Analysis of the Necessity of Applying Collaborative Environmental Planning Approach in District 6 of Tehran

Document Type : Original Article

Author

M.A. in Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Collaborative environmental planning approach tries to understand the wider dimensions of environmental problems and the post-material aspects of environmental capital by capturing the balanced between the political and social basis for decisions on the one hand and the scientific environmental basis on the other hand. The main challenge of this article is that, the district 6 of Tehran, as the spatial center of this city, which is the place of most important activities and the concentration of human activities in this area, has led to accumulation of different types of environmental pollution. This research aims to analyze the necessities of application of collaborative environmental planning and to increase the efficiency of urban planning system in district 6 of Tehran by introducing the new methods. The research method is based on the questionnaire and semi-structure interviews analysis of decision takers and residents of district 6 of Tehran. The analytical framework includes 5 main steps. In the first one, the objective and subjective environmental problems in the district 6 of Tehran are analyzed. In the second step, the tendency of residents to participate in different kinds of collaborative programs is analyzed. This analysis show that the residents have more tendencies to participate in the processes which they don’t need residents' presence. In the third step, the importance of facilitating in the collaborative processes is analyzed and the potentials and constraints are investigated. From the viewpoints of decision-making, the facilitating activity seriously needs to improve the transition of non-technical concepts of residents to the Specialists and to create trust between residents and formal decision makers. In the fourth step, the main formal and informal actors related to environmental problems are recognized on the basis of residents and decision taker's points of view. It shows that the local actors (formal and informal) in the neighborhoods have more importance in comparison to the actors in larger scales. In the last step the main constraints and potentials for application of collaborative processes in urban planning system of the district is considered. The findings show that the diversity of organizations related to the environmental issues in Tehran and its district, the overlap of responsibilities between different institutions, lack of connection between different parts of decision making structure, and the insufficient regulative support for the activities of Non-Governmental organizations are the main constraints. Evidences for the substantial and procedural problems in applying collaborative environmental planning makes it clear that it is necessary for decision makers to apply new approaches which emphasize on collaborative and participatory manners. This can enhance the local knowledge about environmental capitals and increase the responsibility of local actors in environmental maintenance. Regards to the findings of the research, the process of collaborative planning which is the complementary element for current urban planning system is proposed (Fig. 1). This process has two main parts, in the first part, the context for collaboration of stakeholders and in the second part, the context for plan making are prepared. In order to reduce the procedural problems, the structure of actor's system (Fig. 2) and decision support system are proposed.

Keywords

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Armanshahr Architecture & Urban Development
Volume 8, Issue 15
March 2016
Pages 369-383

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History

  • Receive Date: 20 February 2013
  • Revise Date: 25 June 2013
  • Accept Date: 29 July 2013

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