Planning the Arid Port City in Iran: Siraf's water heritage landscape as a Sassanid urban strategy

Journal Article (2025)
Author(s)

M. Tahmasbi (TU Delft - Landscape Architecture, Tarbiat Modares University)

S. Nijhuis (TU Delft - Landscape Architecture)

Mehdi Haghighat Bin (Tarbiat Modares University)

Research Group
Landscape Architecture
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1080/02665433.2025.2534512
More Info
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Publication Year
2025
Language
English
Research Group
Landscape Architecture
Bibliographical Note
Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository as part of the Taverne amendment. More information about this copyright law amendment can be found at https://www.openaccess.nl. Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.@en
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Abstract

This article examines the planning history of Siraf, an ancient port city on the Persian Gulf in Iran, through the lens of water heritage landscape. It argues that Siraf's water infrastructure was not a product of incremental, vernacular adaptation to aridity, but the result of deliberate urban planning rooted in Sassanid imperial policy, religious cosmology, and environmental knowledge. Drawing on archaeological evidence, historical texts, and spatial analysis, it explores how water collection, storage, and distribution systems were integrated into the urban fabric and aligned with settlement growth. The paper reframes five functionally zoned components of Siraf's water landscape as products of early planning rather than passive responses. It also engages with competing historical interpretations and recent revaluations of this infrastructure as heritage. By foregrounding the role of planning in enabling urban life in a water-scarce environment, this study contributes to planning history discourse and offers insights for contemporary planners grappling with sustainability and heritage in dryland cities. Siraf's case exemplifies how ancient urban resilience emerged from engineering ingenuity and coordinated spatial and infrastructural foresight.

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