The Strategic Planning of Akhund Neighborhood in Qazvin City with Community-led Urban Regeneration Approach

Document Type : Research article

Authors

1 MA in Urban Planning, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Professor of urban and regional planning, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction  
Urban rehabilitation and renovation approaches in the evolution trend are considered from urban reconstruction to urban regeneration. The urban regeneration is a comprehensive, integrated, and holistic approach applied as an effective factor to sustainable promotion and quality of life enhancing according to the social dimensions along with economic environment. In a classification of urban regeneration, community-led urban regeneration proposes new forms of community intervention and participation of urban regeneration for recent decay, which traditional methods have failed. This method represents potentials for valuable capacity and grassroots knowledge. The aim of community-led urban regeneration is to enable local communities with social, economic, and environmental stagnation to reconstruct their communities. Four strategic goals in neighborhood regeneration through local community interventions include promoting social capital, inclusion and social cohesion, governance, and service provision. Community-based regeneration will increase the involvement and participation of the local community. Local community participation means strengthening the ability to succeed in urban regeneration projects. Participation is a very important part of the process of self-help and local community development. The participation is the natural result of empowerment and empowerment is the goal of the development. Encouraging local communities to benefit from their own resources leads to greater integration and sustainability because residents are likely to protect the the resources of the neighborhood in which they intervene and participate.
The Akhund neighborhood located in Qazvin city is one of the historical neighborhoods in this city, where there are inappropriate conditions in dimensions of economic, socio-cultural, physical, environmental, and management-institutional issues. Therefore, the aim of this research is the representation of plans and strategies based on community-led urban regeneration principles to remove neighborhood problems.
Methodology
Research methodology of this study is descriptive-analytic with a practical goal. Given the size and characteristics of this research, the data have been gathered with library and document and field studies including observation, interview, and survey especially at the stage of explaining problems. In this research, a six-step model is presented for community-led urban regeneration in this neighborhood. The strategic planning process has been carried out in six stages of the status knowledge and assessment, the preparation of a neighborhood/local community problems statement, visioning statement, the formulation of goals and strategies for the neighborhood, policy making, and finally, the action plans. Then strategies, policies, and action plans are proposed in all dimensions of economic, socio-cultural, physical, environmental, and management-institutional aspects in the form of comprehensive and integrated programs to improve neighborhood conditions. SWOT method has been used to formulate the strategies and to determine the Strength-Opportunity strategies (SO), Strength-Threats strategies (ST), Weakness-Opportunity strategies (WO), and Weakness- Threats strategies (WT)  in the form of five areas of decision-making in economic, socio-cultural, physical, environmental, and management-institutional aspects. Then, strategies have been evaluated and the best strategy has been selected by Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM). Ultimately, higher priorities strategies are identified in every topic fields and, then, policies and action plans have been expressed for them.
Results and Discussion
The main strategies in the physical dimension are including renovation and rehabilitation of distressed area and revival of the residential identity of the neighborhood, providing a shortage of services per head through the creation of these land-uses in wasteland lots, removing interference between the ride and pedestrian in important axes (religious and historical), creating spatial association between the important and historical elements of the neighborhood in order to strengthen the historical and cultural role. The strategies in the socio-cultural dimension are including reduction and prevention of crime and social harm, especially among young people, empowering the cultural diversity of immigrants through the training socio-cultural skills to strengthen the authentic identity of the neighborhood, organizing public spaces to increase the interactions of residents, promotion and creation of cultural and artistic spaces in the neighborhood based on the presence of old well-known people. The strategies in the economic dimension are also including use of the potential historical tourism and events in the neighborhood, creating employment opportunities by using entrepreneurship and supporting local small businesses, organizing and encouraging domestic jobs in order to raise the economic potential of residents. The strategies in the environmental dimension are including elimination of environmental pollution (air, visual, and audio) and development of neighborhood health, development of green and lively spaces. The strategies in management-institutional dimension are including creation and strengthening of informal people's institutions, definition and realization of small-scale neighborhood governance based on non-governmental organization, capacity building and empowerment of residents in order to participate in the administration of neighborhood affairs, capacity building and empowerment of urban managers in creating transparent, responsive,  accountable, and efficient management.
Conclusion
Community-led regeneration is based on local community involvement introduced as an innovative and new method for the current time. This approach seeks to exploit the capitals and knowledge of local community residents to benefit from solutions within these communities, and responses to their problems in order to enhance the possibility of success in urban regeneration projects and ultimately sustainable development. Local people's participation in urban regeneration projects increases local capitals, identity and sense of community, development of skills and opportunities, collective ownership, as well as knowledge, awareness and collective learning. As a result, it increases the quality of life, the sense of satisfaction, the welfare and the prosperity of these communities. Therefore, in this research, the developmental insufficiency in the Akhund neighborhood has been applied to be solved using community-led regeneration approach.
First, the needs and neighborhood problems have been identified using residents' opinions. Second, the visioning statement has been created, and strategies have been adopted to achieve the goals and objectives of the neighborhood. Third, the privileges have been given to these strategies and the best strategies selected in various dimensions. Ultimately policies and action plans have been formulated for them.

Keywords

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Geographical Urban Planning Research (GUPR)
Volume 7, Issue 2
July 2019
Pages 211-238

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