Title: Social impact assessment on metro development with a case study in Eastern District of Tehran

Authors: Sanaz Nikfalazar; Mojtaba Amiri; Hadi Akbarzade Khorshidi

Addresses: Faculty of Management, Department of Public Administration, University of Tehran, Tehran 6311-14155, Iran ' Faculty of Management, Department of Public Administration, University of Tehran, Tehran 6311-14155, Iran ' School of Applied Sciences and Engineering, Faculty of Science, Monash University, Australia

Abstract: Development is an important issue to which the major part of people's efforts has been allocated. Nowadays, it is perceived that development could have undesirable results in addition to its advantageous outcomes. These undesirable results are emerged in different themes such as social, environmental and cultural aspects. As a result, the ones who work on development plans try to predict and prevent the unwanted results of projects in order to reach the sustainable development. Due to this fact, social impact assessment (SIA) of projects and plans has been considered by decision makers. SIA identifies the consequences of development projects and it aims to notify managers to prevent unintended impacts. Transportation development is not apart from other development projects, so its social impacts should be assessed. Metro network as a transportation system plays a critical role in urban transportation and its development has a special importance. In this study, social impacts of metro development in eastern district of Tehran have been assessed. These impacts are classified in three categories including accessibility, mobility, and social wellbeing. The survey's outcomes show that metro has the positive impact on mobility and accessibility items. Also, it has affected social wellbeing and general living condition of district's local people differently.

Keywords: social impact assessment; SIA; metro development; accessibility; mobility; social wellbeing; sustainable development; Tehran; Iran; sustainability; metro networks; underground networks; transport systems; urban transport.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSS.2014.065227

International Journal of Society Systems Science, 2014 Vol.6 No.3, pp.245 - 263

Published online: 14 Jan 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article