Tehran Urban Development Plans Ranking based on the Principles of Planning

Since the time human endeavored to acquire knowledge about his environment, overcome his problems, fulfill his needs and facilitate life condition, the process of planning started. Today, planning is an important means for achievingdifferent goals the theoretical approaches and practical methods of which have evolved and improved during the time. Today, new approaches such as strategic, cooperative and interactive approaches have been introduced in the planning domain due to drastic changes in government ideas, the nature of planning, the principles of management, the role of people and stakeholders. The aim of this study was the analysis of the efficiency of urban development plans of Tehran based on the principles of planning. To this end, 23 criteria were appliedwhich were takenfrom the recent approaches such as interactive, cooperative, supportive and compromise approaches in the field of planning and management. This study is a descriptive-analytical research which draws on multiple criteria analysis methods (TopsisTechnique and VikorTechnique) and integration methods (Copelandand Borda Method) and data envelopment analysis for the analysis of the efficiency of the above-mentioned plans in Tehran Metropolis. Multiple criteria data show that Master Plans, Tehran Urban Plan and Tehran Strategic Plan are the first three successful plans adopted respectively. Moreover, data envelopment analysisrevealed that Tehran Urban Plan scoring 0.354166 took the highest rank among all other plans. The next successful plans wereTehran Master Plan scoring 0.344991 and Tehran Strategic Plan scoring 0.343781.