An Assessment of the Impact of Overdevelopment RightsSales on the Skyline of Khoy City Using Sky View Factor (SVF) Analysis

With the country'saccelerating urbanisation, we are witnessing expansions and increasing new constructions in Iranian cities. One of the challenges raised in today's cities is the inability of their managers to control height and spatial balance, with the construction of high-rise,out-of-sale buildings causing heterogeneity in the physical structure of cities and their non-compliance with urban planning regulations. In response, this research investigates the effects of unruly high-rise developments on the skyline. Library methods, field survey anddocumentation of values and visual identities have been used here. ArcMap has been used for 3D analyses, and CityEngine and ArcScene for height simulations and analyses (skyline, graph skyline, etc.). The evaluation of the results obtained from 3D modelling shows that overdevelopment occurs at the rate of 2.4%, 3.4% and 8.8% in old, intermediate and new areas, and the average of SVF index in those areas is 70.63, 46.45 and 64.14% respectively. The analysis of the general results confirmed that the skyline of contemporary cities does not follow a specific pattern. Also, this research explains the reason for the relatively irregular skyline caused by the overdevelopment rights sales, and the method of densification and height zoning of that area. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate height laws and adhere to their implementation in order to achieve spatial consistency and also to make the skyline legible.