Author(s)

S.R. Hosseinzadeh

Abstract

The explosive growth of the population in Iran within the last four decades on the one hand and the problems in rural areas on the other hand have resulted in the mass migration of villagers to cities. Thus the number of city-dwellers, which constituted 47 percent of the total population of the country in 1960s, increased to 55 and 66 percent in the two decades that followed and to 70 percent in the year 2002. The greater part of the migrating population have settled in the metropolitan cities of Tehran, Mashhad, Esfahan, Shiraz and Tabriz. This sudden influx of population within a short period of 40 years has impeded comprehensive urban planning and the rapid and inharmonious growth of the physical texture of the metropolitan cities has given rise to numerous difficulties, making life in urban areas hazardous and costly. In this article, using aerial photo

Keywords