Hadi Barghamadi; Farid Nahid
Abstract
Urban catalyst projects are implemented in order to accelerate and facilitate the regeneration process of disorganized and disordered urban areas and are accomplished by relying on social participation and the use of local capacities. This study mainly aimed to investigate the effects and impacts of ...
Read More
Urban catalyst projects are implemented in order to accelerate and facilitate the regeneration process of disorganized and disordered urban areas and are accomplished by relying on social participation and the use of local capacities. This study mainly aimed to investigate the effects and impacts of relocating public organizations to deteriorated areas in Tehran as urban catalyst projects. Thus the methodology was designed based on social impact assessment. Data was collected through documents and field visits. Afterward, the changes derived from the intervention in different variables and impacts on stakeholders were evaluated using different techniques such as comparative analysis. In addition to the literature review, reports from several similar urban projects were also studied. Related officials, urban managers, elites, and local social actors were selected by the targeted sampling method and were also interviewed, and the interviews continued to reach theoretical saturation. Based on all the data, the impacts on various aspects, including social (changes in population density, social control, safety, social conflicts, female presence and participation, migration and gentrification, quality of life, etc.), physical (infrastructures, traffic, deterioration, urban landscape, etc.), economical (property prices, job creation, local businesses, investment, etc.) and environmental subjects were explained. In the end, for managing the impacts, the network of different institutions and organizations which should be responsible for these interventions are identified. Then related solutions are provided to increase the positive effects and reduce the negative ones.
