Page 30 - U4SSC Factsheet, Mashhad, Iran (Islamic Republic of), September 2021

Category: Urban Planning

Performance to
Category KPI Result SDG
Benchmark

Pedestrian Infrastructure 2.30 %

Urban Development
and Spatial Planning: YES
Compact
Urban Development
and Spatial Planning: YES
Connected

Urban Development
and Spatial Planning: YES
Integrated
Urban Development
and Spatial Planning: YES
Inclusive
Urban Development
and Spatial Planning: YES
Resilient

While Mashhad scores well on this KPI, creating additional pedestrian zones will help the city
encourage its citizens and its tourists to walk and cycle more, and will provide additional places
where people can engage socially, as well as creating a sense of community and reducing the
environmental impact of the city. Pedestrian zones can also have a favourable impact on the tourism
industry.

To be considered ‘sustainable’, urban plans should have the following five principles/elements listed
with the KPIs, as demonstrated through evidence-based and innovative methodology (including
data innovations like spatial analytics, GIS and Big Data).

While Mashhad reports that these policies are in place, urban sprawl related to unplanned or illegal
construction has been, and continues to be, an issue. In recent decades, uncoordinated urban
development has led to the city, and other urban spaces, becoming places that do not belong to
the people. This sense of alienation and lack of belonging to such areas is increasing day by day,
and irregular construction in the city has resulted in the loss of urban green spaces. 15

In response, Mashhad has implemented – as part of the Mashhad Initiative – systems for monitoring
and preventing illegal construction by using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). With UAVs, Mashhad
can detect new buildings or additions, additional walls, changes in grading and changes in tree
cover.

24 U4SCC Factsheet | Mashhad, Iran (Islamic Republic of) | September 2021