Informal Settlements and Sustainable Urban Development Case Study: Metropolis of Mashhad in Northeastern of Iran

One of the fundamental social and economic characteristics of the southern countries is the lack of development of spatial planning system whose symptom is the irregular expansion of urban settlements. Due to the ecological traits and national policy-making manner, this expansion has caused the centralization of regional metropolises in these countries. In the geographical spaces of Iran, specially in the east, metropolis of Mashhad has proven to have these characteristics. The centralization of economical and service facilities and welfare prosperity, the increase of immigrants and the lack of economical power of rural immigrants has caused informal settlement. It creates environmental issues and social economic problems such as drug addiction, the spread of the center of moral corruption and finally instability in the urban system. The basic question is how we can properly manage the stability of these urban neighboring spaces. The result of recent studies in the metropolis of Mashhad shows that the final answers are the participation of new urban immigrants in these unstable parishes and the organization of the urban self-sufficient units as self-regulating municipalities with financial, service and developmental supports of governmental systems for a short period, as long as these management units can get autonomy.