- Discerning Sprawl Factors of Shiraz City and how to make it livable    225 kb by    Movahed, Khosro | khmovahed1@yahoo.com    Short Outline This paper investigates Shiraz concerning sprawl from 1956 to present. It explains how the city has grown. The study is going to discerning sprawl factors of Shiraz during 50 years and the major focus of the paper is how to make it livable. Abstract Today, approximately 64 % of the Iran population lives in urban areas, while there are twenty three cities more than half million inhabitant. As a result, the various demands for land in and around cities are becoming increasingly acute. Consumption patterns in many cities of Iran are now completely different from what they were before. Cities were more compact and less sprawled before 1950 than they are today One of the most important challenge that facing urban area in Iran is their sprawling. Urban sprawl in Iranian cities is synonym to unplanned incremental urban development, which have created environmental, social and economic impacts on the cities and countryside. As 21st century has started, Shiraz residents find themselves fleeing many problems of sprawling the city. Between 1956 and 2006, Shiraz population become more than eight times from 170,656 to 1.44 million. Over a 50-year period Shiraz examined sprawled out over additional 14,000 Hectares. That was a lot of natural habitats, farmland and other rural space that were covered over by the asphalt, buildings and sub-divisions of suburbia. Today Shiraz is one of the sprawl cities of Iran, a process that has occurred within different factors. Agricultural land uses in the countryside have affected by low-density expanding of urban areas. For combating the sprawling of Shiraz by sustainable urban planning strategies, we need to understand the forces driving its sprawl. This paper investigates Shiraz city concerning sprawl from 1956 to present. The paper explains how the city has grown. The study is going to discerning sprawl factors of Shiraz during 50 years and the major focus of the paper is how to make it livable. The results of the study provide a general knowledge for the city of Shiraz, which are very important for any planning and urban design decision making process in present and future; but more importantly, these results offer a useful source for contemporary urban planning in historic cities with similar characteristics to the city of Shiraz all over the world. This study will address: (1) one suitable research for discerning sprawl; (2) examine this for Shiraz city; and (3) essential reading for urban planners, architects and local and national government officers Keywords Sprawling, Shiraz City, Livable, Sustainable Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2008: Urban Growth without Sprawl   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper