An Introduction on Greenway Planning Criteria in the Suburban Mounta Inous Re Gions in the West of Iran

This paper investigates basic and fundamental criteria concerning greenway planning in the mountainous regions in west of iran to suggest a special reorganization pattern for the outskirts, suburban, and natural areas of nearby urban settlements based on the local context. the paper makes an effort to represent the most important factors in a special suburban mountainous greenway which may be appropriate in relationship with local cultures, history, and people's essential needs. to introduce the related fundamental criteria, and local and regional factors, the author demonstrates the necessity of such research in iran and presents a brief literature review about the greenway movement in the west. this indicates that there is a great gap between research on greenways in the west and middle eastern countries in general, and in iran in particular. as a result, the research focuses on an iranian context and identifies general characteristics of the geomorphological, physical, spatial, social, cultural, and ideological categories in the west of the country. in the present paper, the author will focus on mountainous and semi-mountainous regions in iran to suggest the most important and essential greenway planning criteria for people's recreation in suburban areas at weekends. to present an appropriate answer, the author attempts to pose suitable environmental planning to prepare an active and pleasant time for families based on environmental awareness and, at the same time, to conserve natural resources and valuable landscapes by means of environmentally attractive approaches. to achieve the main research targets, the qualitative attitude and descriptive-analytic methods were the selected research strategy.