The Sustainability of Residential Neighborhoods; Sustainability Assessment of Faraz Neighborhood Based on LEED-ND evaluation system

 Sustainability is a concept that become remarkable due to the environmental restrictions and problems. Sustainability analysis in all its three aspects (economic, social and environmental) and criterion codification has been subjected for many researches in architecture and urbanism. The decisions of the architects and urban designers have been known as important parts of promoting sustainability around the world. Different institutes and people have defined the parameters that have been involved in sustainability. Many theories have benefited the principles of sustainability as an approach to improving the quality of the environment and communities. The concept of sustainability and environmental assessment models have also been provided by formal and informal organizations that will be discussed in the research. Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) organization is one of the recognized institutes that has provided a check list for quality evaluation in the scale of neighborhoods, building and indoor spaces. The scores for energy saving, easy access to public transportation, collecting wasting water and water saving are the aspects that have been considered by this institute. In Iran country growing urbanization and the expansion of communities is happening so fast but studying the quality of this development is something that has been received less attention. In this research explains a short review of history and experts’ opinions about sustainability concept. In addition, selects, the LEED-ND (the LEED scale for neighborhood) evaluating system to assess the quality of life in the case study. This system is based on five main parts which each one has consists of subcategories that are used as measures to check the neighborhood’s points. “Faraz” neighborhood is used as a contemporary typical Iranian neighborhood and checked with the parameters of LEED evaluation system to indicate the adaptation of a new residential neighborhood with environmental sustainability factors. This result will confirm the success of such neighborhoods to create high quality environment for their residents.