Document Type : Research Paper

Author

• Mohsen Saghaei

Master of Urban Geography

Abstract

Alhough the thought and movement of creating new cities in Iran has had a significant history in creating residential settlements, settlements neighboring industrial districts and corporate townships, its prominence as an essential movement in the country's urbanization system, mainly with the aim of balancing the population in the metropolitan area and major population centers, goes back to the second half of the 1980’s. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning, as the department responsible for physical and systematic planning of residential system and regular development of settlements in the second half of the 1980's, considered planning and establishment of new cities in its programs.
In the year 1989, the Construction Company of the New Cities was formed in accordance with the statutes approved by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and appointed as responsible for policy planning, design and implementation of new cities. During the years 1989 to 1991, eighteen new city construction companies were formed as subsidiaries of the parent company triangle.
In the current situation, after about a decade from the beginning of the movement of creation of new cities as a new experience in the country’s urbanization, evaluation of the past performance of new cities seems essential, considering the limitations and problems of these cities and at the same time the necessities and capacities created by their development. It should be noted that when planners fail to design proper plans for their people, and services and facilities are concentrated in big cities and not distributed fairly throughout the country, the population will flood toward large cities and so bring about crises, causing attitude toward creating new cities. In this article, we have tried to study the new cities around Isfahan and analyze their weaknesses and strengths, and, finally, propose the necessary solutions in the conclusion.