URBANIZATION AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE YAZD CITY AS A LIVING UNESCO SITE, IRAN

Cities all around the world have exponentially expanded and significant numbers of people have shifted away from rural living to urban settlements for easier access to facilities, opportunities, and the potential for a higher quality of life. This massive trend in migration is named urbanization and it has created many problems in terms of environmental, socio-cultural, and economic conditions. These urban problems are the focus of this study, which has a multi-faceted method of investigating social problems, sampling local conditions, and making context-driven recommendations. The literature review outlines the most common problems related to the social context of urban settlements including racism, poverty, theft, drug crimes, and crises in education. These and others have direct effects on urban dwellers’ quality of life. Following the identification of general problems related to urbanization, the main social problems in the case of the city of Yazd, Iran, are elaborated using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The results address the main social problems and reasons for the increased number of crimes in the city during the recent span of four decades (۱۹۷۸-۲۰۱۸).