A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO CAPABILITIES OF THE TRADITIONAL URBAN FORM IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION

by Houshmand E. Masoumi

Influenced by the early to mid-twentieth century modernization, the Iranian cities experienced urban transformations that laid extensive effects on the social and physical human activities that have remained until today. Mobility is one of such issues that are broadly under the influence of the transformed urban form. This paper claims that the new Iranian urban planning encourages the city dwellers to drive personal cars because the neighborhoods and their centers lost importance after the urban form modernization efforts in 1930-1960. Neighborhoods with districts centers used to be basic elements of the traditional Iranian urban form. This study indicates the capabilities of the small-scale traditional urban forms like neighborhood arrangement in solving modern mobility problems. The theoretical approach that this study discusses over is that strengthening neighborhoods and Neighborhood Unit Centers (NUCs) can promote sustainable transportation, namely pedestrian travels. As a result the urban travels will be shortened and localized. The dominant view of automobile-oriented planning is needed to be replaced by a more humanist strategy, such as neighborhood-oriented planning. This ideology uses the neighborhoods to enhance sustainable mobility. To test this hypothesis, micro-scale and city-scale quantitative and empirical observations are suggested to prove the capacities of neighborhoods and their centrality in making the city-level travels more sustainable and decrease traffic congestion.

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mroe about urban planning in Iran:

URBAN SPRAWL AND CLIMATIC CHANGES IN TEHRAN

Residential Self-Selection and Its Effects on Urban Commute Travels in Iranian Cities Compared to US, UK, and Germany

MODELING THE TRAVEL BEHAVIOR IMPACTS OF MICRO-SCALE LAND USE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS

Impact Assessment of Sustainable Public Transportation System on Quality of Life in Tehran

URBAN SPRAWL IN IRANIAN CITIES AND ITS DIFFERENCES WITH THE WESTERN SPRAWL

A new approach to the Iranian urban planning, using neo-traditional development

The Study of Land Use Changes in the Tehran Metropolitan Area by Using MOLAND Model

Distribution and Determining of Urban Sprawl in Kerman with Emphasis on Kariz Water System

URBAN PATTERNS FOR A GREEN ECONOMY: LEVERAGING DENSITY

URBAN SPRAWL AND CLIMATIC CHANGES IN TEHRAN

by Gh. R. Roshan, S. Zanganeh Shahraki, D. Sauri, R. Borna

Urban sprawl beginning in the developed countries around 1950 is currently experienced in almost all countries. Many studies on the effects of urban sprawl indicate the emergence of harmful effects of this phenomenon. One of the most important environmental effects is the changes in climate. The purpose of this research was to identify the relation between urban sprawl components of Tehran with changes in climate variables. To this end, two data sets have been used to study the relation between these elements and components. The first data set included climatic elements such as rainfall, temperature, the percent of relative humidity and the percent of calm wind, as well as its mean speed for a period of 54 years (1953-2006). The second set of data was formed by components relevant to urban sprawl such as city area, private cars per capita, population density and number of urban population. Pearson correlation and multiple regression methods have been applied to compare and identify the relation between climatic components with urban sprawl indices. Results of correlation indicate that among the 5 aforementioned climatic components, annual rainfall and the mean of wind speed do not appear to have significant relation with sprawl, but the oscillations in percent of relative humidity and percent of calm wind seem to have a significant relation with Tehran sprawl. Consequently and using multivariate regression, it was concluded that the most important factor in the increasing temperature of Tehran, is the number of cars; the most important factor in increasing the percent of relative humidity is the area of Tehran, whereas the increase of the percent of calm wind may be attributed to the increase of population.

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more about Tehran:

Residential Self-Selection and Its Effects on Urban Commute Travels in Iranian Cities Compared to US, UK, and Germany

A GEOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF KARAJ : A SATELLITE CITY IN THE URBAN REGION OF TEHRAN

The Study of Land Use Changes in the Tehran Metropolitan Area by Using MOLAND Model

Facilitating Urban Management Through Local SDI Case Study: The Municipality of Tehran 

Development Guidelines for Disaster Risk Management in Tehran 

THE IDENTITY OF OPEN SPACE: ADAPTING FROM THE MODEL OF TRADITIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER

MODELING THE TRAVEL BEHAVIOR IMPACTS OF MICRO-SCALE LAND USE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS

Daytime urban heat island effect in high-rise and high-density residential developments in Hong Kong

by R. Giridharan, S. Ganesan, and S.S.Y. Lau

Nearly 60% of electrical energy use in Hong Kong is for space conditioning during summer months. The paper investigates the impact of design-related variables on outdoor micro level daytime heat island effect in residential developments in HongKong. The paper hypothesizes that the differences in outdoor temperatures within and between residential developments can be explained by the impact of design-related variables on the overall environment. Case studies of three large housing estates reveal urban heat island effect (UHI) in the order of 1.5 ◦C within an estate, and 1.0 ◦C between estates. The results indicate that energy efficient designs can be achieved by manipulating surface albedo, sky view factor and total height to floor area ratio (building massing) while maximizing cross ventilation.

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similar papers:

MITIGATING URBAN HEAT ISLAND EFFECT BY URBAN DESIGN: FORMS AND MATERIALS

Low Carbon City Development Guidance [Outline]

Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change

Urban Resilience: Research Prospectus, A Resilience Alliance Initiative for Transitioning Urban Systems towards Sustainable Futures

MITIGATING URBAN HEAT ISLAND EFFECT BY URBAN DESIGN: FORMS AND MATERIALS

by Julien Bouyer, Marjorie Musy, Yuan Huang, and Khaled Athamena

This paper gives a synthesis of four complementary research works that are contributing to the same objective: proposing solutions to reduce the buildings’ energy consumption by the way of modifying the local climate. The first one focuses on one parameter of direct relevance to urban heat island phenomenon: the surface albedo. The albedo of a city or a district depends on surfaces’ arrangement, materials used for roofs, paving, coatings, etc., and solar position. The second one proposes a simulation tool that permits to evaluate the impact outdoor urban environment on buildings’ energy consumption. The third work explores urban forms: it proposes methods to describe them and analyze the climatic performances of classified urban forms. This analyze permits us to propose morphology indicators that permits to compare the relative efficiencies of different typologies. The last work concludes about the relevance of using indicators (based on physics or morphology, related to site or to built form) in urban design process and proposes a methodology to produce indicators.

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papers about climate change:

Sustainable Transport and Climate Change: Environmentally Experiences and lessons from community initiatives

Asian cities at highest risk to climate change, study says

Tackling Urban Sprawl: New Urbanism and Eco-Towns

Urbanization and Natural Disasters in the Mediterranean Population Growth and Climate Change in the 21st Century Case Studies on Izmit, Algiers and Alexandria

Studying the effects of urban sprawl of metropolis on tourism - climate index oscillation: A case study of Tehran city

Research on Factors Relating to Density and Climate Change