Recognizing the role of quality of life in the approving process of the city development plan (case study: Mashhad city)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant Professor, Urban Planning Department, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract
With the increase in population and the number of cities in this century, especially in developing countries, the quality of life in cities has become an important issue in urban planning. The master plan of the city is one of the most important documents of urban development, which is approved in a costly process by local and national authorities. The current research seeks to identify the components of quality of life in the process of approving the third comprehensive plan for Mashhad City The process of approving this plan started in 2018 and finally it was announced in 2018. In order to study the plan approval documents, the content analysis method has been used. The data collection tool was documentary and the data analysis tool was in the form of inductive content analysis in MaxQda software. Based on the literature review, the quality of life components in the planning process has been classified into substantive and procedural dimensions. The Substantive dimension includes health, recreational, educational, technological infrastructures, natural environment, social environment, and economic environment are considered, and the procedural dimension includes qualitative considerations in planning approach, qualitative considerations in planning documents, qualitative considerations in plan implementation, planning organization, and urban plans hierarchy. As a result of the analysis of the project minutes, 1034 codes were identified and classified according to the conceptual model. According to the research findings, 81.23% of the identified codes were procedural and 18.76% were substantive. In the approval documents, the most attention was paid to the planning organization, but the technological infrastructure and quality of implementation were not addressed. At the local scale, the ratio of paying attention to the quality of life in urban planning has been almost double that of the national scale. Based on the findings of the research, it is suggested that the substantive aspects of the quality of life in the process of approving urban development plans, especially on a national scale, should be given special attention by the authorities.

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