Journal of sustainable Energy Systems

Journal of sustainable Energy Systems

Designing a Comprehensive Green City Model in Fars Province Based on Sustainable Water, Energy and Smart Technologies Management

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
This study sets out to develop a comprehensive model for realizing the green city, with particular emphasis on the optimal management of water and energy resources in Fars Province. The research is applied in purpose and follows an exploratory mixed-methods design. In the first phase, qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 20 urban experts and analyzed using Attride-Stirling's thematic network analysis. This phase yielded 187 initial codes, 48 basic themes, 14 organizing themes, and, ultimately, 6 global themes: water resources management, energy consumption management, sustainable green space, smart technologies, education and culture, and waste management. In the quantitative phase, the criteria were first prioritized through an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) involving 40 experts; the results identified water resources management and energy consumption management as the two most important dimensions. Confirmatory factor analysis was then used to assess construct validity, and the fit indices confirmed that the measurement model fit the data well, with all constructs demonstrating acceptable convergent and discriminant validity as well as reliability. Finally, structural equation modeling was applied to explain the causal relationships among the components. The results showed that water resources management (β = 0.41) and energy management (β = 0.33) had the strongest direct effects on the green city index, while waste management (β = 0.27), sustainable green space (β = 0.21), smart technologies (β = 0.18), and education (β = 0.14) also exerted positive and significant effects. A coefficient of determination of 0.68 indicated that the six identified dimensions jointly explain 68 percent of the variance in the green city index. These findings underscore that achieving a green city in semi-arid regions such as Fars demands an integrated, multidimensional approach—in particular, a simultaneous focus on water management, energy, and smart technologies alongside ecological management and citizenship education.
Keywords
Subjects

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