Socio-spatial transformation of neighbourhoods around rail transit stations: An experience from Tehran, Iran

Abstract

While increasing evidence suggests that rail infrastructure plays a structuring role in shaping and transforming cities and regions over time, empirical studies on the simultaneous development of rail infrastructure and socio-spatial transformation of surrounding neighbourhoods, especially at a local scale, are scarce. Th e main aim of the article is to evaluate the transformation of neighbourhoods around rail transit stations, as well as provide a possible explanation of how neighbourhoods can be diff erently aff ected by the presence of rail stations. Based on a longitudinal dataset (2006 16) and using a Diff erence-in-Diff erences (DID) model and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), a comparative analysis of the Tehran Metro Rail System (TMRS) is conducted between high-income neighbourhoods and lowincome neighbourhoods of the city. Th e results yield that the northern, high-income neighbourhoods and the southern, low-income neighbourhoods of Tehran have been transformed heterogeneously in terms of socio-demographic factors, land-use conditions and renewal processes. Th e fi ndings also indicate that the mixed estimated transformation of neighbourhoods around TMRS s stations could be explained by the contextual factors of the northern and southern study settings in Tehran, including land-use characteristics and socio-economic factors.