Feasibility of Using Pattern of Transfer Development Rights to Protect Agricultural Lands and Farms in Urban Area of Babolsar

Stereotyped patterns of urban development in Iran have led to the degradation of agricultural land and orchards around cities. One of the main reasons of this issue is due to comprehensive and detailed plans, poor urban management in controlling the land market trends, change the location of agricultural lands due to the added value created by the destruction of agricultural lands. In this regard, one of the current approaches in this field is Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) approach, TDR's main goal is the management of changes of agriculture lands. Thus, this article studies feasibility of TDR to protect agricultural lands in the city of Babolsar. The research method of article is considered as descriptive and analytical. In the analysis, trends and tendencies, forces and constraints are evaluated separately. In addition, TDR integrated model will be formed through the three following models. In this integrated approach, AHP technique is used for protected areas and TDR approach is considered for determining building density and development and finally the Objective-oriented Matrix is used for the selection of the optimal option. Based on the model, Transfer of Development Rights program is more profitable for farmers and smart growth is a significant issue for the prevention of agricultural land degradation, taking into account of the proposed building density and the ratio of executive ability and right to develop agricultural land protection and could be generalize to the Babolsar and other northern cities of the country. Utilizing the potential of inner city, participation of farmers in the program and the lack of external forces cause it provides.