Introduction: Infill development, as an endogenous and interactive form of physical growth, is a step toward sustainable urban development. This study aims to analyze the opportunities for infill development within cities. Focusing on Zanjan city, it seeks to identify brownfield sites by applying the principles and criteria of infill development, and explore how utilizing these lands can address per capita deficits in urban services—such as green spaces—and balance the distribution of land uses, thereby contributing to sustainable urban development.
Materials and Methods: The research method in the present study is descriptive-analytical. Data collection was conducted through library and field studies (questionnaire). For sampling, 30 people were selected from the statistical population (urban planning experts and professors) using the snowball method. The research indicators are presented as intermediate measures for the development and management of brown lands. Ten urban planning experts confirmed the questionnaire's validity. Reliability was estimated at 0.892 using Cronbach's alpha. For data analysis, factor and path analyses were conducted using the DPSIR model. First, the research data were collected with the Delphi process. Then, using factor analysis, the status of the research indicators in relation to the conditions of infill development and the management of the city's brown lands was examined. The feature of this stage is the classification of indicators using the DPSIR model in relation to the ways of influencing and influencing the development of intermediate and brown lands in Zanjan city. The DPSIR model identifies driving indicators by combining data and how they affect each other.
Results and Discussion: The opinion of the statistical community is more important for the management of brown lands and for explaining the desirable pattern of inter-regional development in Zanjan city. According to the output in Table 4, most indicators have factor loadings above 0.4. As a result, they have a favorable and effective degree of importance and are considered important and effective factors in the context of brownfield management. Thus, in the social dimension of the index "the presence of social damage in brown lands and the spread of insecurity in its adjacent uses" with a factor of 0.643; In the economic dimension, the indicator "reluctance of workshop owners to transfer their activities to the suburbs" with a factor of 0.669; In the physical dimension, the index of "the existence of barren and polluted industrial-workshop lands" with a loading of 0.712; In the environmental dimension, the index "weakness of environmental laws in controlling polluted activities in the city" with a factor of 0.671; And in the management-political dimension, the index "attention to exogenous urban management and scattered expansion" with a factor loading of 0.715 has the highest correlation and correlation with the redevelopment of brown lands.
Conclusion: The research results showed that achieving infill development and efficient management of brown lands should prioritize the "Response" factor (with a coefficient of 3.3). These components are known as guiding forces in brownfield management towards infill development and emphasize the evolution of factors such as the tendency towards social segregation at the city level, the land market and the excessive increase in land and housing prices, the lack of approved and implementable development plans, restrictions on land allocation and annexation to the city limits, and the lack of appropriate management and legal mechanisms for organizing dilapidated and abandoned lands. These factors can provide a model and additional operational strategy to organize around and exit the current trend. As a physical-spatial development pattern, the path analysis results also show that the "pressure" index, with a total effect coefficient of 0.543, has the greatest impact and causal relationship on the desirable pattern of infill development and management of brown lands. On the other hand, the "answer" components have a total effect coefficient of 0.517, "Effect" has a total effect coefficient of 0.387, "Status" has a total effect coefficient of 0.407, and "driving force" has a total effect coefficient of 0.534. Thus, the sum of these factors, as the main challenges of infill development, can play a significant role in infill development by integrating and comprehensively relating to one another through efficient management.