Author(s)

N. Marsousi & A. R. Lajevardi

Abstract

This paper is trying to evaluate the ecological capacities of the environment for sustainable development in the urban sprawl of Kashan in its future developments. So we evaluate the land capacities as the most important ecological factor. Kashan is an historical city in Iran, which is famous for its Persian carpet manufacturing. It has experienced the sprawl growth in recent decades. The methodology of this study is analytical-descriptive. The results show that: 67% of physical development of Kashan between the years 1938 to 2007 is caused by population growth, and 33% of it is due to sprawl growth. Also the existing Kashan land capacities can accept more than double of the existing population (572,508). In other words, it can have 2.13 times population growth in the following 30 years with the same urban area. Keywords: sprawl, urban land, ecological capacities, sustainable development, Kashan. 1 Introduction Urban sprawl has been the most important barrier to urban sustainable development and that it prepares grounds for social unrest and insecurity [1]. Studies show that the cities with sprawl have suffered from greater losses when unexpected events have occurred [2]. Also the sprawl causes the density of the population distribution, requiring the need for much more services and authorities are forced to spend more for those services in comparison to the time when the city has the extensions in height and this makes the misdistribution of

Keywords

sprawl, urban land, ecological capacities, sustainable development, Kashan.