With regards to the Article of Association of 2004, the objective of the UDRC is “policy making, directing and planning in the field of revitalization, Improvement and renewal of old, obsolete, and inefficient urban fabrics, as well as managing the optimum use of the mentioned facilities aligned with the inner development of the cities and improvement of urban environment in the framework of the policies of the Ministry of Transportation and Housing and the Higher Council of Architecture and Urban Planning of Iran, and developing and promoting the stated activities through the participation of municipalities, inhabitants and owners of the fabrics referred to, and real and legal persons”.
Regarding the major issues in the target areas, the items of the “2025 Vision Document of Iran”, and in line with the general policies of the order of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the subject of architecture and urban planning, the UDRC, as the national headquarters and the coordinating agency of the sustainable urban regeneration course in the country, has taken into account four key pivots as its major objectives;
- Reduction of urban poverty through Empowerment of the inhabitants of the target areas and preventing them from the reemergence of poverty;
- Increasing urban resilience, and mobilization and reinforcement of cities against natural disasters and hazards
- Upgrading identity, sense of belonging to places, and conservation of values in the target areas and neighborhoods;
- Realizing urban governance in the urban regeneration plan in order to improve the social integrity of the inhabitants and landowners of the target areas and neighborhoods.
In order to complete the mentioned objectives and the supposed purposes in upstream documents, the main strategies of the UDRC in sustainable urban regeneration are:
- Realization of the supposed civil rights in the text of upstream documents and laws
- Creating and upgrading social capital in the target areas and neighborhoods
- Improvement of efficiency and effectiveness in the process of realizing sustainable urban regeneration
- Social capacity-building in all of the active parties in the process of sustainable urban regeneration
- Improving and upgrading of the livelihood and employment of the inhabitants of the target areas and neighborhoods, based on real demand and prioritizing them with a participatory planning approach
- Improvement of the safety of the inhabitants of the target areas
- Improvement of dwelling satisfaction among the inhabitants of the target areas and neighborhoods
- Sustainable preservation and revitalization of historical and cultural heritage and cultural identity of the cities
- Improving and upgrading the people’s cognitive image of the target areas and neighborhoods
- Developing the local community and increasing the social resilience against transformations
- Preservation of ecosystems
- Improvement of safety and stability of buildings against disasters and threats in target areas
- Improvement of safety and stability of urban infrastructures and public spaces in target areas
- Improvement of institutional and economic adaptability in target areas against disasters and transformations
- Promotion and amplification of the notion of urban resilience as a sustainable lifestyle in all of the urban regeneration measures
Through the organization of regeneration measures, these strategies are being followed in three categories by the UDRC:
- Policy making, smartification, and development and improvement of intellectual assets
- Directing non-physical programs and measures (topical) with a capacity-building and empowering approach
- Directing physical programs and measures (local) with an approach that stimulates urban regeneration programs