Reconciling a City with its Natural Identity (The Role of Water Systems in Mashhad City Sustainable Planning)

Today, the livability of many urban environments is diminishing as a result of negligence towards natural systems. In Mashhad City, decades of unplanned development have led to crippling natural systems, deteriorated quality of life and environmental alienation. To ensure sustainability, it is therefore essential to reconcile Mashhad with its natural context. By extracting forgotten cultural identity and underlying infrastructure, the research results in a regeneration plan to reclaim streams, rehabilitate urban spaces and reintroduce sustainability into urban realm. Finally a sustainable green network is presented as a basis to integrate and orient the currently dispersed urban design and planning endeavours.