SUSTAINABILITY IN IRAN

Omid ( Last Name : Anonymous – For More Privacy )

Name Of University : Anonymous – For More Privacy

2nd Semester Of Civil Engineering B.Sc. Course

Abstract : yes , that’s right , we must confess that if we like to live more ,we must live sustainable . I have read some articles
about sustainability and tried to achieve some official information , census and reports about the sustainability and related
activities in Iran , in this survey . I do not intend to do special investigation to the comprehensive concept of Sustainability and
speak about subjects that have been spoken about much times before by the specialists . I have tried to briefly explain this meaning
, then to propose Iran’s situation and state , official census , information and new topics that haven’t published internationally
before . I understood that there is a close relationship between Sustainability and Sustainable Development , I have defined a new
function (HWM) for better comprehension of Sustainable Development concept . I have suggested my personal idea about the
most effective solution for reaching Sustainability in our activities ,I must confess that in future sustainability will surely be a
global and public matter that everyone will concern it .

Key words : Sustainability , Sustainable Development , Iran , Resource ,Energy

1 INTRODUCTION
procedure is a procedure that can be continued . for
example in development process , sustainability can assure
1.1 First question : what is Sustainability ?
us that our resources (which can consist of every
The first question emerging in people mind is that “What is
consumable thing , time, clean air, drinkable water , jungles
Sustainability?”.
,sun ray, … and even the human generation ) will remain
I think that a simple answer is : Balance .
for long time and also for next generations .
In dictionaries ,the simple definition of Sustainability is :
we can say that for human the most important matter in
“Capability of being endurable .”
sustainability topic is that of resources , we must keep
Surely it’s a capability, a capability that a process can have it
resources always available , because for living we need
, sustainability is a systemic concept and can be used for any
resources .
process . nowadays in scientifically discussions
certainly when we speak about the sustainability , the
Sustainability has more than 300 definitions , certainly all
ongoing concept , sustainable development proposes itself ,
of them concerning the human future , so what is common
scientists usually speak about sustainable development , but
in all of them? ; yes , the answer is consumption .
I believe that we must say sustainable life or sustainable
The most important usage of sustainability in discussions is
living , we can never imagine life without development , for
that sustainability which concerns development . Human
the world system is very similar to a chain. if we cut one
consumes resources ,it’s immutable .in scientifically view
ring of the chain , it is not a chain . resources , human ,
of Sustainability , consumption of resource is very
animals , ecosystems , …. and approximately everything
important. consumption is unavoidable , we must consume
else in this world can affect the sustainability of
resources that are finite , even if infinite , they produce
development , because the world is a chain of objects.
pollution ( like nuclear energies ) or they are expensive
Now we can confess that if we like to live more ,we must
( like sun ray ). human always consumes resources and has
live sustainable.
consumed from the beginning of the world ,since he fired
development is the process of continual enjoyment of
trees has consumed and polluted the world .
resources like natural resources , workers , …. for
The question is : what does make us to feel danger ? the
improvement of human life . however we can comment and
answer is now the human population is more than past and
define “ improved life “ from different views and by
resources are less than past . these are the reasons of our
variable methods , the truth is that until now the practical
anxiety .
exposition of development accompanied by depleting the
now I want to explain the most common definition of
nature resources for “ material welfare” .
Sustainability , simply stated we can say that a sustainable
If all the mankind on the earth could reach the developed
countries' life standards , undoubtedly we need more than
one earth and more than one atmosphere . so it’s obvious
that development with this methods is not sustainable .
I must repeat that resources contain every consumable
thing like time , location , worker , jungle , drinkable water
, food , …and even human generation .
Fig.1 sustainable development
1.2 Sustainability past in Persian culture
Dr. Mozaffar Sarrafi , Ph.D. of geography and urban
planning believes that :”Sustainability was a continual
companion of Persian traditional culture that along
developments and changes in Iran this subject has been
forgotten “, I think that our ancestors showed their ability to
protect and use resources economically . for example in
Yazd , city in center of Iran which is full of deserts and the
temperature is always high , you can see how our ancestors
chilled their homes or how provide the water resources . the
special shape of the house and materials used for building
completely shows their skill in energy protection , they used
natural stream of air to chill their houses.
1.3 An important question asked by Iranian people…
“ Is sustainable development the conspiracy of west for
confiscating resources? ”
Before speaking about the question we must say the reasons
of asking this question . The world Industrial countries are
researching about the global warming , climate changes and
related topics . These subjects are the reasons of anxieties
which result in propounding the sustainability and
sustainable development Idea from the Industrial countries
side. Regarding that these Industrial countries are the reason
of 50 percent of greenhouse gases emission in the world ,
a paradox will be inserted in our discussion , after this
paradox this Idea emerges in Iranian people and also the 3rd
world countries That : “ the sustainable development
proposed by these developed countries is a mask to
confiscate resources in their favor and they want to prevent
us being developed .”
I agree this idea is almost acceptable and also see some
signs of the developed countries aim to confine their rivals ,
they don’t like to have more rivals in production and it’s an
innate sense , no one will blame them , today there is some
codes in international economical rules that the 3rd world
countries which are in the low quality state of production
can’t enter in the developed countries markets which are
very profitable for them, for example the ISO 14000
standard.
I agree the said idea but there is another idea , another idea
that speaks about the saving of earth and cares about human
health . the sustainability and sustainable development
subjects are so important ,essential and in future urgently
and vital that nothing can decrease the importance of them ,
although it may be some favors for developed countries if
we want to follow sustainability , the benefits that we earn
during this process is as much as we can ignore developed
countries benefits .
1.4 Visiting Iran’s NCSD , Sat , 21 October, 2006
NCSD (National Committee of Sustainable Development )
has been established in Sep 1993 by DOE . NCSD is A
committee under the supervision of Department Of
Environment ( DOE ) , the DOE is under the president's
direct supervision in Iran.
I went to DOE and then to NCSD committee in the 2nd floor
of the DOE building ( the DOE building is located in natural
park of PARDISAN just beside the famous Milad Tower ,
west of Tehran. ) , accidentally I saw Dr. Reza Maknoon ,
Ph.D. of civil engineering and the vice president of Iran
NCSD. I got some information about the state of
sustainability in Iran . The article you read is the summary
of Iran NCSD bulletins and also my personal idea about this
subject.
2 SOME ACTIVITIES OF IRAN GOVERNMENT
In Iran ,the sustainable development’s guideline hasn’t been
legislated until now ( July 2005 – the date of written source
in NCSD Bulletin) .
although Iran’s 1st development program approximately was
empty from any ecological considerations , the 4th program
of development was on conformity with environment .
In energy consumption control , I can affirm that Iran has
done very good activities , from 2001 some standard energy
consumer products (like refrigerators and heaters) must
have Energy Consumption Tag ( ECT ) which shows the
grade of it’s quality ,the number of products with ECT
grows and gradually ECT is going to be a mandatory part of
product. everyday , the number of bus with CNG fuel is
growing , we know that Natural Gas is the second clean fuel
after Hydrogen and also Iran is the second owner of Natural
Gas resources.
In 1991 legislation and promotion agency of national rules
for buildings organization proceeded to publish sort of rules
named ”subject 19:economizing in energy consumption ”.
according to a predefined program in 2014 enforcing this
rules will be mandatory in Iran , the subject 19 rules
contains contexts like : insulation of building , powerhouse
and relevant Pipes , using smart control systems and
Insulated windows in buildings .
for example municipality of district 10 in Tehran enforced
“subject 19” rule in governmental and public buildings in
it’s territory . this plan has been done in more than 100
buildings containing 78 schools , 15 Mosques , 1 sport
complex and eight departmental Buildings .
now ,Iranian people know IFCO ( Improvement of Fuel
Consumption Organization ) , it’s not a strange organization
for People ,specially children , IFCO TV animations are on
air . You can watch them between TV programs , even TV
animation series have been produced for children.
subway , a brilliant work , reduces traffic that have two good
impacts on the sustainability : 1. Saving fuels because many
cars don’t stop in traffic . 2. Reduces air pollution .
Iran has done other activities along with sustainability ,such
as using brick and cement factory updated technology
which can earn 4.4 billion dollars for Iran ( In 8 Years ) .
constructing new highways to decrease traffic and
consequently more fuel consumption . Using Natural Gas in
sugar factories as a fuel , Using “fuel card “ mandatory from
January 2007 to decrease the use of personal vehicles .
replacing old vehicles that is an effective way to reduce
energy consumption ( now in progress ) ,using compact
fluorescent lamps Quid Pro Quo old tungsten lamps.
But finally I can say although in governmental and
departmental level Iran has done very good works and
approved so many good rules , unfortunately in executive
and supervisory parts is not so successful . government has
proposed many plans but sporadic method in enforcing the
plans and also not authorizing people to participate in these
plans are the reasons of unsuccessfulness .
3 DISCUSSION
3.1 Talking about the sustainability and defining a new
function : ( Human-World-Mediator Function , HWMF ) .
this function is completely new and is mine ,I defined it for
better comprehension of the sustainability .
I must affirm that human is the pivot in all of my discussions
, we must not think that our goal is development and we
must devote everything to reach this end ,we want
development for better quality of life .
for better understanding of the sustainable development we
must understand the relationship between human and
environment or if I want to be truthful , the relationship
between human and world . In the function below ( HWM )
, I showed the effect of education and communication on the
improvement of relationship between H ( Human ) and W
(World ) . product “*” shows the effect of both is too
important .
In HWM Function , we want more quantity of F(H,W) , it
means that as education and communication grows F(H,W)
increases . F(H,W) quantity shows the quality of
relationship between human and world . as F ( H,W ) grows
sustainable development better enforces .In other words
when education and communication is more, sustainability
is more.
F ( H , W ) = Education ( H , W ) * Communication ( H ,W )
F(H,W)=E(H,W)*C(H,W)
the goal is the sustainability of world for the continuance of
human life on earth , as said human is the pivot , but he is
dependent on world , sustainability tries to mediate the
relationship between these 2 factors so that always human
can live easily without difficulty .
communication between people is very important to reach
compromise on global benefits , so I inserted it in function .
Experiments shows that in educated societies the acceptance
and execution of sustainability guidelines sensibly are more
,so I decided to use this factor in my function . You can see
that both two factors are considered in function definition .
please be aware that I did not use population factor with
“/”divide like [ E(H,W)*C(H,W) ] / P ( H , W ) because the
effect of education and communication is so great that we
can ignore the population effect , even if population be
effective
I ignore it because we must decrease population to reach
more sustainability and it’s against Human Rights , however
we must not completely forget population effect , we must
always remember it’s effect and consider it but not to
prevent human generation growth .
in other words when people are educated and connected to
each other gradually the society goes to be sustainable and
people unconsciously control the growth of population .
3.2 Things that we can do as a civil engineer :
using green building materials , helping government to
make building construction rules being enforced , designing
buildings with ecological and environmental considerations ,
suitable design and suitable materials , doing better usage of
raw materials to earn more product , collaborating with
governments and NGO s to have a sustainable civilization
containing sustainable buildings , constructing strong
buildings against earthquake , Designing structures
( specially houses ) that can protect the energy inside ,…
actually after the industrial revolution , countries developed
fast , in the 20th century . science progress caused public
health improvement , public welfare improvement ,
population grows as a result of health improvement and
finally people preferred to live in cities .This process
continued till now , even now people immigrate to big cities
to reach better quality of life .so in great civil projects when
we want to define a territory for our project to use territory’s
ecological resources , we must limit the territory . an
instance of not limiting is Tehran , now ,in Tehran , we need
350 areas of Tehran , we need areas which can produce
ecological materials , not deserts!
in other words we must use half of the ecological areas
of Iran to provide shortage in Tehran , this event occurs
because in the past government and Tehran mayors had not
decided to limit ecological territory of Tehran .
3.3 Points that must be regarded in Iran :
using new technologies in buildings and preventing energy
wastage as a result of not using new building materials
that protects energy better , in Iran majority of building
materials are old ; using new system of heating and chilling
in buildings for improving energy consumption ; designing
suitable buildings considering meteorological situations ;
considering “Subject 19” rule contexts in building design
and finally the important work to do is to inform people ,
specially civil engineers and other specialists about the
global topic of sustainability and sustainable development.
4 CONCLUSION
Best solution to reach sustainability in development :
I can affirm that surely the most effective factor to reach
sustainable development is improvement of people
education , because when People are more educated they are
more eager to have a sustainable life and also they are ready
to accept guidelines of sustainability , it’s a direct
relationship.

Fig .2 relationship between education and sustainability

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Dr. Reza Maknoon , Dr .Mozaffar Sarrafi , DOE , NCSD,
N . Shahrokhi .

REFERENCES
1.Dr .Mozaffar Sarrafi , “ Sustainable Development Is
Not The Conspiracy Of West “ , Iran Newspaper - Aug
13, 2005 - Aug 14, 200 .
2.Dr . Reza Maknoon , NCSD Bulletin , “ Sustainable
Development and Millenium Development Goals “ -
22 Jun - 22 Sep 2005 , NCSD Publications .
3.Dr . Reza Maknoon , “ Building and Sustainable
Development “,” July 2003 , NCSD Bulletin No . 10
“ Green Government” , Secretariat Of NCSD .
4.Ali Kenari , Azam Loghmani , “Execution of subject
19 rule contexts in Tehran District 10 , step to
sustainable development ” , March 2005 , NCSD
Bulletin No14, “ oil industry and sustainable
development” , secretariat of NCSD .
5.Azam Loghmani , “ Energy Consumption Tags,
mechanisms and legal ways to reach sustainable
development “, NCSD Bulletin No 14 .
6.Ramin Rahimian , Maryam Mahinejad , “ Projects of
transportation in IFCO “ , NCSD Bulletin No 14 .
7.Saeid Daniary, “ Subway and Sustainable
Development” , NCSD Bulletin No 14 .
8.Omid Shakery ,” Natural Gas replacement program In
Country Industries “ , NCSD Bulletin No 14 .