Assessing the Urban Structure Cohesion based on Principles of Integration with Space Syntax Technique: A Case Study of Central Area of Mashhad

In evaluating the spatial structure of cities, in addition to identifying physical functional elements, how these relate in a coherent set is also essential, because the urban structure is the product of continuous formation, the most important feature of which is the interaction between physical and spatial aspects. One of the main problems of urban structure in modern urban development is a devaluation of public places, destruction of the space organization, losing special identity, and disconnecting different parts of the city. These rapid changes in Mashhad have weakened the connection of the holy shrine of Imam Reza as the most important element of the spatial organization of Mashhad with the surrounding tissue and have made it lose its cohesive nature. In addition, the continuation of the process of destruction of the old and valuable parts, especially in the joint area of the holy shrine with its adjacent texture, destroys structural cohesion and integration. Whereas the integration of an urban space shows degrees of its cohesion with the whole city, it is necessary to try to recreate the integration indicators in this context. Integration is one of the main concepts related to space composition, which has been developed based on Space Syntax. Therefore, this study seeks to analyze the integration of the joint area surrounding the holy shrine in the central area of Mashhad and to find the separate areas in terms of cohesion and integration, the Space Syntax technique has been used by DepthMap software version 10.