An Analysis of Population Settlement Trend in New Towns: The Case Study of Pardis New Town, Iran

Abstract

Global experiences of new towns show that they have different goals and objectives, such as decentralization of large cities, providing housing, rearrangement of regional growth centers, creation of new patterns for settlement, new investing as well as job creation. One of the most important planning policies in Iran has been the establishment of new towns that initiated in 1985. The policy addressed a wide range of objectives leading to the development of considerable number of new towns. As an example, based on the new towns policy of 1985, four new towns were established in Tehran metropolitan area to meet the growing population of the city, including, Pardis, Hashtgerd, Andisheh and Parand. This paper has focused on one of the key questions regarding the projected population growth and settlement. While the population of many existing cities located nearby areas increased dramatically, the new towns failed to settle their projected population. This research has used several variables to compare the conditions of Pardis new town and its peripheral urban centers. The methodology of this study is “comparative analysis” in which the population growth trend of Pardis New Town, comparing population settlements of its peripheral area. The results show that Pardis New Town has not been successful as much as other settlements located in its peripheral area. Most of existing and informal new settlements located in its peripheral area have faced dramatic population increase during the development of Pardis new town, such as Boomehen city. Several reasons can be raised for the failure of population settlements, including, extensive bureaucracy in the process of land allocation in new towns, lack of infrastructure and public facilities, lack of coordination between various governmental organizations and lack of a clear policy towards employment issue. The new towns policy was mainly designed in isolation from other policies, such as planning at the regional scale and growth centers strategies, neglecting integrated development plans.