Analysis of The Network of Problems and Strategic Assumptions of Urban Planning and Architecture of Iran’s Metropolises: An Application of Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Strategic Assumptions Surfacing and Testing (SAST)

Introduction :

Lack of integration in the urban management system, dilapidated and inefficient urban fabric, expansion of marginalization and bad housing, unsafe buildings, expansion of construction violations and inefficiency and lack of deterrence of crimes, lack of urban services and infrastructure in the peri-urban space and similar cases are among challenges and issues of urban planning and architecture of the country’s metropolises. The Consultative Assembly of the Heads of Urban Planning and Architecture Commissions of Metropolitan Cities and Provincial Centers is a non-governmental and independent institution that aims to create a cooperation network and platform for exchanging experiences and making joint decisions to better fulfill the provisions of the Law on Councils and the missions of urban planning and architecture approved in the documents and to fulfill effective participation in policies, planning, and preparation of urban plans. The present research is based on the analysis of the network of issues raised in the two meetings of the consultative assembly of the heads of the urban planning and architecture commissions of the metropolises and the centers of the provinces of the country and recording the experiences of the heads of the meeting, based on the design of a learning process in practice to identify the strategic presuppositions of the priority issues.

For this purpose, the themes raised in the two meetings of the heads of the urban planning and architecture commissions were examined. Subjects raised in two meetings: jump in housing production; urban regeneration (renovation and revival of worn out and inefficient urban fabric); urban regeneration (renovation and revival of historical and cultural context); the privacy of cities; construction violations; real estates with a  promissory note and no official document; issues of new cities; urban smartening; unsafe buildings; urban resilience and urban crisis management; architecture and urban planning patterns; governance and integrated urban management; city economy and sustainable city income sources; sustainable urban development plans; public and private rights in urban development; urban vitality; real estate and land use; vulnerable groups; issuance of permits and building permits; specialized knowledge of architecture and urban planning were identified. After extracting the thematic axes and issues, according to the intertwining of the issues, the network of issues to find key issues using the Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach based on the input and output degree centrality indicators using the software Ucinet and Net Draw were analyzed. According to the results of the analysis of the problem network, the problems with the highest output degree centrality in the problem network were considered key problems.

By the findings of the analysis of the network, seven key issues include: not using the legal capacities to renew the worn-out and inefficient urban fabric; the spread of construction violations and the inefficiency and lack of deterrence of crimes; lack of integration in the urban management system; violation of urban planning rules and regulations of urban development plans and large-scale change of use; lack of urban services and infrastructure in the peri-urban area; the aggravation of urban crises (water crisis, environmental crises, earthquake, and subsidence) and lack of attention to the capacities within the urban context were identified in the housing production jump plan. In the following, the strategic assumptions of each of the problems according to the background investigation as well as the strategic themes of the statistics and the design of the questionnaire using the methodology of phenomenology and testing of strategic assumptions (SAST), Strategic issues of key issues based on the level of importance and the level of certainty of the correctness of the default were identified with the participation of rating experts and the certain planning region. As an example of the strategic presuppositions of the problem of not using the legal capacities to renew the worn and inefficient urban fabric in the secure planning area, including incentive policies for empowering and improving, and renovating the worn and inefficient urban fabrics, the requirement of municipalities to enter to the category of urban regeneration and fulfilling the legal duties listed in clauses 14 and 21 of municipalities and activating urban regeneration working groups; providing incentives and facilities for residential uses and commercial buildings for administrative, medical and public services located in worn-out urban contexts and examining the experiences of developing countries in facing worn-out and inefficient urban contexts as agreed upon by the heads of urban planning and architecture commissions. Regarding other critical issues, the partially agreed solution of the heads of urban planning and architecture commissions was presented.

The proposed hybrid approach is an application of complexity management in analyzing the network of problems and revealing the strategies agreed upon by the stakeholders involved, and its efficiency has been presented in the issues raised by the consultative assembly of the heads of the commission for urban planning and architecture of metropolitan cities. In future research, it is suggested that the researchers should form an intervention in the action process during the meeting of the heads of the urban planning and architecture commissions. Discussions should take place in a structured way among the members of the assembly and finally, the summary of the meeting should be presented with attention to problem-oriented learning in practice. In addition, by focusing on the critical issues and strategic assumptions in future research, it is suggested to analyze the stakeholders of the problem and strategies and the strategy implementation mechanism by referring to the stakeholders and determining the roles and limits of duties and responsibilities. Each of the key stakeholders should be provided with a basis for planning to solve the problems and respond to the stakeholders.