An Analysis of the Resilience of Urban Regions of Mashhad in the Face of Water Insecurity

Document Type : Articles from PhD & Master Dissertations

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student, Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Kish International Campus, University of Tehran, Iran.

2 Professor, Department of Human Geography and Planning, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

3 Associate Professor, Department of Human Geography and Planning, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Today, water insecurity is considered one of the biggest risks for global prosperity, which has made cities face many issues and problems in social, economic, environmental, and institutional dimensions. Thus, in recent decades, various solutions and perspectives have been proposed to solve the water insecurity challenge and reduce its effects on the level of urban settlements. In the meantime, one of the most important solutions is paying attention to the concept of urban resilience, which has attracted a lot of attention in the field of urban planning in recent years. It should be acknowledged that achieving water security at the level of urban settlements in the context of urban resilience depends on its smaller divisions, i.e. its urban regions. For this purpose, the present research has been conducted to measure the resilience of 13 regions of Mashhad city in facing water insecurity. This research is applied in terms of its purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of its nature and method. Thus, based on the measurement framework, researcher-made questionnaires based on the Likert scale using Cochran's formula and snowball method were distributed among 400 citizens of Mashhad, 40 experts of Mashhad City Water and Sewerage Company and Khorasan Razavi Regional Water Company, and also 40 experts and researchers related to the research topic in Mashhad. The results of this research indicate that the city of Mashhad is also affected by water insecurity and its effects, and most of the urban regions of this city do not have the necessary resilience to face water insecurity. So, only the 13th region of Mashhad city was at a somewhat favorable level. In contrast, regions 1 and 11 were at a somewhat unfavorable level, regions 2, 8, 9, 10, and 12 were at an unfavorable level, and regions 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were at a very unfavorable level in terms of resilience in the face of water insecurity. In this way, this issue requires special attention from the institutions in charge of the city.

Keywords

Main Subjects

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Urban Structure and Function Studies
Volume 12, Issue 2
February 2025
Pages 65-95

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History

  • Receive Date: 30 July 2024
  • Revise Date: 08 October 2024
  • Accept Date: 14 December 2024

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