Using Spatial Justice in Urban Planning with The Systemic Thinking Approach

Abstract

The unbalanced distribution of public land uses is one of the consequences of the rapid growth of cities in recent decades. This problem causes the unequal of citizens from urban services, which results in the morphing of the polar and dual spatial structures in the city space. The present study is to recognize and analyze the dimensions of spatial justice and apply this concept in urban planning. Therefore, it is applied research. The research method is descriptive-analytic. Qualitative data were collected with an open questionnaire and through interviews and reviewing library documents. The quantitative data used in numerical form and by the weighting of Delphi questionnaires were prepared. In this study, 12 professors, experts in the field of urban planning and management from five top universities of Tehran in Iran (Tehran University, Sharif University of Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology, The University of Tarbiat Modarres, and Shahid Beheshti University) were selected as the team of experts. Then, by forming the matrix of the interaction space justice elements and numerical coding of experts based on the logic of the cause-effect and the effect of each criterion on the system and conversely, effective spatial justice indicators in urban planning, were prioritized. The results of the analysis show that urban space has spatial justice when it includes the indicators of "simplicity and readability", "equality of opportunity" and "human scale". Finally, according to the results of previous stages, the neighborhood layout model in the city is proposed based on the concept of spatial justice.