The using of the path analysis model to Evaluate the Area-based Management Plan with Criteria of Electronic Municipality : A Case Study of Districts 6 and 15 of Tehran Municipality

With the advent of the first urban plans since the beginning of the 21th century, a variety of such plans have been provided for different purposes, but their evaluation based on proper criteria has been underestimated. In Iranian cities, no urban plan has been evaluated based on correct indicators. In addition, urban planners have neglected the fact that evaluating urban plans can lead to the effectiveness of urban planning objectives and policies. This research is an applied study with the main objective of evaluating an area-based plan according to e-municipality criteria. Library and field work was done with a descriptive-survey approach to collect data. Then, the significance and the effect of the indicators were analyzed through the path analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equations. The product of the study was a conceptual model presented with all the corresponding steps. The results of the study indicate the significant effect of implementing the area-based management plan on the selected aspects in district 6 of Tehran. Moreover, the obtained average rating column shows that the plan implementation has had the greatest effect on the aspects of hardware and information and communication technology but the least effect on the socio-cultural aspects. The results also suggest the significant effect of the plan implementation on the selected aspects in districts 15 of Tehran. The average rating column shows the greatest effect of the plan on the aspects of human resources but the least effect on the socio-cultural aspects.It is concluded that the area-based plan should be revised by adding strategies that aim at the increase of temporal efficiency and temporal justice. Also, studies related to dynamic spatial rhythms as well as the concepts of efficiency and time justice should be utilized so as to enhance the responsive of managers.Urban planners have recently paid much attention to the preparation and implementation of certain projects on neighborhood and region scales to make urban facilities available to all citizens in urban spaces. One of the most important of these projects is the area-based plan. The main objective of this plan is to achieve fast and easy services and easier access of citizens to municipal services. As a matter of fact, if an area-based plan approved by the municipality is favorable enough and correctly implemented, e-municipality will be effectively established. As for Iran, this plan was operationalized in the municipality of Tehran in 1952. Tehran municipality tried to implement the plan for the efficient management of the newly emerging metropolis of Tehran and the improvement of services given to Tehran residents.In recent decades, various urban plans have been provided to develop the metropolitan regions of Tehran, but they have not been evaluated by the corresponding organizations. In fact, after an urban plan is implemented, it is better to evaluate it based on proper criteria. It is clear that various types of urban planning have a great effect on different aspects of people's lives, including income, employment, well-being, housing, health, education, social relationships, comfort, environment, personal security, and peace. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate urban plans based on appropriate indicators.Urbanization is occurring rapidly throughout the world, and soon the dominant model of human habitation will be urbanization and urban life. The increasing urbanization has many consequences, including an increase in the number of cities, population of cities, urban population of a country or a region, and the physical-spatial surface occupied in cities. In fact, the physical expansion of cities, which is nowadays of attraction for academic research, is gaining increasing importance due to its effects on other aspects of life and its leading cities to stability or instability (Zanganeh Shahraki, 2012:3). These problems associated with the growth of urbanization in Iranian cities, especially in a metropolis like Tehran, have had undesirable consequences.Municipality is an organization responsible for urban affairs (Faridi et al., 2011) as the most important public institution, it has various responsibilities in cities. It has to undertake a variety of urban planning tasks to provide the citizens with various services and to improve urban issues including welfare, security, comfort and pleasure. Improvement of culture, social institutes, political infrastructures, and e-readiness to establish e-municipality are considered as the most important missions of the municipality (Shahnavazi et al., 2012) With regard to its large population (i.e. more than 8.5 million as reported by the Statistics Center of Iran in 2012), Tehran metropolis faces major problems, and those problems are increased every day. This has resulted in seemingly insoluble obstacles in economic, cultural, social and political development. The urban areas in Tehran are faced with many challenges. The citizens' repeated visits to these areas to receive services, failure to provide some electronic services, lack of necessary facilities for professionals working in these areas, failure to completely achieve the objectives of the plan in the field of e-municipality, early utilization of some electronic systems, semi-electronic status of some services (e.g. issuance of the drilling licenses), allocation of insufficient budget to areas, and nonrule-based performance of managers and experts in some cases are a few examples of municipal problems that emerged after the area-based plan was implemented in the organizational structure of the district municipality. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the area-based plan in districts 6 and 15 of Tehran municipality based on the criteria of e-municipality. Analyses are conducted to determine and scrutinize the role of the criteria selected by the municipality for managing the area-based plan. Moreover, the relationship between the current pattern of this management and the criteria of the municipality model in the urban areas of districts 6 and 15 are investigated in order to improve the performance of this organization. In this case, the obstacles and problems are identified to provide the best solution with regard to the status quo, and modern and efficient management decisions are encouraged.