راهبرد توسعه شهر مبتني بر توسعه پايدار-مطالعه موردي: شهر شبستر

City Development Strategy Based on Sustainable Development: The Case Study of Shabestar City

Numerous studies have indicated the unsustainable consequences of the ongoing global development which itself is the function of population, consumption pattern, and consumption per capita variables. In this vein, urban dwellers have the decisive share in these negative impacts. Bearing in mind that the major growth of world urban population will take place in developing countries, achieving sustainable development is the rampant preoccupation for them. On the other hand, the conventional urban planning (i.e. comprehensive physical planning), despite some achievements for urban management, has been unable to redirect the city developments towards sustainability due to its approach and its theoretical shortcomings. In the present article, Shabestar city has been studied from the social, economical, managerial and infrastructural aspects considering the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats based on sustainability indexes. Gathered data were analyzed in a systematic study by using SWOT and AHP models. The results of this study show that Shabestar city is in an unstable state. To change this state, relying on citizenfs participation associating enabling policies, delineation of integrated management strategy of the city incorporating capacity building, paying attention to socio-economic and cultural processes in the city and finally, commitment to local community development and good urban governance, via new methods of urban planning (i.e. city development strategy) can be effective on bringing about sustainability for Shabestar city.