Developing a Criteria Framework for Evaluation of the Urban Development Plans in Iran: Bridging the Gap between Knowledge and Action

Abstract

This article discusses the conceptual requirements in preparing an evaluation framework for the urban development plans in Iran as well as modifies the evaluation criteria proposed in previous studies. Although applying a highly refined evaluation framework for assessing the quality of urban development plans can increase the efficiency of the development process, employing an unmodified framework in a specific urban context may negatively affect the development process because of exclusive conditions. An evaluation framework based on the worldwide experiences cannot normally be employed in the evaluation of the urban development plans of Iran. Hence, this research contributes to the advancement of a more adaptable evaluation framework for evaluation in four parts. These parts include (i) the examination of the urban development process of Iran; (ii) the extraction of a general evaluation framework from different studies and worldwide experiences; (iii) the analysis of the effective elements for the urban development plans of Iran through SWOT analysis; and (iv) the generation of an evaluation framework based on a preliminary analysis of the specific situation of the urban development plans of Iran.