Green based urban development (GBD) and Management Policies The case: East Azerbaijan Province of Iran

Urban growth in Islamic republic of Iran in recent decades has had significant economic, social and environmental effects. Surrounding of cities in Iran by agricultural and farm lands caused that urban growth has become an important issue. Since urban growth occupies more than 500 hectare of agricultural and open lands every year urban sprawl not only damage environment but also increase ecological, social, economic and planning problems. Public intervention through regulatory was measured the like approved by Iranian high council of urban planning only slows down or post ponds the process rather than solving the problems. In this paper, historical analysis method using urban planning high council and urban plans approvals was used. Different policies including the policy of urban growth boundaries, direction of urban expanding into non-agricultural lands, Construction of new towns, urban densification were discussed in this paper. The main purpose is to evaluate the advantage and disadvantages of adopted policies and bring forward some recommendations to make an appropriate policy.