‘The Electronic City, Smart Urban Growth and the Barriers againstRealization of it in Iranian Cities’[Case Study: Dezful City]

The ever-increasing expansion of cities, reduction of natural resources, traffic density andcongestion are only some of destructive effects left by inadvertent growth of population andrelated irrational expansion on natural and cultural environments of the communities. Smartgrowth, is opposed to extensive city growth, emphasizes in city-dwelling and urbanism tocreate viable communities, proximity to nature and perseveration of open spaces and valuablelands, survival and revival of city center and restriction of suburban growth of city andreduction of reliance on personal vehicle etc. in order to decrease consequences andproblems caused by horizontal city growth as mentioned above.The methodology of this study is of descriptive-analytical type and data collection was done bylibrarian and documentary technique. This study aims to review and recognize and interpretsmart city growth patterns and to identify the existing barriers in Iranian cities and to explorestatus quo of Dezful city in terms of physical development and horizontal expansion of thegiven city and to determine rate of compliance of feature of this city to smart city growthpatterns. The results of this investigation suggest that despite of having potential capacities toachieve growth of a smart city and lack of preparation of the suitable grounds for this ideal,Dezful city has been remarkably subject to horizontal expansion and it had very poor smart citynetwork compared to the medium-size and developed cities of the world.