Five Target Cities

Abstract

This chapter chronicles the brief history of each of the five Iranian target cities that received partial funding from the World Bank for upgrading their informal settlements. While geographically distinct, each city represents unique climatic, historic, cultural, ethnic, and spatial/morphological characteristics. For example, with its glorious history dating back to Shah Abbas’s period, Bandar Abbas is a major port city with a booming import-based economy and a hot and humid climate. Sanandaj, on the other hand, does not have a long history, but is home to the Kurds with a predominantly Sunni population and a cold climate. Zahedan is a border city with a significant Afghan refugee population and a hot and arid city with its seasonal dust storms. As its second largest city until the 1960s, Tabriz is one of Iran’s industrial hubs, and finally, Kermanshah represents a modest city located west of the country. Aside from their ethnic, historic, climatic, or cultural denominations, a common denominator among these five cities is how they deal with their looming informal settlements’ problems.