Evaluation of Urban Prosperity Indicators in New Cities of Iran (Case Study: Sahand New City)

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Urban prosperity is one of the new concepts of sustainability, introduced by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in 2012 to promote urban sustainability and enhance welfare and quality of life. In this regard, the aim of the present study is to evaluate the status of prosperity indicators in Sahand New City based on citizens' perspectives and to examine how different spatial levels and zones of Sahand New City benefit from urban prosperity indicators. METHODS: The research method of this study is quantitative with an applied purpose and a spatial analysis nature, utilizing the OPA multi-criteria decision-making model, the PROMETHEE technique, and spatial zoning method in GIS software. FINDINGS: The findings indicate that Sahand New Town exhibits significant spatial inequality in the distribution of urban flourishing indicators. Specifically, infrastructure and justice indicators are in a relatively favorable condition, while productivity and quality of life are assessed as medium. Central districts (Phases 1 and 2) demonstrate desirable flourishing with high positive scores. In contrast, peripheral areas and mehr housing (Phases 3 and 4) are in an unfavorable urban flourishing state, having received the lowest net scores. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that the distribution of urban prosperity in the different regions of Sahand New City is heterogeneous, and some areas benefit less than others. This emphasizes the necessity of paying attention to the balanced development of peripheral areas to reduce spatial gaps.