28 research outputs found
The 1968 Tehran master plan and the politics of planning development in Iran (1945–1979)
No full textThis paper traces the relationship between state development policies and planning Tehran’s urban development from 1945 until the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It shows how the geopolitical context of the Cold War, and the political agendas of multilateral and bilateral development agencies (i.e. the World Bank and the Ford Foundation), together with the specific circumstances of the national modernization of Iran, were decisive in shaping the Iranian planning administration and the emergence of a comprehensive master planning approach. Moreover, this study demonstrates the critical role of the Iranian technocratic elite and professional middle class in establishing planning institutions and advocating for a vision of progress and development. The focus here is on the formation of the ‘Plan Organization’ as the first modern planning institution in Iran, and the ways in which this institution played a key role in shaping Iranian expert culture and urban planning practices. By examining the links between national development policies and urban planning, this paper presents how comprehensive master planning emerged as the preferred model for the planning and development of Iranian cities. The focus here is on the design and implementation of Tehran’s 1968 Comprehensive Master Plan.Spatial Planning and Strateg
Regimes of Urban Transformation in Tehran: The Politics of Planning Urban Development in the 20th Century Iran
No full textThis thesis contributes to a detailed understanding of the urbanisation of Tehran, and offers a new perspective on its complexities and specificities. This perspective builds on the work of urban scholars who have critically questioned the Eurocentric understanding of cities and have moved beyond an artificial hierarchy of cities that pushes for ‘backward/underdeveloped’ cities to become like ‘advanced/developed’ cities, even if that is inappropriate to their specific material and cultural condition. The thesis considers the urbanisation of Tehran over the course of the whole 20th century and argues that urban change and development process of Tehran is a multi-scalar process and despite its particularities and differences, have been connected to wider global development processes. In doing so this research examines the historic trajectory of Tehran’s urbanisation and development through the lens of international development discourse (such as state-led industrialisation or long-term economic development planning and privatisation) and shows how the interconnection between Iranian city making practices and international development ideas have shaped Tehran urban spaces and social structure. Throughout the last century, many international perspectives on Iran diagnosed the country and its capital city as being ‘backward’, ‘Third World’, and ‘undeveloped’. Thus, the pressure to ‘catch up’ with developed and economically powerful nations has been crucial in the ways in which Iranian government regimes, political elites, experts, and citizens have dealt with the ‘problem of underdevelopment’. In this thesis, the discourse of development refers not only to how development is defined or described, but also to how it is measured and practiced. Since the beginning of the 20th century, shifts in the global political economy have caused new discourses, institutions, and actors of development to emerge – bringing important implications for the formulation of national development polices and urban planning practices in cities across the Global South, including Tehran. Therefore, this study seeks to reveal how the interplay between the global discourse on development and Iran’s development policies has resulted in particular urban plans and development projects for Tehran, whose outcomes have had long lasting effects on trajectories of urbanisation and urban transformation in Iran. This research provides a historic perspective which first interrogates the relationship between urbanisation and development discourses and problematizes their perceived positive relationship in studies of cities in the Global South. Then a series of theoretical debates on history of urbanisation in non-Western cities, and shifts in international development discourse and its implications for the formulation of national development polices and urban planning practices in cities across the global south are presented. These theoretical discussions have offered conceptual lenses and an analytical framework that have helped to create a multi-scalar approach which frames the history of Tehran’s urbanisation as an intertwined local and global process. It is particularly through the application of this analytical framework that this thesis provides a novel understanding of Tehran urban development and the role of urban planning and design. The multi-scalar analysis of Tehran’s urbanisation is divided into three major periods over the last century. The beginning and end of each of these chronological periods is defined by crucial socio-political changes in Iran, each of which were motivated by the ambition to develop a modern and independent Iran that resists Western hegemony. Moreover, each period has been structured around the key shifts in international development discourses, as well as key national development policies, urban plans and projects for Tehran, their political and economic purposes, and the experts and institutions involved in making them. The empirical analysis of each period unpacks the differing agendas for the construction of nation-statehood and traces the conflict and alliances between state and non-state actors and agencies in the process of negotiating and implementing national development policies and urban plans for Tehran. Finally, the role of local and Western urban planners and experts, and the ideas and principles that guided their work, were examined through tracing the institutionalisation of expertise and the plan-making processes. By revealing the pathway of Tehran’s urbanisation and its specific historical trajectory, this study finds that the development of Tehran as a capital city during the 20th century has been one of the key mechanisms with which the Iranian state has constructed itself, and fortified its role as a builder and engineer of new ‘modern’ urban spaces. In each of the different periods, extensive powers to organise the territory were in the hands of the state, which can be seen as a way of maintaining and extending its authority and legitimacy. The case of Tehran’s urbanisation uncovers a mutual relationship between national development plans and urban change. The historical study of a series of key national development plans shows how Iranian ruling elites and chosen experts responded to dominant international development discourses and attempted to nurture a locally interpreted version of the ‘developed’ city. These efforts had direct implication for planning procedures and city making practices. As such, the case of Tehran deepens knowledge about the role of state and nation-building processes in shaping urban planning practices and urbanisation of southern cities, and also offers a counter-narrative to the common views in urban studies which suggest that large cities are bypassing their nation-states in driving economic growth and becoming strategic actors in the global economy. Ultimately by interrogating state power in producing Tehran urbanism, we highlight the importance of and need for more research on the role of state (formal) and non-state (informal) actors in shaping Tehran’s urban development trajectory and the politics of city-making practices. This is particularly pertinent to the careful investigation of the role of revolutionary charitable foundations in planning development as these foundations cannot be defined simply as public or private sector. In more general terms, it is important to further research the role of the religious-political groups (as non-state actors) or any other developmental organisation with ideological orientations in shaping urban spaces and spatial practices of Middle Eastern cities. In fact, it will be impossible to do any planning reform without considering the crucial role these ideological groups and organisations play in socio-economic development of these cities
Efficacy of erbium glass laser in the treatment of Old World cutaneous leishmaniasis: A case series
No full textA global scale intervention, A local scale integration: Developing the empty course grains of Tehran South
No full text“While it is important to identify world cities, it is also important to identify the lack of connectivity. Silences are as interesting as utterances. They tell us much about the process of globalization.” (Short, 2008) Silences refer to the cities whose connectivity is less than that predicted by their population, and they are called Black holes. According to R.Short explanation, Tehran, Baghdad and Pyongyang are among those cities which have an ideological resistance of being connected to the global system because of their religious or politics beliefs. But on the other hand, the economic role of Tehran in Islamic Financial Services (IFS) among the Islamic countries and the geo-political and social role of Tehran in the Middle Eastern countries show us a new aspect of globalization which has never been mentioned in the recent recognized literature. Maybe it is now the time to shift our analysis to the Middle East countries which have been the victim of the hegemonic world city imagination highlighted by Massey (2007). Moreover, Tehran municipality is now at a crossroad in its spatial development. “Making Tehran a Global city” is one of the seven main aims of its last master plan. In this regard, creating a “world trade centre” in Southern part of the city has introduced as an action project contributing in achieving this goal. The problem deal with this project is about the concept and location of the project. The southern part of city of Tehran has faced an uneven development through its growth history. This trend has resulted to an obvious division and polarization between North and South socially and spatially. Consequently, south part of Tehran is now full of left-over post-industrial areas which are like voids among new urbanized parts. The main question of this thesis project is that how can the empty coarse grains of south contribute in creating a balance between the north and south in global scale and its integration to the centre in local scale?UrbanismArchitectur
A novel mixed polymeric micelle for co-delivery of paclitaxel and retinoic acid and overcoming multidrug resistance: synthesis, characterization, cytotoxicity, and pharmacokinetic evaluation
No full textHistoric Religious Identity, Ray Urban Dignity: Searching Planning perspective at the neglected historic religious district to revive the local quality as a promoter of urban cohesion in different scales
No full textRay as the most historic city in Iran is an example of the neglected district that today religion shaped its identity and spatial configuration. In Fact the rapid growth of urbanization and migration in Tehran after the modernization, resulted polarization that affected on Ray, physically and socially and led to separate Ray from the rest of Tehran in higher scale. In addition, due to environmental changing, a fragmentation has happened inside the district socially and physically. The Abdol Azim Holy Shrine is located in the centre of the old radius nucleus of the district which has more than 10 million pilgrims per year. The district has witnessed rapid growth in the last two decades, mostly because of its free lands, agricultural lands, land price and industries that migrants, working class and middle class people have settled. As a result, this unplanned growth has led to change Ray’s identity. Ray have been defined as the main religious-historic centre in Tehran master plan which has attracted the attention of planners and investors. The aim of this project is find out important factors for integrated spatial development of Ray as a segregated district in order to reinforce Ray identity and quality first in local level and then in metropolitan scale. On the other word, Improving the local structure within the metropolitan structure is the aim of the project. In order to achieve this goal, Ray should be analysed in different aspects and a multiscales strategies are needed. Generally, the project searches planning perspectives in the neglected district to revive the local quality as a promoter of urban cohesion in different scales. The proposed plan provides more urban cohesion and synergy in the district and improve the life quality of its residents and visitors. In this thesis all steps from literature review to planning, design and evaluation of the plan are explained extensively.Chair of Spatial Planning & Strategy Complex Cities Graduation StudioUrbanismArchitecture and The Built Environmen
The Inefficiencies of Energy Efficiency: Reviewing the Strategic Role of Energy Efficiency and its Effectiveness in Alleviating Climate Change
Get PDFOur present economy is high-energy and demand-intensive, demand met through the use of high energy yield fossil fuels. Energy efficiency and renewable energy sources are proposed as the solution and named the ‘twin pillars’ of sustainable energy policy. Increasing energy efficiencies are expected to reduce energy demand and fossil fuel use and allow renewables to close the ‘replacement gap’. However, the simple fact is that fossil fuel use is still rising to meet increasing global demand and even when demand is stabilised, the substantial energy efficiencies achieved are not delivering the expected reductions in energy demand. The net effect is that efficiencies are gained and renewable energy use is increasing, even though the replacement of fossils is not an immediately plausible possibility. This points to the under-theorised problems in the ‘efficiency and replacement’ formula. We argue the need to pay closer attention to the ‘systemicity’ of the problem and to the technical and practical systems involved in energy demand. There are a number of detailed reasons why the ‘efficiency and replacement’ equation has become problematic (‘globality’, energy yield, ‘rebound’ and ‘momentum’ effects) and we include a short review of these and relate them to our ‘systemicity’ argument. We argue there is a need for better thinking, but also for a new primary instrument to drastically reduce energy demand and fossil fuel use. Attention should be urgently shifted from gains in energy efficiency to substantial year-over-year reductions in demand
Finding structural parameters for energy efficient cities
No full textEurope is going through a great social, economic and environmental period of transition. The changes the EU is currently undergoing have been causing increased awareness about sustainable development, natural resources use and energy efficiency on the agenda at the European level of policy making. However after more than forty years of the series of ‘Earth Summit’ conferences under UN Environmental program (UNEP) such as Rio 1992, Rio+5, Johannesburg 2002, Copenhagen climate summit 2009, Earth Summit 2012, the path towards sustainable development has not yet been clarified and is far from being achieved. Virtually all cities share concerns for the state of their environmental outlook. The relatively new problem of planning for urban energy efficiency emerges in this transition process. This will require substantial and concerted shifts in social–cultural, economic and environmental subsystems of cities. This paper presents a critical review of the literature on the context of urban energy efficiency and particularly on the ‘structural’ aspects of this issue. Our aim is to understand the larger context for planning for energy efficiency in Europe and clarify what the substantive content of planning for sustainability is. This means also understanding the functional-structural nature of urban energy regimes on which planning acts. Moreover this paper seeks literature to build up an understanding of what makes the city of today structurally unsustainable. The paper outlines crucial background issues in relation to energy efficiency and begins to outline a framework for further studies.UrbanismArchitecture and The Built Environmen
Identifying suitable habitats and current conservation status of a rare and elusive reptile in Iran
No full textAbstract
Knowledge gaps regarding species distribution and abundance are great in remote regions with political instability, and they might be even larger concerning elusive and rare species. We predict the potential distribution for Hierophis andreanus, a poorly known endemic snake in the Iranian Plateau, and assess its conservation status in relation to existing protected areas. We used a maximum entropy modeling tool and Mahalanobis distance to produce an ensemble species distribution model. The most suitable habitats where located mainly in mountain ranges and adjacent areas of Iran and Afghanistan. Mean temperature and slope were the most important predictors for our models. Furthermore, just five localities for H. andreanus were inside the Iranian protected areas. A 10 km expansion from existing boundaries of protected areas in all directions would double protected localities to 10, and a 20 km buffer would result in 13 protected localities. Our findings are particularly valuable to select locations to conduct new surveys and produce a more reliable estimate of current population size to improve conservation and management for this reptile in the Irano-Anatolian region.</jats:p
Cohesive zone and level set method for simulation of high cycle fatigue delamination in composite materials
No full textThis paper deals with high cycle fatigue delamination in composite materials. The cohesive zone approach along with the level set method is used to simulate fatigue-driven delamination growth. The cohesive zone method is used for calculation of the energy release rate at the crack front because of its superiority over the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT) for bi-material interfaces and non self-similar crack growth. Evolution of the crack front in 3D during fatigue growth is handled with the level set method. The damage variable in the cohesive zone formulation is changed according to the updated level set field. Benchmarks are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach in simulation of 3D delamination growth under fatigue loading.Applied Mechanic
