Investigating and Determining the Priorities for Capital Organizing in Iran

 
Abstract
Excessive centralization of population and facilities in Tehran, increases urban problems in the capital, on the one hand, and causes increasing problems in other geographical areas of Iran, on the other hand. Besides, it consequently is threatening the security and development of the country. Various schemes have been proposed to manage this situation. The present study aims to gather and classify the data choosing the best solution to organize the capital of Iran. The current article is the exploratory- analytical one, applied research using library and field data collection (questionnaires and interviews). The solutions were classified in the form of five main options and rating criteria including the ability to run, speed of execution, influencing volume, lower operating costs, economic considerations, political and environmental security. They are then determined by using AHP technique. The most important organization options are prioritized as the following, the internal organization of Tehran, decentralization, territorial approach, creating and strengthening poles rival to Tehran and transferring the capital. Therefore, national authorities are suggested to concentrate on the Tehran problems instead of wasting the time thinking of transferring the capital.
Extended Abstract
1- Introduction
Reconstruction and industrial development policies in the last century in Iran has caused over- centralization of population and public services. Rapid and uncontrolled increase in the population of Tehran in the last few decades leads to both increasing the densities and pollution, and decreasing the quality of services and available resources. All these policies have increased migration from border regions to Tehran, which can threaten the security of the country. Various methods have been examined to organize Tehran, but none of them could control the increase of population or decrease the pressure on infrastructures and resources in long term. The problems created by poor planning in different levels in Tehran not only are just the issues of this province but also affect all other provinces. In the last two centuries, Tehran has been transformed to the center of country’s infrastructures and specially the network of ways. The network of all highways, railways and airways in Iran is so structured, that Tehran is practically the center all of them. Tehran is also the source of many problems in other fields like economic, political, cultural, social and environmental sects. The subject of organizing the capital affects not only this city and its surrounding regions but also whole the country directly or indirectly. So to solve Tehran’s problems we should consider the different aspects of spatial planning in Tehran and whole country.
Region of this study:Tehran is the capital of Islamic Republic of Iran, which is located in the south of Alborz Mountains; one of the central provinces of Iran. In 2006, ratio of the population of Tehran agglomeration ratio to the population of country was 18.13. In 2006, 52% of investment (governmental and private), was concentrated in Tehran.
2-Materials and Methods
In this investigation statistical society consists of spatial planning specialists, and related organizations and institutions. This investigation is going to prioritize the method of organizing the Capital by spatial planning approach, using the technic of AHP, based on certified survey whose essence is qualitative and quantitative and its purpose is developmental. The method of gathering information in this investigation are librarian and field (questioner) in which the data and statistics were gathered from essays, books and related sources and also interviews with experts . In the next step, we prepared a questionnaire whose target society was elite. For scoring we used nine degree scale of L. Saaty. Then, the mean of all criteria and choices of questionnaires extracted and inserted in expert choice software.
3- Results and Discussion
In this research, following criteria have been chosen to investigate and determine the priorities for organizing the Capital with spatial planning approach: implementation capability, implementation speed, dimensions of influence, environmental, political, and economic and security considerations and low implementation costs. Studying the evidence, different documents and interview with elite and experts, we obtained many choices categorizing them into five main groups or choices, like internal organization of Tehran city, decentralization, make and strengthening opposing poles, spatial approach and displacement of the Capital city. Then the choices were prioritized on the basis of specialist’s viewpoints and by considering the effect of each criterion.
4-Conclusion
Implementation capability in the organizing Capital is known as the best criterion. Displacement of the capital city has last option priority and the importance of practicing has been estimated 5%. In the result of organizing and decentralization Capital city conference at 2015, this issue was referred to. However, almost all domestic and foreign pundits participating in the conference disagreed to displacing Tehran like a capital city. The opinions of these scientists are based on the organization and decentralization. Because finding a suitable geographical area in the country to displaced Capita city there is not a simple task, displacing the Capital city requires a lot of financial credit. But there are many ways to organize the capital appearing in the form of five main options in the preset study. So, it can be concluded that, the best way to organize the capital not only is not a particular option, but needs to examine some options and still other options must be considered. As we noted in the materials and methods section, this option should mostly pay attention to internal organization of the Tehran city and in next priorities should focus on decentralization of the capital, territorial approach and make and strengthening opposing poles for Tehran. According to Tehran today, and by using the result of this research and experience of other countries in dealing with Capital problems, some steps are provided to organize Tehran:

In the first step, executive organizations must operate its power to internal organization.
Participation of people in the important city decision-making, determination of strategic decisions related to metropolis of Tehran, Remote working for government employees, development of Underground transport, air transport development, creating monorail, revising the space political organization in Tehran.
Since the centralization political of Tehran was selected as the second priority, there should be some decentralization consideration in the organizing committees and the governmental agenda.
Concentrating services and facilities in Tehran, causes absorbing population from different parts of Iran, and Tehran has been developed macrocephaly. To get away from this situation, it should be given special attention to the development of coastal areas, seaport and southern islands, development of border areas, supporting the industrialists and producers in disadvantaged provinces, developing and strengthening small towns through regional and local planning policies.