an analysis of the tabriz sprawl pattern

â  regional and urban planning instruments contain an extensive range of concepts and methods. these methods are important for understanding the complex identity of cities and the prediction of their future. today majority of planners and urban planning authorities believe that the use of these methods can help us to better understand urban systems and predict their behavior. in this regard the holdren model is one the quantitative models in the analysis of the urban land use which is applied for specifying the urban sprawl in cities. therefore, in this paper we attempt to study the urban sprawl of tabriz on its spatial extent during the years 1335-85(1956-2006) using this model and the statistical analysis. results of the analysis and study of tabriz metropolis during the last half of the century indicate that this city has been facing internal urban sprawl. open spaces and especially the green spaces, the gardens and fields surrounding it, are more interfered with other land uses altogether ending to destruction of the city structures. there is rapid population expansion and rapid construction of building. thereby, urban planning projects not reflecting ever changing social economical and environmental situations leads to some sort of urban sprawl. such shape of the extension is a pattern of an ill city that has lost its spatio-physical characteristics.