Application of rural participatory appraisal technique in urban informal settlement planning (Case study: Islamabad settlement, district 2 of Tehran municipality

Today, informal settlements have been accepted in the cities and towns as a problem and an urban fact facing urban and regional management in different countries of the world. According to past experiences and the evolutions of today, searching for new and efficient solutions in order to improve the quality of these settlements in line with converting them into a habitable zone of urban physics and community has become one of the main concerns of urban planners and urban managers. The main objective of this article is to apply participatory rural appraisal techniques in the process of environmental quality improvement in informal settlements of Islamabad in district 2 of Tehran municipality. Research method is qualitative and type of research is applied. Field observation and snowball technique have been used to study the related issues. The research results show that participatory rural appraisal technique has been properly applied in the studied settlements; and through this technique while achieving the common perspectives on available situation, deviations rate in resident's perspective from formal perspectives of urban planners and urban authorities is well presented. However, by creating scenarios which consider forward looking statements and also the gap between resident's needs and expectations and the viewpoint of urban officials; the desired results can be achieved if scenarios are implemented properly.