Tehran’s Environmental Comparative Assessment Based on Green City Indicators (In Comparing with 22 Major Asian Cities)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Urban Planning, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

2 M.A. in Urban and Regional Planning, School of Architecture and Environmental Design, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran.

3 M.A. in Urban and Regional Planning, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Iran’s Department of Environment presented the “Green Plan” in a Green City Conference in 1999. Resolving the environmental disorders and improving the quality of life through creativity and public awareness were among most significant goals, for better uses of resources and possessing green spaces without pollution. Achieving to give a description for the “Green City”, confirmed by The United Nations and global standards, was the most important result of the gathering. Despite this description, a comprehensive assessment for Tehran, under the worldwide Green City indices, is not presented after a decade. Accordingly, this article tries to assess Tehran’s environmental performance in comparison with 22 Asian major cities. Tehran’s environmental place will be ranked as a complementary research in addition to Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Green City project for Asian cities. The indicators, methods and data of assessment are derived from EIU study in 2011. Also, Tehran’s data are mainly gathered from Environmental studies of Tehran Comprehensive plan 2005 and Tehran Strategic Plan 2007. In order to measure Tehran’s environmental performance beside 22 Asian cities, 29 qualitative and quantitative indicators have been adapted based on theoretical literature and planning documents in eight categories of energy and carbon dioxide, land use and buildings, transport, waste, water, sanitation, air quality and environmental governance. The 14 quantitative indicators measure the current states of the cities and 15 qualitative indicators with a view to the future, assess policies and projects. To compare the data between cities and to calculate the cumulative score for each city, quantitative indicators are standardized using Morris deprivation index on a scale of 0 to 10. So, the best city scores 10 and the worst city scores zero. Qualitative indicators are rated by analysts with expertise in the relevant city based on objective criteria that consider cities’ targets, strategies, and concrete action. The qualitative indicators were also scored on a scale of zero to ten, with ten points assigned to cities that meet the criteria on the checklist. In order to compare eight environmental categories against each other, indicators within each category have the same weight. Therefore, the final score for each category area is formed of the cumulative scores in each category. The scores of the categories are also combined and the final score for each city is obtained. The scores are then rebased onto a scale of zero to 100. Finally, the cities were placed in one of five bands, both within categories and overall, reflecting the relevant scores. These classes are based on average scores and are defined by the standard deviation. Moreover, for a deeper analysis of the environmental performance of cities, each city is also classified based on five clusters such as population, area, income, density and temperature. Environmental performance of Tehran with the score of 38% is lower than the average of Asian cities, therefore, Tehran is placed in the very weak category in terms of environmental performance based on the quantitative indicators. According to this, Tehran in the comparative assessment of environmental performance among 22 Asian cities has the weakest performance. Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai are ranked after Tehran. The city functions is very weak in the Water category, however, in other areas such as transport and waste, Tehran has achieved good rating. Of the eight categories of the environmental assessment with green city approach, Tehran is very weak in the categories of energy and carbon dioxide, water and sanitation; weak in the category of air quality; medium in two categories of land use, construction and environmental governance; and it works well in the category of transport and waste. Notably, the actual status of air quality in Tehran shows a deep difference with some cities. Scores in this category are mostly the result of the policies and measures that have been carried out. The results of this assessment indicate that the environmental performance of Tehran as the Iranian capital city is v ery weak but emerging policies show slow movement towards the objectives of the Green City. It could be the result of city authorities having more attention to the Tehran’s urban environment issue. Lack of up to date and available environmental data and informat i on and, more importantly outdated Environmental Studies document of Tehran Master Plan are the serious limitations in this study. The most important achievement of this paper is presenting the calculated scores in different categories for Tehran in comparison with 22 other cities and separating researches in each environmental categories in Tehran.

Keywords


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