Evaluating the impacts of border on the issue of urban sustainability: the case study of Marivan

Development is an idea or practice which came into existence in the early 19th century. This notion differs from that of progress. Key features of urban sustainability which are mostly expressed in documents and literature are intra-generation equality, inter-generation equality, natural environment protection, minimum use of non-renewable sources, economic survival and diversity, self-reliant society, individual welfare and meeting people's basic needs in a society. Moreover, sustainable urban development is a form of development which provides the capacity for the continuous development of cities and future generation of urban communities. From a structural point of view, development brings about changes in land use and density levels and can meet city residents’ needs in the area of housing, transportation, and leisure so that with the lapse of time, the city becomes habitable environmentally, life is rendered endurable from an economic standing and remains coherent socially. Each city, given the extent to which it is influenced by local and global forces, needs to formulate their own local strategies for sustainable urban development to take into account environmental conditions as well as its social and economic structures. In this regard, border cities, due to their own peculiar situation and functions, are amongst cities whose sustainability is affected by both local and global forces. Because on the one hand, cities, like their counterparts, are affected by environmental conditions, resident's social relations, and relations with their surrounding settlements, they have roles and functions within their national policy and economic systems. On the other hand, given border situations, these cities are also influenced by trans-national and even global economic, political, social and environmental developments. For this reason the issue of sustainability in such cities is more important and is deemed to be more challenging compared to other cities. Currently, sustainability in a considerable number of cities in the country depends directly on their border situation. Therefore, any strategies, polices and development with regards to a country's borders affect a substantial part of the country's borders directly and indirectly. In this regard, cities in Kurdistan, as one of border provinces in the country, is constantly influenced by the border situation of this province, and development, especially sustainability, has always been a function of their border situation (due to numerous ups and downs in relations and ties between Iraq and Iran). Accordingly, the main issue of the research has been directed at border citie's sustainability for achieving sustainability in such cities. To answer these questions in this paper, analytical-descriptive methods, as well as such methods as numerical taxonomy, strategic planning methods and statistical tests based on SPSS software were used for assessing sustainability in the city of Marivan.