Document Type : Scientific-Research
Authors
1
Ph.D Candidate, Department of Urban Planning , Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran.
2
Assistant professor, Department of Urban Planning, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran
3
Assistant Professor, Department of Urban Planning, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran
4
Associate Professor, Department of Urban Planning, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran.
Abstract
Abstract
A large part of Urban planning in the world is related to transportation facilities. According to the city's physical growth ,urban development should prevent the dependence on the car and spreads associated .The Transit-Oriented Development approach started in 1990s in the United States of America. Then it has been used in other countries. There are many sources on international and national scale in Iran. But the problem is that, at the local scale of Mashhad Metropolis, there is not integrated research and systematic review on Iranian scientific databases.Therefore,the aim of this article is a systematic review of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)researches process in Mashhad Metropolis on Iranian scientific databases, in order to identify neglected areas and focus on them. This research is scientometric type and it was done by content analysis method, and Maxqda & Excel software was used.The information of 202 studies, which were registered in the Irandoc and (SID) scientific databases in the period of 2003-2023, were collected and studied in four categories:subject, time, geography, and methodology. Based on research findings, the highest frequency of TOD researches indexed in scientific databases inside Mashhad was in participation,which confirms the necessity of conducting such research. The concept of TOD at the station level is the main approach in internal studies of Mashhad due to financial and economic issues (30.4%) and less attention has been paid to topics such as tourism, justice and housing. The general results indicate the lack of coordination and the insufficient volume of researches in this
field; the imbalance in the temporal and thematic trends in the scientific productions of the countries. The findings of this research are useful in identifying the research shortcomings and the future decisions of urban planners.
Keywords: Development ,Transportation ,Systematic, Mashhad,Iran.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
In recent decades, unplanned urban development and the rapid expansion of motorized transportation have led to the proliferation of transportation systems that are unsustainable from economic, social, and environmental perspectives. These systems not only threaten public health but also exert pressures on the urban ecosystem. In line with efforts to reduce dependence on automobiles in contemporary metropolises, the transit-oriented development (TOD) approach has received attention in countries worldwide since the 1990s. The trajectory of studies on transit-oriented development can be categorized into three levels: international, national, and local. At the first level—in the international scale—this topic is accessible to researchers through numerous searchable and available sources. However, this emerging approach remains nascent at the second level—the national scale—in Iran and has not yet been implemented. Despite efforts and studies conducted by universities and research centers in the country since 2001, a clear vision for decision-makers has yet to emerge. Research on transit-oriented development at the third level—the local scale—in the metropolis of Mashhad is limited compared to other topics; thus, the issue is that studies within the country at the local scale of the metropolis of Mashhad have not yet been comprehensively analyzed. Consequently, a sufficient understanding of the trends in domestic scientific productions and their topics is essential for researchers and planners in this field. The aforementioned issues prompted the authors of this article to conduct the present study. The primary objective of this paper is to systematically review the trajectory of research on transit-oriented development in the metropolis of Mashhad within Iranian scientific databases, so as to identify neglected areas in this domain and focus attention on them.
Method
This research is an applied scientometric study conducted using a systematic review and content analysis method with the assistance of Excel and MAXQDA software. The statistical population consists of 202 Persian-language scientific outputs. Data collection was performed through documentary observation. The data were gathered from the IranDoc and Scientific Information Database of Academic Jihad Center (SID) databases over a 20-year period from 2003 to 2023 and were subjected to quantitative analyses across four dimensions: topic, time, geography, and methodology. Quality assessment was carried out by three experts in the field of urban planning. In the data analysis at the descriptive statistics level, measures such as frequency and percentage were employed.
Results
The production of scientific outputs has exhibited an upward trend, with the highest frequency of Mashhad-related studies occurring in 2017, and a participation share of 9.8% falling within the category of low participation, which underscores the necessity of conducting such research. From the thematic perspective, after coding and categorizing the data, a total of 278 thematic codes were extracted from the two scientific databases and, based on the opinions of three academic experts, grouped into three categories. According to the findings, in the metropolis of Mashhad specifically, 30.4% of the indexed studies are devoted to the topic of stations and station complexes, 21.7% to the topics of (sustainable and environmental development), 8.7% to (spatial and physical development), 8.7% to (scenario writing for transit-oriented development), and 4.3% each to the remaining topics including (futures studies, policy, thoroughfares, land use, quality, planning, and feasibility). In contrast, the topics of tourism, justice, and housing have received considerably less attention.
From the methodological perspective, following coding and categorization, and with reference to the full texts of the studies on the respective websites, the analysis of findings was conducted in four sections: research approach, research method, data analysis tools, and the main stream of studies. The research approach comprises 61% quantitative and 39% mixed-methods approaches. However, appropriate techniques for qualitative analysis have not been utilized. The content analysis of the methodology of the selected studies indicates that, based on the objectives and types of spaces under investigation, the main stream of the research can be classified into five groups: evaluation and assessment studies, impact estimation studies, planning studies, futures studies, and spatial design studies. The predominant stream of transit-oriented development research in the metropolis of Mashhad (55%) has tended toward ‘evaluation and assessment studies of the current situation’, and structural and content-related weaknesses were observed in the methodology of Mashhad-based studies.
Discussion and Conclusion
In the present study, a systematic review combined with quantitative content analysis was conducted on Persian-language research concerning transit-oriented development in the metropolis of Mashhad, drawn from the domestic scientific databases of IranDoc and the Scientific Information Database (SID). Achieving the research objective required a broader and deeper examination of the issue compared to previous studies; therefore, the results of similar investigations were compared with the findings of this article, differentiated by dimensions.
With regard to the geographical distribution of research, a significant imbalance is observed among the provinces of the country in the production of domestic scientific outputs, with the majority of studies being produced in Tehran. In the examined studies at the national level in general and in the metropolis of Mashhad in particular, in comparison with prior research, three distinct interpretations of the concept of transit-oriented development were identified. It can be stated that the “concept of transit-oriented development at the station level” is aligned with the results of the present study. However, with respect to the core concepts of transit-oriented development as “a form of urbanism” (a method of living with emphasis on social life) and also as “self-sufficient housing development,” a lack of alignment and a research gap were observed, and an increase in studies in these areas is recommended.
The overall results of the study indicate a lack of coordination and insufficient volume of research, as well as imbalance in temporal and thematic trends within the country’s scientific productions. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the transit-oriented development approach (urban planning–transportation) and the complexity of its issues, it is recommended that researchers in this field prioritize the use of mixed-methods and multi-method approaches while adhering to their principles and characteristics, as well as focus on the topics of tourism, justice-oriented perspectives, value-added of properties surrounding metro stations, and the realization, implementation, and localization of transit-oriented development.
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