Tehran: an urban analysis

Abstract

Considering the Complexities of Urban Geography, this study attempts to synthesize tine many disparate elements within the whole field of Geography, in the analysis of one urban area, Tehran. The study stresses the contrast between Tehran and the rest of Iran, a result of the concentration of development within, the capital city, and also the contrasting patterns within the city itself, the result of rapid expansion. The first threre chapters are an attempt to consider the various processes that have contributed to the development of Tehran, which was arbitrarily chosen as capital less than two hundred years ago. Even within this framework contrasts due to historical or demographic differences become apparent. The first chapter looks at the physical setting and how this has influenced the growth and development of the urban area. The second chapter considers the development of the city up to the Second World War, and the importance of historical processes for spatial contrasts within) the city. Demographic characteristics axe analysed in the third chapter. The focus of the study is chapter four, in that it analyses the most important functions and activities of the capital and considers how these have developed, interacted, and been located by the physical environment. Transport is analysed in chapter five,; bath internal and external. Finally chapter six is a synthesis of all the various processes and location patterns in the context of the major land use categories. Throughout the analysis attempts are made to focus attention on the distinctiveness of the capital, city, but at the same time to show how Tehran has been integrated into a regional,, national, and international framework.