Investigation of smart growth in traditional Islamic culture: Case study of Isfahan city in Iran

There is widespread urban growth in a new concept with sustainable development in each society; it includes type of housing, mix land use, socio-cultural support and public transit access. This study firstly focuses on analyzing the land use pattern, transportation and cultural accessibility as well as investigating their relationship of smart growth in municipalities’ districts of Isfahan city. Secondly, it develops a framework of historical Iranian cities which aims to evaluate the use of smart growth principles in traditional Islamic culture. The study made use of descriptive-analytic by using secondary data and urban development plan documents.  The research population includes 14 regions of Isfahan which is based on political divisions in 2012. The research indicators can be divided into ten groups of social-economic-environment which aims to investigate smart growth principles in Isfahan city. The study used Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution method (TOPSIS) to identify the most strategic elements of smart growth in Isfahan municipality districts, which are consider to minimize low density sprawl.   Key words: Municipality district, smart growth, TOPSIS, Iranian cities, urban sprawl.