Roozbeh Zamanian - Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
Hamid Majedi - Associated Professor, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
Mohammad Hossein Sharifzadegan - Associated Professor in Economic Development and Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Shahid Beheshti, Tehran, Iran
Gholam Reza Kazemiyan - Assistant Professor in Urban Management, Faculty of Faculty of Management and Accounting, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

Fast and unplanned city growth, has effects such as isolation of village societies, threatening urbancores and centers and small and weak societies, destruction of open spaces and open and natural regions. Smart growthoffers a sustainable way for urban developing with appropriate use of available sources, increase of urban services,developing neighborhoods with different uses, making public transportation available and integrated designing inhuman scale. Green belts idea,at first was based on controlling the growth between cities, preventing from mergingcities and separating specifications and details of city and village from each other. Although according to the fact that,there was not an agreement regarding the possible outcomes of green belts and controlling cities growth process amongcity experts, some with conservative ideas, believed that green belts are stopping barriers and negative factors in naturalgrowth process of cities and some others, thought that it is element of separating urban and non-urban habitats.In first approved comprehensive plan of Tehran (2006), suburban ranges were recognized as protected range for futurecity developing. This definition has no more places according to the problems of Tehran. In this article based onthe natural and environmental potentials of Tehran protected areas (Green belt) and many threats for its exposure toresidential construction, there are offered strategies and protecting rules with smart growth approach and green beltdefinition.

Urban Policy, smart growth, Greenbelt, Tehran Metropolitan, Urban-rural fringe, Green belt