Document Type : Exploratory
Author
Assistant Professor of Geography and Urban Planning , Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Integrated urban management, as one of the emerging approaches to urban governance, emphasizes coordination among institutions, policies, resources, and stakeholders in urban administration. The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the existing legal capacities for achieving integrated urban management in Iran, focusing on the Municipal Law (1955) and the Law on the Organization, Duties, and Elections of Islamic Councils and the Election of Mayors (1996). The present study adopts a qualitative approach and employs directed content analysis of relevant laws and documents to examine and analyze the existing legal capacities across the main dimensions of integrated urban management. The findings indicate that the examined laws provide considerable capacities in the areas of institutional and structural integration, public participation and accountability, and financial and planning integration. In the institutional dimension, there are provisions for separating policymaking from implementation, strengthening council oversight, and enabling municipalities to manage local affairs. In terms of participation, the laws emphasize the role and involvement of citizens and public oversight; however, specific and binding mechanisms for ensuring effective and sustainable participation remain limited. In the financial and planning dimension, authorities related to budgeting, local revenues, and local charges provide opportunities to strengthen the financial autonomy of urban management. Nevertheless, weak coordination among executive agencies, institutional overlap, centralization, limited participation mechanisms, and misalignment between plans and financial resources have hindered the full realization of integrated urban management. Accordingly, utilizing the existing legal capacities requires the reform and harmonization of relevant laws, strengthening inter-institutional cooperation mechanisms, enhancing public participation, and improving the financial and planning autonomy of urban management.
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