sustainable development: from ideas to actions

increasing rate of world population growth has tremendous and of ten detrimental impacts on natural environment of our planet. unreasonable consumption of non-renewable sources of energy, deforestation, and the extinction of species are among these impacts. there are many who believe that global warming which is resulted due to population :growth, urbanization and over and irresponsible consumption is now seriously threatening cities and inflict non-repairable damage on world climate. our urban planning, under the influence of classic development model and cliche urban development models which ignore local ecological conditions have not only caused the unsustainability conditions in our cities, but the whole regions (bahriany, 1378a). it seems that the sustainable development concepts are perfectly compatible with the goals and purposes of new urban planning, and, therefore, these concepts may be used as effective tools to achieve sustainability in urban areas (bahrainy, 1378b).many scholars, analysts, and even politicians are convinced that any change in the existing conditions of cities towards sustainability requires a major change in our thought, or a radical change in our way of thinking and action . but few have gone any further to provide the practical means for such a change (bahrainy, 1375). in this paper, efforts are made to; following a review of the origin of the concept of sustainability, definitions and purposes of sustainability and its application in urban development; a general framework will be developed through which, practical guidelines and implementation mechanisms will be introduced to achieve sustainability in the urban areas.