GIS-based assessment of transit-oriented and joint development in urban historical cores: a case study

With the fast global urbanization and mass migration to cities seen in recent decades, many cities have had to struggle with the problem of overloading in urban networks and services. Urban transportation systems play a key role in how well a city can manage traffic, the city's air quality, and its energy consumption. Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is a sustainable urban development approach focused on enhancing public transportation systems, including urban rail transit systems. Despite their many benefits, these systems can be very expensive to build and maintain. One of the systematic methods for financing these systems is to use the Transit Joint Development (TJD) approach. TJD is a development approach covering a range of partnership and collaboration strategies, which can be combined with TOD in the pursuit of sustainable development in areas around metro stations. This study aimed to evaluate and analyze four stations, i.e. Shohada, Takhti, D-Dolat and Enghelab, in the central section of Line 1 of Isfahan Metro based on a combination of the TJD and TOD approaches. First, the information needed to assess the stations in terms of TOD and TJD criteria was collected through library research and field study. Then the tools provided in the Urban Network Analysis (UNA) and Metropolitan Form Analysis (MFA) toolboxes and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) were used to analyze the status of the stations. The results showed that the order of the stations from best to worst in terms of both TOD and TJD is Takhti, Enghelab, D-Dolat and Shohada. The paper also provides some suggestions for the optimal utilization of these stations in terms of TOD.