Coping with Growth in Tehran

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Demographics, Urban Management, Planning, grade: 1,3, HafenCity University Hamburg (Regional Planung / Regional Development), course: Arbeitsfelder der Stadtplanung im nationalen , language: English, abstract: Tehran City is the national capital and the

economical, cultural, and social center of

Iran. The city and the surrounding

urbanized region, referred to as ¿Tehran

Metropolitan Areä (TMA), is one of the

largest mega regions of the world, having

the highest concentration of population in

Iran and the Middle-East.

In course of industrialization and the

increasing importance of Iran, Tehran has

become magnet to companies and millions

of migrants. Until 1970, the city has been

the center of the national growth, fuelled by

the centralization strategy of the national

government. However, this changed as Iran¿s government steadily began to limit growth in

Tehran, while directing it into the surrounding towns of Tehran. Today, over 7 million people

live in the city of Tehran and over 12 million live in the TMA (in 2005). The unprecedented

and phenomenal growth has exacerbated several problems such as environmental

problems, traffic congestion, air pollution, housing shortage, lack of governmental finance,

increasing poverty as well as infrastructure deficiencies within the city and the TMA.

Managing the development of the city as well as the regional

growth has been and is still a major challenge for the responsible

governmental agencies. In order to cope with growth, the

government has made different regulation approaches and has

come up with various development strategies. The paper explores

the different regulation efforts of the governmental agencies to

control Tehran¿s development. Therefore, this paper intends to

find out if the strategies to regulate development of Tehran city

and the region are the appropriate tactics to cope with growth.

This paper is organized in the following way: It starts by giving an

overview of the current settlement structure of the TMA and

Tehran city. In the next section, the different stages of Tehran¿s

growth are examined by explaining the national circumstances,

causes, and reactions of the governmental agencies to control the

development by drafting policies or plans, and implementing measures. This is followed by an evaluation of these approaches with regard to the evolving

consequences and the effectiveness to cope adequately with growth. Recommendations and

final conclusions are presented at the end of the paper, based on the findings of this study.

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