with space and the way of human life under the influence of light and color, instead of using criteria such as dimensions and size. How does natural colored light affect improving the psychological performance of housing? What are some ways to help reduce people's stress? It seems that the use of colored glass in homes can have a positive effect on people and psychology. Also, the use of colored glass in the residence can reduce stress and anxiety caused by the external environment.

The current research aims to explain the anthropological components of historical buildings with an analytical approach in three neighborhoods of Tabriz's barou area; Maghsodieh, Sorkhab, and Sheshgolan with the valuable concepts of anthropology and psychology of light and color of the second Qajar period of Tabriz.

The present research was done with the descriptive-analytical method. The research approach is a combined approach with a sequential strategy (qualitative-quantitative). Necessary data were obtained with the researcher-made questionnaire, observation, and semi-structured interviews. The statistical population of the research was the 8th urban area of Tabriz, which had 123 residents and was questioned as a whole. Data analysis was done using the factor analysis method.

Studied Areas: 

The geographical scope of this research is the historical houses of Tabriz city.

The findings indicate that the transmissive surface (72%) of the sash crown is in order from more to less with red (14%), blue (12%), green (11.5%), and yellow (4.5%) colors. %), it is covered from the top to the bottom, but the combination of red color with other colors has balanced the effects of this color to a great extent. The survey of residents and experts and the findings of the analysis of the confirmatory factor have been such that the purpose of organizing spaces such as two-door, three-door, five-door, and two-door in the Qajar houses of Tabriz as well as elements such as sashes and mirrors according to the characteristics of light and Color has been the symbolic identity of light, meaning, excitement, visual continuity, spatial diversity, landscape, etc.

As a result, the important characteristics of light and color by the method of factor analysis in 6 readability factors with a share of 12.869, desirability 11.8, pleasantness 11.4, spirit and mood 10.7, adaptability and flexibility 9.9 and interaction 6.3 The interior spaces of historical houses were explored and presented in the form of proposed models.

Deliberation of generated knowledge about informal settlements leads to the identification of two critical theoretical gaps. firstly, although contextualism has entered into urban planning discussions, its place as an independent theoretical framework for explaining the development process of informal settlements seems vacant. Secondly, the theoretical literature of urbanism lacks a comprehensive framework obtained by contextual analysis of the physical development pattern of these settlements.

The study aims to analyze the context to explain the physical development of informal settlements using a contextualism perspective. In other words, this study attempts to formulate a coherent theoretical framework of the informal settlement’s physical development planning principles in a contextual interpretation.

The study used the meta-synthesis method with Sandlosky and Barros seven-step model. Firstly, 422 articles were obtained through a systematic search. Finally, 27 articles were selected for inclusion through the screening process using rayyan.ai. Then the selected papers were inductively coded using MAXQDA 2020 based on the research questions, and the next steps were devoted to analyzing and synthesizing the concepts extracted.

The extraction process led to the identification of 1092 codes. The combination process of the codes resulted in the designation of one lateral category; articles’ descriptive information, and five main categories; macro context, local context, the function of context, the response to the context, and interventionist factors. The next part of the outcomes were four sorts of principles related to the physical development of informal settlements includes; process, product, management, and regulations.

Firstly, informal settlements are a context-based phenomenon consequently, to understand the logic governing them, it is necessary to analyze the context at macro and local scales. Secondly, the development principles of informal settlements are evolving and upgrading cyclically, and continuously. Therefore, these settlements have the potential dynamics necessary to adapt incrementally to the changing needs and conditions and operate resilient, affordable, and sustainable.

The complex nature of cities and the rapid growth of technology along with the occurrence of social, cultural, political developments, etc., have caused cities to be subjected to the most intense impulses and urban planners are unable to solve the challenges in keeping with these changes. In this regard, strategic planning, as one of the most important approaches in urban planning that pays special attention to the future, is no longer a guarantee of success in such an environment. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the future position in relation to the strategic urban planning process. Therefore, the aim of the research is to clarify the future position in the process of strategic urban planning. The current research has used the meta-synthesis to achieve the mentioned goal. 104 sources have been extracted in connection with the research. Among these, 26 sources have been selected using the CASP method and coded using the MAXQDA2020 software. In total, 108 codes, 13 concepts and 5 categories were obtained. The results of the research show that in the process of strategic urban planning, it is necessary to take a deeper look at the issues and to pay attention to the hidden layers of the city using a critical view. Because these issues are the driving force and basis for achieving a correct prediction of the desired future. Also,in addition to being innovative, the proposed strategies and actions should include different types of possible futures so that they can more realistically pursue the desired future.

The effects of light and color occur over time, meaning that space users stay in space for long periods of time and are exposed to various energies radiated by light. Many studies have been done on the effect of natural light on the human body and soul, which repeat the undeniable role of natural light on behavior, attitude and performance of individuals. However, despite the fact that natural light as a renewable energy source is inexpensive and environmentally friendly, most of the solutions used in ancient architecture have been forgotten due to the use of natural light. The main question of the research is what is the psychological effect of colored light on the spaces of Qajar houses in Tabriz?The research method used in this research is survey research method. Data collection from written sources and open interviews with experts in this field were compiled as a table of content content and were classified by content analysis method. To determine the importance of the components, a structured questionnaire was developed by researchers and analyzed by SPSS software. Based on a comprehensive approach and a qualitative research method, it analyzes 17 cases of Qajar houses in Tabriz and shows how their builders use light and architectural elements in different ways of organizing space rather than physical and mental needs. Residents, including social welfare, beauty, privacy, landscape, light and sound control, etc. are provided.

Today, cities are like a large and complex organization, where citizens are considered the main element of the organization. Organizational citizenship behavior as extra-role behavior can effectively improve the tasks and roles of organizations. Considering the importance of cities in terms of the influence of urban planning on organizational citizenship behavior, there is a need to identify the components of organizational citizenship behavior in cities. Therefore, the aim of this descriptive research is identifying and prioritizing the components. Data collection was done using library studies and 384 questionnaires. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed using the opinion of several experts in this field and the reliability of the questionnaire is based on Cronbach's alpha. Data analysis was done using confirmatory factor analysis method and the prioritization was based on Friedman test. The results show that there is a significant correlation among the main variables including motivation, response, stimulus, reinforcement and attitude. The motivation and response variables have a higher priority among other variables, so the results indicate that, in prioritizing the behavioral components of the organizational citizenship in the urban planning system, managers and urban planners should consider citizens’ motivation of Mashhad in urban planning.

A considerable part of human activity is devoted to work and profession, and engineering, especially architecture, is essential to the production of living and activities spaces. Wherever, we are in an environment designed by engineers, environmental designers and architects, and what we see and experience is the product and experience of their professional endeavors. These space products are designed to meet the needs of users. Needs that are shaped by the type of life and the level of desire that translate into the term “lifestyle”. Certainly, the term is not only interpretable in the process of producing ethical aspects, but it is itself the basis for behaviors and actions that can underlie ethical evaluation. Thus, the purpose of this article is to explain the professional ethics in architecture with regard to Islamic lifestyle.

The results of this study show that there are significant similarities between the aspects of Islamic lifestyle (moderation, avoidance of extravagance, piety and godliness, thinking, truthfulness and honesty, etc) and engineering ethics (creating welfare, safety and health of the community, independence, legality, discipline, courage, skills, knowledge, etc) are significant similarities between the two domains. In other words, every aspect of the engineering ethics interacts with several aspects of the Islamic lifestyle.

Implementation process of urban development plans depends on many issues like the opinions of stakeholders. Using the opinions of stakeholders plays an important role in the success of urban development plans. The private sector is one groups that plays a significant role in economic issues of planning. A review of previous researches shows that despite emphasizing on the importance of the private sector and conducting many researches in this regard, there is not any research that has explicitly mentioned the role of this group in the implementation of urban development plans. The attempts to create a holistic approach about the role of private sector have already been started. The reviewed articles were selected from the Direct Science database. These articles were written between 1998 and 2019. This study tries to review the studies using content analysis. The total number of the articles explored this study was 1152, which was reviewed to obtain more accurate results. After screening the articles, 14 articles were finally selected for this purpose. The results show that participation constraint capabilities and expectations of private sector have the greatest impact on the implantation of urban development plans. On the other hand, the results indicate the private sector should be considered in several stages of urban development plans such as decision-making and evaluation process.

Today, cities are increasingly competing with each other to attract more and more tourists, investors and companies, new citizens, and a valuable and creative workforce. However, city branding plays an effective role to attract or repel them. Therefore, preparing strategic urban branding plans to recover and promote the brand of cities is of great importance. In Iran, some efforts in this regard such as the strategic branding plan of Isfahan, Tehran, and the strategic plan of the visual identity of Mashhad and Kelardasht have been made. Therefore, studying the effects and evaluation of strategic urban branding plans can improve the quality of strategic city branding programs in Iran. As a result, studying the effectiveness and efficiency of these strategic plans is of high importance. In this research, the qualitative content analysis method was used to study the strategic branding plan of Isfahan and identify the components of urban branding according to the existing documents. To do so, the emphasized or neglected dimensions were identified and presented in Isfahan’s branding. The purpose of this study is to determine the components of city branding and the way the dimensions of the subject are emphasized or neglected in the existing document.

The provision of services will not be possible by urban management alone. Therefore, cooperation between the private and public sector in form of public-private partnership is necessary. In partnership between the private sector and the public sector, common interests are very fundamental. Less researches are about urban planning incentives which is addressed to the agreed incentives of both the public and private sectors. So, this paper identifies urban planning incentives in public-private partnership in accordance with the opinions of the investor and urban management for the first time.

The present inquiry has been done through a qualitative approach in 2020.  The sampling method was non-random and these interviews were continued with 11 people until saturation was obtained. Data collection was done through semi-structured interviews with investors and municipal employees as public and private sectors. Data analysis and coding was done through sub-coding and attribute coding.

The collected data were analyzed in the form of 110 primary codes, 29 sub-codes and 5 categories such as appropriate environment, increasing users, indirect profitability, direct profitability and increasing land and building prices. Sub-coding were about flexibility, site selection and land use.

The results of this study show that urban planning incentives are not only limited to financial benefit and profitability, but also include factors such as public satisfaction and creating an appropriate environment.

Affected by the processes of globalization and competitiveness, and with the evolution of urban development theories, new frameworks and approaches have been created in urban planning. With the emergence of urban branding, a new form of urban development plans is being created with a top-down approach and based on the qualitative components of urban development. Hence, the present paper elucidates the theoretical framework of urban development components effective in the urban branding programs, with a mixed research method, and creates the structural equation model of the research with an exploratory research project. For this purpose, 10 criteria, 28 subcriteria, and 69 metrics were subjected to evaluation and information collection. The studied area was the city of Birjand in Iran. The statistical population of the study in the interviews section, which included 19 urban experts and managers, was chosen using purposeful sampling and the snowball technique. On the other hand, using simple random sampling, 383 citizens, 381 tourists, and 30 people of the authorities and investors were surveyed in the quantitative section. Furthermore, the findings of the interviews revealed that the efforts towards attracting the mental and executive participation of the residents of old textures, empowering the residents, managing the presence of Afghan immigrants, and, at the same time, exploiting cultural and historical capacities evolved could help with the realization of an urban brand. The modeling result also showed in the urban development plans of Birjand, by influencing intermediate variables the components of revitalization, personalization, and economic feasibility have the greatest positive effects on the realization of urban branding and According to the correlation between components, the highest relationship was between mental image and environmental quality (0.68).

The study aimed to discover the relationship between the interests of the stakeholders and the weight of different stages of the city development strategy plan for Kashmar, Iran. Taking a cooperative approach, the development strategy program tries to appeal the cooperation of beneficiaries for maximizing the effectiveness of city development programs. The development program of Kashmar has also been planned to provide the ground for filling the gap that can be seen between stakeholders and the citiey’s long-term development regarding the so significant pilgrimage and services dimensions. The cooperation of the stakeholders, however, should follow the realization of their interests and plannings should care the issue. The applied research used a descriptive-analytical method and quality function deployment technique. The technique is used for translating customers or stakeholders’ demands into the features of product. That is, all demands of stakeholders are clearly and remarkabley determined and prioritized for planners. The population of the study are managers of the institutions benefiting from urban development of Kashmar and experts in urban planning. The questionnaires were purposefully distributed among the the population. Validity of the study was confiremd by a group of experts and its reliability was confirmed by parallel method. The findings showed that the most significant benefits from imprtant stakeholders’ perspective are developing rail and air access, preseving water resources, and boosting economic interactions with the influential parts of the city. The results showed that the most significant stages in preparing the development strategy plan of the city which planners should consider in fulfilling important interests of the stakeholders are compliance with the highier-rank plans, connecting the plan with the current structure, and making inter-departmental agreements. Ensuring the most important interests of major stakeholders through urban planners’ endeavors in more effective stages of city development strategy planning would significantly contribute to the fulfimenent of urban development plans.

Children are experts regarding their needs in the city and will become the future urban designers and decision makers. Planners should pay more attention to the process of urban planning. Urban planning for children and adolescents is currently regarded as planning for a majorly unimportant part of the society. The main question posed in the present study is on the effectiveness of contents of educational system courses in student’s understanding of urban affairs and planning concepts. To find a proper answere this question, the Social Studies Textbooks of the fourth, fifth and sixth grades in 2017-18 academic year were examined using content analysis. Content analysis is used for objective and systematic description of the contents of a particular text; here, these contents were analyzed using William Romey’s method. To examine and analyze the data, subjects related to participation were identified by studying Social Studies Textbooks. Accordingly, the most important effective components of participation are knowing the city and its primary parts, and instruction of citizenship rights, the way of participating and communicating with others.  Based on the analytical findings of the study, the most effective educational category for children at the second grade with the highest conflict coefficient was “how to communicate with others”. Furthermore, in association with “citizenship rights instruction” with average level conflict coefficient, cooperative participation can be expected due to its emphasis on attendance at events and presence in public projects. Finally, in the category of “knowing the city and its primary parts” which is related to children’s familiarity with the concept of city and its development process, subjects that should be taught to children are assigning projects to children, actual practices, and participation in design. Nevertheless, this category involves the lowest conflict coefficient and lowest educational system impact.

Problem statement: 

As a professional mix of Science and Art, Urban Design always needs skillful people in order to submit suitable results with artistic and functional values. For this purpose, specialists of urban design managed to develop different patterns about designing process. Creative Designing is one of the mentioned processes.

The real objective of this paper is to define a process of creative urban design in an urban scale. It may not only consider general steps of creativity but also respect the common process of urban space designing. For this purpose, the main question of this research is: “What are the various steps of creative designing of urban space?” This paper intends to examine the extant ideas in the field of creative process and also urban design process and compatibility of these two concepts.

Upon a comprehensive evaluation of current ideas about creative designing in different fields, in this study, the relevant process and upgrading techniques have been extracted with a qualitative method and analytical attitude. Then its compliance with the urban space designing process by the use of focus group was examined. Finally, the steps of the creative designing process of urban space were extracted accordingly.

Some of the major factors in the complexity of creativity in urban space designing are complexity and various dimensions of urban space, variety of stakeholder groups, a great number of visual elements and effects of other involved fields in the creation and upgrading the qualities of urban space. Creative designing of urban space is different from other creative designing methods and is applicable in five major steps including 1. Introduction; 2. Focus; 3. Incubation; 4. Illumination; 5. Assessment.

In developing countries due to economic and social problems, resource and budget constraints, high risk in the construction industry, and other constraints, governments are unable to implement projects alone. The use of private-sector partnerships in recent years by governments and urban managers has been one of the most effective ways to further develop cities. However, many developing countries, including Iran, have always faced challenges in attracting private sector participation in urban infrastructure investment. Therefore, the present study aims to evaluate the barriers that governments and urban managers may face in attracting private capital. A qualitative method was used to do this. In this study, a structured questionnaire was used to collect information. A total of 60 experts' opinions were obtained from public and private sectors to identify and evaluate the barriers to private sector participation in urban projects. The barriers identified in attracting private sector participation were divided into three general categories, namely technical and organizational barriers, financial and economic barriers, and political and legal barriers. The results of the questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS software. According to the results, technical and organizational barriers are of the utmost importance in attracting private sector participation. Financial and economic barriers and political and legal barriers, respectively, were assigned the next degree of importance in attracting private sector participation, according to expert opinions.

This study aimed to Evaluation of Factor Affecting Suppliers’ Capacity Building at Isfahan Water and ‎Wastewater Company in 2019 ‎by descriptive method of survey type and with applied purpose. The statistical ‎population ‎consisted of three groups including employer, ‎consultant, contractor factors, all of whom were ‎reported 50 ‎persons were selected by using census sampling method. The used questionnaire was a researcher-‎made questionnaire developed ‎by the researcher, based on 50 items and 4 components (legal-‎formal, contract, management and financial) ‎based on a 5-point Likert scale. The face, content and construct validity of the questionnaires are confirmed. ‎‎Questionnaire reliability coefficient by use of Cronbach's alpha was (0.711) in ‎the legal-formal dimension, ‎‎(0.889) in the contract dimension, (0.946) in the management ‎dimension (0.871) in the financial dimension and ‎the total reliability of the questionnaire was ‎estimated as (0.961). The findings of the study indicated that ‎the status of the outsourcing process for the ‎suppliers’ capacity building is above average. In addition, in the ranking of ‎effective factors in the increase of the suppliers’ ‎capacity in the outsourcing process, the financial component ‎with the mean rating of (2.78) ‎was the first rank; the legal-formal component with the mean rating of (2.49) was ‎the second ‎rank; contract component with the mean rating of (2.43) was the third rank and management ‎‎component with the mean rating of (2.30) was the fourth rank

In recent years, EPC has been one of the popular ways of implementing Iran's infrastructure projects. However, the completion of these projects has always been accompanied by increased costs. On the other hand, project success depends to a large extent on the proper implementation of project management. Therefore, examining the impact of applying project management standards on the financial success of EPC projects can help to identify the areas that affect the financial success of these projects. Therefore, the main purpose of the present study is to evaluate the impact of applying PMBOK to improve the financial success of EPC projects. To achieve this goal, a questionnaire based on components derived from previous studies was prepared and distributed among EPC project specialists. At this stage, the factors affecting the financial success of the EPC projects were identified and classified according to the 10 PMBOK standard 10 areas. Experts' opinions on the importance of each of the identified factors to improve the financial success of EPC projects were evaluated based on Likert's five-choice spectrum using SPSS software. One sample T-test was used to test the research hypotheses. The results show that applying the standard project management knowledge domain has a significant impact on improving the financial success of EPC projects. Factors were also prioritized by the Friedman test. The results show that cost management and quality management with an average rating of 8.20 and 8.12 had the highest impact, respectively, and communication management and range management with 2.35 and 1.95 had the least impact on improving the financial success of EPC projects.

Today, the inconsistencies range of last seven decades planning and urban plans which were due to the lack of formulating an indigenous theory base on the Iranchr('39')s planning environment characteristics, are visible. Achieving to the interacted urban planning theory with the official structural elements of Iran’s planning environment is the research aim.

This is a qualitative research with the critical approach. "Classical Grounded theory" is the foundation of research provision. Targeted semi-structured interviews with 30 experts and documentary research of 100 published scientific and research documents (1991-2020) provided the data that coded by the MAXQDA software. The research validity was confirmed by reviewing the literature and "Assessment with the seven criteria of Strauss and Corbin" and "Assessment with the Cresol questions".

In the data linking (860 open cods) and conceptualizing process of this research, with "autographs" and the participation of interviewees, the basic codes of "macro-planning structure", "theories and theoretical frameworks" and "planning environment" were identified. The official planning structure and "the elements of the official urban planning structure" and the basic code of "coordination model of the official planning structure elements" and three basic categories of: "incoordination and inconsistency in the process of providing and implementation the plan", "inconsistency and incoordination of theoretical frameworks of planning model" and "incoordination In the urban governance" with using the "graph model" was clarified.

The research showed: the "coordination" concept is the codes and categories central core which lead to the interacted planning theory with the elements of the official structure of Iran’s planning environment. The focal phenomenon that shows "the theory of this research" is "coordinated planning" with the strategies of: "theoretical guidance for organizing a coordinated planning process" and "practical guidance for coordinating the role, viewpoint, interaction, etc. of institutions and users involved in planning".

The discussion of the inefficiency and failure of Iran's urban master plans and the governanceinstitutions' resistance to reforms highlighted the need to investigate the inefficiencies.The research began with this question: from where is the root of the criticismsand inefficiencies raised? This research is of qualitative type with an exploratoryaspect conducted by the Straussian model, the data documentary search (70 articles),and purposeful interview (20 experts). The collected data were categorized in the formof open coding, axial coding, and selected coding. The study results were confirmed andapproved by the participants with "Cresol questions Assessment." The aim is to shedlight on the underlying causes of inefficiency in urban construction plans. The findingsof the study were categorized in 10 fields of "macrostructure of Iran's urban planning",and structures of "political", “law and legal", “administrative and organizational", “decision-making", “urban planning", “leadership", “power", “evaluation” and “monitoringand observation”.These categories showed that the most important underlying causes ofinefficiencies are “lack of common planning language", “weakness in “policymaking andpolicy-taking", “lack of integrated legal structure", “disproportionate organizational structure",“centralized decision system", “incompatible master planning model", “incompatibilityof the management system", “inappropriate interference of power elements", “lackof evaluation structure” and the “inefficiency of the monitoring and oversight structure”.These causes result in applying the current method and planning model, which is incompatiblewith the Iranian planning environment.

Amis:

 Religious tourism is considered one of the most prosperous tourism types by many planners and managers of holy cities. Tourists are one of the most influential groups in planning holy cities, and it is necessary to see touristschr('39') behavior in the plans and policies of urban planners because planning holy cities by the behavior of tourists lead to their satisfaction. Therefore, this study aimed to identify and prioritize touristschr('39') behavioral components in Mashhad to obtain their satisfaction.

This descriptive study was conducted in the summer of 2019 in tourists in Mashhad. 384 people were randomly selected and answered the researcher-made questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to analyze the data, and the Friedman test was used to prioritize.

The loyalty component related to the satisfaction dimension with an average of 4.80, the mental image component related to the attitude dimension with an average of 4.35 and the needs component related to the motivation dimension with an average of 4.18 had the most and the commitment components with an average of 3.46 and participation with an average of 3.28 had the least impact on urban planning.

To gain more satisfaction with tourists, the results of which can be reflected in participation, commitment, and loyalty to the destination city, accurate and comprehensive identification of tourist behavior in the destination city should be considered by managers and urban planners.