urban management and organization of informal settlements--case study: kuye nohdarreh, a suburb of mashhad

mashhad, as the second metropolis of iran with a population of 2.5 million, now hosts 820,000 people who are unauthorized residenrts of 60 informal settlements spread over 3200 hectares. kuye nohdarreh is one of such settlements with a population of 27,000 people, in an area of 80 hectares, located in the 9th district of mashhad municipality and selected as case study in this research. this article intends to investigate the impediments and problems on the way of the organizing process of mashhad outskirts, including kuye nohdarreh, and propose solutions to obviate such obstacles. the research method used in this study is based on descriptive-analytical research. therefore, two types of questionnaires were designed, one for city managers (10 organizations) and experts, and one more for residents in the locale (100 households). after completion of the questionnaires and coding the variables, the data were analyzed using the spss, minitab and gis softwares. research results show that organization of kuye nohdarreh is faced with several impediments and problems such as: lack of known and responsible executors, a sort of multi-decision making in planning and facing the problems of informal settlements, some managers’ hostile attitudes towards informal settlements, and lack of integrated urban management. the paper suggests that the application of an integrated urban management approach as an operational model will be the most basic measure to be taken in order to face the challenges on the way of organizing informal settlements like kuye nohdarreh.