Measurement and evaluation of urban landuse compatibility index using Geographic Information System Case study: Kashan City

Due to its particular natural, economic and social situation, Kashan as a second-rate city confronts a variety of problems such as horizontal and scattered expansion, unbalanced development of the city in different directions, the spread of marginalization and unauthorized constructions. These problems have become the basis for major changes in land use and land use incompatibility.  Land use evaluation of Kashan city shows that this city has been encountering uneven growth in recent years and many of the surrounding areas that used to be agricultural lands, have gone to urban infrastructure and structures, especially the residential and industrial ones. Since one of the purposes of urban land use plan is the appropriate location of land uses in conjunction with the separation of incompatible uses from each other, accordingly, the current research aims to present applicable solutions for the optimal location detection and distribution of uses throughout the city and to separate incompatible uses from each other in order to achieve the major goal of urban planning, i.e., ensuring people's welfare by creating a better, healthier, more effective and pleasant environment by applying the spatial analysis tools of the geographic information system, while answering the following questions;What is the per-capita status of existing uses in Kashan with standard per capita in urban plans?What is the status of existing uses in Kashan regarding the compatibility index?

Regarding purpose, the type of research is applied and in terms of its method it is analytical-comparative; explicitly, the literature and sources have been initially examined and the theoretical framework of the subject has been compiled. Then the base map of urban land uses was prepared and reorganized in GIS environment. Subsequently, through surveys of the amounts of surfaces, the per capita for all types of uses was determined and annexed to the information of the base map in the form of separate layers in order to provide the basis for its use in the GIS environment. Afterwards, the evaluation of urban uses was proceeded regarding per capita standards and compatibility index by applying quantitative and qualitative method. Accordingly, the amount of land required by each use in the current situation was initially calculated and determined by specifying the ratio of shortages through the per capita standard and eventually, the location of each use in relation to neighboring users was analyzed in terms of compatibility index via GIS software using the overlap model (IO) and spatial analysis.

The Geographical Area of the Research:

Kashan city is the geographical area of the research that is currently the second most populous and industrial city after Isfahan city in the province.

Since examining the compatibility of different uses of the city is the most significant element in evaluating urban land use, therefore this research has proceeded to explain the degree of compatibility and non-disruption of one use to carry out the activities of other uses using the compatibility index. Accordingly, the degree of compatibility of city uses in relation to neighboring uses was primarily drawn using the convenient table of mutual compatibility matrix, then the quality of city uses was investigated through field studies in terms of compatibility according to the amenable fields in explaining compatibility such as land size, slope, accessibility, urban facilities and equipment, air quality, sound, light and smell.

In this research, the uses were examined and evaluated at both quantitative and qualitative levels. In the quantitative section, the current situation of the levels and per capita uses throughout the city was discussed with the standard per capita in urban plans. Consequently, statistical calculations showed that except for tourism and religious uses, other uses are encountering a deficiency of level. In the qualitative part, the degree of compatibility of land uses was investigated using the compatibility index through acquiescent components in the explanation of compatibility such as land size, slope, accessibility, urban facilities and equipment, air quality, sound, light and smell, through field studies in the form of mutual compatibility matrix. Finally, the location of each user in relation to neighboring users was analyzed in terms of compatibility index via GIS software applying the overlap model (IO) and spatial analysis. The results of the compatibility percentage of uses with neighboring use in Kashan show that residential use of more than 40 percent, educational use with more than 37 percent, administrative use with 36 percent, medical use with 27 percent and sports use with 19 percent in stand in relatively incompatible to completely incompatible conditions with their neighboring uses, and on the other hand, tourism use with more than 90%, religious and cultural use with more than 85%, and commercial use with more than 80% are in entirely compatible and relatively compatible conditions with their neighboring uses and take the least incompatibility with other uses.