Contemporery Urban Development and Sustainable Urban Form

Sustainable settlement is one of the key constituents of sustainable development, and sustainable urban development can be defined in this framework. Emergence of sustainable development as a commonly-used phrase has caused several controversies about urban forms. Today’s urban form is known as a source of environmental problems. Undoubtedly, this phrase has persuaded many of researchers to search for several forms of human’s settlement forms which provide sustainable conditions and enable the environments built to play their role in a more constructive manner than the past. This article defines a general framework to reach a sustainable urban form after discussing the main constituents of sustainable urban development and its relation to urban form, and finally, determines 7 design aspects in relation to sustainable urban forms compactness, sustainable transportation, density, usage combination, variety, form of residential area, and green space.