Study of good urban governance indicators in the northern cities of Iran (Case study: Gorgan City)

In the past decade, the world has faced huge urban problems. In response, the scientific centers and urban organizations have proposed various theories, including smart urban growth, neourbanism, sustainable development, and at present, the concept of good urban governance as the most effective, low-cost, and most sustainable method of proper management to solve the problems. A good urban governance can be defined as the urban affairs’ administration process with the constructive engagement and cooperation of the three state, private, and civil society sectors in order to achieve a healthy and high-quality city with high livability and sustainable urban development. The present study aims to prioritize good urban governance indicators in Gorgan city. The research method is descriptive-analytic based on library and field studies. The following 9 good urban governance indicators are chosen. Participation, community-based, accountability, transparency, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness, security, equality and the rule of law, which are among the most important and fundamental indicators of the United Nations to assess and prioritize good urban governance elements. The results of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) show that the participation index is in the first priority, communitybased is ranked second, and the accountability index with the rate of .139 is ranked third. Transparency with a rate of .114 is ranked fourth, accountability with a coefficient of significance of .072 is in the fifth order, and efficiency and effectiveness is ranked sixth. The security index is ranked seventh, equality index with the coefficient of significance of .026 is ranked eighth, and ultimately, the rule of law with the coefficient of significance of .017 is ranked ninth.