Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Assistant Professor of the Department of Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Imam Khomeini International University
2
Master Student in Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran
Abstract
Introduction
One of the most fundamental challenges related to the growth and development of cities in recent years is the phenomenon of urban shrinkage. There are various reasons for this phenomenon due to the different political, social, and economic situations of cities in the world. Most of the studies conducted in this field show that one of the main reasons for urban shrinkage is the loss of the population and the shrinking of cities. Urban shrinkage was first used in the late 1990s to describe housing vacancies and depopulation that were experienced in post-socialist East German cities. The term urban shrinkage was first proposed by German researchers to refer to cities that suffered population decline and economic losses due to industrialization. The purpose of this research is to review the theoretical literature related to urban shrinkage, summarize the indicators of this phenomenon, and finally investigate the reasons for the occurrence of this phenomenon in the border city of Arkavaz in Ilam province. Arkavaz is one of the border towns of Ilam province. Arkavaz is located 43 km south of Ilam City, 75 km northeast of Mehran, and 180 km northwest of Pol Dokhtar. This city has emerged from the merger of 7 villages named Qaladara, Workbod, Khushnamabad, Shahrak, Ban Babakhan, Mansoorabad, and Darab, and according to the 2015 census, its population is 11,977. The occupations of the residents of this city are mostly agriculture and animal husbandry. The trend of population changes in this city shows that in 1345, the population of Arkavaz was 369, which reached 1308 people with a growth rate of 13.5% in 1355. The population of this city in 1365 was 7413, and its growth rate during the period 65-55 was equal to 18.9%, reaching out to 10654 people in 1375, the growth rate during the period 75-65 was equal to 3.7%, and in 1385, with a population of 14,334, the city’s growth rate in this decade reached 10.3%. It should be noted that the population growth of Arkavaz in 1955 and 1965 was not related to the natural growth of the city’s population or migration to Arkavaz, but it was related to the population of the settlements that were annexed to the city and merged to Arkavaz. From 1385 to 1395, the growth rate of this city was negative and equal to -0.01. According to these statistics, this city is experiencing the phenomenon of population decline and urban shrinkage.
Materials and Methods
The method of conducting this research is qualitative. In this way, using the qualitative content analysis method has tried to identify the factors and driving forces of urban shrinkage in Arkavazcity in Ilam province. Semi-structured interviews with people and city officials were used separately to collect data. 54 interviews were conducted with residents and officials. Then, the coding method was used for data analysis.
Findings
Theoretical studies and research background show that the causes of urban shrinkage in the world can be found in the dimensions of globalization, economic decline and deindustrialization, political decisions and reclassification of cities, environmental issues, physical issues (access to services and infrastructures), demographic changes can be categorized due to the decrease in the birth rate or the increase in the death rate. To find out the causes of urban shrinkage in Arkavaz, residents, managers, and officials of the city and province were interviewed. The residents over 25 years old who have lived for at least 5 years have been selected for the interview. The officials of Arkavaz City were selected from people with a history of living and working in the municipality of this city and the governorate of Ilam. The concepts extracted from the interviews to identify the factors affecting the urban shrinkage in Arkavaz were initially 63, and by merging some of them and removing some others to avoid repetition during the interview, 40 concepts became the basis of the work. These concepts were categorized into 5 main categories. 12 concepts were placed in the “physical category”, 12 concepts in the “economic category”, 5 concepts in the “social category”, 6 concepts in “political category”, and 5 concepts in the “environmental” category. The physical category consisted of the lack of educational facilities, lack of medical facilities, lack of recreational facilities, lack of banking services, lack of access to fast transportation systems, lack of sports facilities, lack of suitable housing, lack of technological infrastructure, poor quality of existing educational and medical facilities, and lack of urban facilities. Lack of employment opportunities, lack of local markets, market stagnation, low level of incomes, lack of investment opportunities, lack of jobs corresponding to the higher education level of young people, lack of municipal budget, the impossibility of progress, poverty, and lack of jobs, the low employment rate of women, low income, lack of industry and factory were among the concepts mentioned by the interviewees and were included in the economic category. In the environmental category, the concepts of lack of water resources, even in the drinking water sector, lack of drinking water and its low quality, weather conditions, and fine dust were mentioned. The concepts of tension-causing border points, inattention of officials of border cities, unfulfilled promises of officials, change of political boundaries (turning of Arkavaz into a district), country management, and lack of attention to border areas, and lack of government facilities were included in the political category. Finally, in the social category, the movement of the population towards old age, the feeling of insecurity, the reluctance of young people to have children, the reluctance of young people to engage in agriculture due to low economic efficiency despite a lot of hard work, and the lack of hope for the future of young people to improve the situation in Arkavaz were mentioned.
Conclusion
The findings of this research showed that the factors of urban shrinkage in Arkavaz City can be categorized into different physical, economic, environmental, political, and social dimensions. In this research, based on the repetition of the concepts mentioned in the interviews, the extracted concepts of the urban shrinkage phenomenon in Arkavaz were prioritized. Concepts in the economic dimension, such as lack of jobs and poverty, low levels of income, the impossibility of progress, and the environmental dimension, including the quality of drinking water and water supply sources, have had the greatest impact on the urban deterioration of Arkavaz.
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