Indicators of the Institutional Model Supporting the Implementation of Urban Strategic Plans in Isfahan City

Weak institutional structures, inadequate legal support, and limited coordination among responsible institutions are major barriers to the implementation of urban strategic plans and can reduce the effectiveness and feasibility of urban development programs. Therefore, identifying and prioritizing institutional components that support the implementation of strategic plans is essential for strengthening governance capacity and improving the effective implementation of urban programs. Previous studies have mainly examined urban governance, institutional capacity, stakeholder participation, and challenges in implementing development plans separately, while integrated assessment of institutional factors has received less attention. The innovation of this study is the identification and prioritization of indicators of an institutional model supporting the implementation of the strategic plan of Isfahan within five dimensions: political–legal, economic, social–cultural, organizational, and technological. The study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive–analytical in terms of methodology. Initial indicators were identified through a review of literature, documents, and previous studies and were assessed using a researcher-made questionnaire. The statistical population consisted of 1,856 managers, experts, and specialists of Isfahan Municipality, from whom 318 respondents were selected using the Cochran formula. The data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistical methods. The results showed that the institutional model consists of five dimensions: political–legal, economic, organizational, social–cultural, and technological. The political–legal dimension ranked first with a mean of 4.54, followed by the economic (4.38), organizational (4.21), social–cultural (4.08), and technological (3.95) dimensions. The identified indicators included managerial stability, managerial commitment, legal support, inter-agency coordination, sustainable financial resources, appropriate budget allocation, public participation, planning culture, information dissemination system, transparent organizational structure, capable management, monitoring system, up-to-date technology, data collection and analysis, and information systems. Overall, the political–legal and economic dimensions received the highest priority in supporting the implementation of Isfahan’s strategic plan. The resulting institutional model provides an integrated framework for identifying and prioritizing the institutional capacities required for implementing strategic urban plans and can serve as a basis for strengthening institutional coordination, legal support, financial capacity, and managerial mechanisms in urban planning processes.