Development of an Assessment Strategy for Urban Regeneration Projects in Historic City Centres in Iraq

In the Iraqi context the importance of urban regeneration in improving the conditions of the physical environment is still not recognized. Furthermore, the rise of urban regeneration initiatives in Iraq due to the deterioration of the physical urban heritage in Iraqi cities, leads to raising the questions about the level of success of these initiatives in finding sustainable solutions to the urban problems with regard to heritage conservation. The current study attempts to develop a suitable assessment strategy for local regeneration projects and to explore possible alternatives which can assist in reorienting urban design strategies towards more sustainability based on assessment of the urban design aspects against a set of performance criteria and indicators.The study argues that urban design is integral to the process of urban regeneration achievement and assessment; through identifying the relationship between urban design principles and sustainable development objectives in the regeneration practises. Based on that, indicators were identified to form the skeleton of the assessment strategy to measure the performance of urban regeneration at the local level. These indicators underwent a detailed evaluation process, with the help of local experts. The research methodology and findings would enrich the related academic fields and will help to strengthen the understanding of urban designers and local stakeholders on how to plan sustainable regeneration projects and create sustainable communities. To ensure that the derived strategy is theoretically and practically feasible, an urban regeneration project as case study was selected and assessed against individual indicators.