Strategy for Sustainable Urban Development: A Case Study of Urmia City, Iran.

Abstract

The term sustainability development has been used in various forms and definitions. The earliest use of sustainability or sustainable development can be traced back to 1972. In order to cope with four decades of global economic, social, and environmental challenges, sustainable development was adopted as a mantra by international agencies, national and local governments, especially after Habitat II in the local level. On the other hand, new approaches in urban planning were employed in order to achieve a sustainable development. The purpose of this article is presentation of strategies for Sustainable Urban Development in Urmia city. This study is applied and the method of its investigation is descriptiveanalytical. Findings indicate that the model of urban growth is sprawl and this leads to ecological, social and economical and urban form unsustainable. The Urmia case is interesting for several reasons: first, it is a case of very fast urban growth even for a developing country; second, it portrays a land substitution process in which agricultural land is not the primary provider of urban land which is relatively rare in urban contexts. Third, it illustrates how the fastest rates of urban sprawl may correspond to middle size cities rather than large centers. , and fourth, it also illustrate how sprawl may also hide important internal land uses such as the presence of agricultural plots within urban boundaries. The end is clearly mentioned that achievement of urban sustainable development is a necessity strategy for tomorrow and that needs appropriated action plans to implement as soon as possible.