Coping with Growth in Tehran

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Demographics, Urban Management, Planning, grade: 1,3, HafenCity University Hamburg (Regional Planung / Regional Development), course: Arbeitsfelder der Stadtplanung im nationalen , 29 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Tehran City is the national capital and the
economical, cultural, and social center of
Iran. The city and the surrounding
urbanized region, referred to as "Tehran
Metropolitan Area" (TMA), is one of the
largest mega regions of the world, having
the highest concentration of population in
Iran and the Middle-East.
In course of industrialization and the
increasing importance of Iran, Tehran has
become magnet to companies and millions
of migrants. Until 1970, the city has been
the center of the national growth, fuelled by
the centralization strategy of the national
government. However, this changed as Iran's government steadily began to limit growth in
Tehran, while directing it into the surrounding towns of Tehran. Today, over 7 million people
live in the city of Tehran and over 12 million live in the TMA (in 2005). The unprecedented
and phenomenal growth has exacerbated several problems such as environmental
problems, traffic congestion, air pollution, housing shortage, lack of governmental finance,
increasing poverty as well as infrastructure deficiencies within the city and the TMA.
Managing the development of the city as well as the regional
growth has been and is still a major challenge for the responsible
governmental agencies. In order to cope with growth, the
government has made different regulation approaches and has
come up with various development strategies. The paper explores
the different regulation efforts of the governmental agencies to
control Tehran's development. Therefore, this paper intends to
find out if the strategies to regulate development of Tehran city
and the region are the appropriate tactics to cope with growth.
This paper is organized in the following way: It starts by giving an
overview of the current settlement structure of the TMA and
Tehran city. In the next section, the different stages of Tehran's
growth are examined by explaining the national circumstances,
causes, and reactions of the governmental agencies to control the
development by drafting policies or plans, and implementing measures. This is followed by an evaluation of these approaches with regard to the evolving
consequences and the effectiveness to cope adequately with growth. Recommendations and
final conclusions are presented at the end of the paper, based on the findings of this study.

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