Historic cities such as Old Najaf are challenged with balancing the preservation of their cultural and architectural heritage against the pressures of modern urban development. Being one of the major religious centers for Shia Islam, Old Najaf receives annual millions of pilgrims and tourists, pressuring its infrastructure and threatening its historic façade. The aim of this study was to explore the viability of integrated approaches that balance heritage conservation with sustainable urban development, and lessons learned from international best practices, as well as stakeholder perspectives on this issue in the face of these challenges. This prompted the study to identify the challenges and opportunities for the heritage preservation and sustainable development in Old Najaf. It aims to comprehend the way residents and experts understand the dynamics of these layers through a mixed methods approach as well as derive actionable lessons learned after comparative analyses with case studies in Fes, Morocco and Kyoto, Japan. The study also explores the role that emerging technologies, regulation, and citizen engagement can play in addressing this trade-off education about Artificial Intelligence. The study shows that the major impediments for Old Najaf heritage are unplanned urban growth, inadequate infrastructure and mass tourism. Survey responses show that both residents and experts prioritize stricter zoning laws at the city's level, improved infrastructure for those corridors and sustainable tourism practices. In Fes, a city already leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as digital twins in urban planning, and building on advances made by Kyoto in GIS, comparative insights from both cities show the need to embed advanced technologies within strong policy frameworks supported by community-led initiatives. The findings underscore the need for holistic and context-sensitive strategies to protect the cultural heritage of Old Najaf, in line with sustainable development. ©2025 The authors.
Urban agriculture is one of the important urban uses of land in cities since the inception of cities and civilizations, but the great expansion of cities in the world during the twentieth century and the beginning of the twentieth century and the increase in the number of urban residents compared to the rural population has led to a decline in this use in favor of other uses.
This decline in agricultural and green land areas in cities has negatively affected the environment, natural life and biological diversity in cities in addition to the great impact on the climate and the increase in temperatures and the negative impact on the economic side, since urban agriculture is an important pillar of the economy, especially
... Show MoreThere is a relationship between the sizes of urban centers and regional
development, concerning the role that these centers are playing in
developmental process.
The research assume that the urban system in the governorate, has
been affected by the external environment due to the religious dominance of
Kerbla city.
The research is composed of three sections, the first is a theoretical
background, which focus upon the general directions of the models and
theories that have a relationship with the subject. The second is a practical
part aims at determination the characteristics of the sizes of the cities in the
governorate. Depending upon of previous part, i.e., the practical part section three deals with
Background: Investigating dental health knowledge among children is important. Knowing what behaviors are right in relation to dental health does not guarantee that children will practice those behaviors. However, lack of knowledge and misconceptions about dental health may lead to behaviors that are harmful to teeth and gum. Baseline data on knowledge levels are required to determine which particular areas of dental health education are in need of improvement for high-risk children living in different geographical areas. This research was conducted to study the oral health status, dental knowledge and behavior in relation to two different cities, among children in Baghdad and Thamar (republic of Yemen) governorate. Materia
... Show MoreWhile the impact of the fourth Industrial Revolution on the economy keeps accelerating, the signs of the fifth industrial revolution, whose key is innovation and creativity started to evolve. However, the challenge of achieving sustainable development and its goals remains faced by the global organizations; In this situation, Islamic banks are exposed to many challenges among which is the challenge of keeping themselves abreast of the latest developments in the modern technology which in turn is a tool for continuity and competition. On the flip side, to avoid the negative impact that these changes can have such as an increased gap between financial innovations and the requirements of sustainable development. Islamic banks in the
... Show MoreOf the importance of the concept of ownership of real estate as the basic basis from which various projects are launched in various economic, tourism, and urban areas .... The need to research the diagnosis of real estate reality went astray in the difficulties, which played a decisive role in the process of urban development.
This leads us to the research problem of the difficulty of implementing urban development plans in many cases due to the absence of a clear methodology for organizing and modernizing the ownership of real estate and its coordination with the management of urban land and to achieve the objective
... Show MoreNo country in the world has an ancient heritage of its own. It represents the product of the civilizations left behind by previous eras. It represents the development of urban life and its capital of the interest of its people in the field of construction and reconstruction. The urban heritage and its associated arts may seem to be a material heritage at first glance, but it is not free from the spiritual side. Therefore, the nations in different parts of the earth cherish it and care for it with all due diligence, because it mixes with its history, memories and emotions.
This research discusses the use of local environment materials in the production of urban fabric constituents. I
This research aims to study the radiation concentration distribution of the old District of Najaf (Iraq), where 15 samples were taken from featured sites in the District, which represents archaeological, religious, and heritage sites. Track detector CR-39 was used to calculate the concentration of three different soil weights for each sample site after being exposed for a month. Geographical information systems (GIS) were used to distribute the radioactive concentration on the sites of the samples, where two interpolation methods, namely the inverse distance weight method (IDW) and the triangle irregular network method (NIT), to study the distribution of the radioactivity concentration. The study showed that the western part of the district
... Show MoreThe current research aims to shed light on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which helps to report financial and non-financial information by economic units in general and listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange in particular. The research was based on a main premise that apply the criteria of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) would provide useful information to users to help them make appropriate decisions. To achieve the goal of the research, the descriptive analysis method was used, and quantitative analysis was used. At the level of the descriptive analysis method, a desk survey was conducted. As for the quantitative analysis, it relied on applied data through a questionnaire form (Questioners) as a research tool, and the
... Show More<span lang="EN-US">Usability evaluation is a core usability activity that minimizes risks and improves product quality. The returns from usability evaluation are undeniable. Neglecting such evaluation at the development stage negatively affects software usability. In this paper, the authors develop a software management tool used to incorporate usability evaluation activities into the agile environment. Using this tool, agile development teams can manage a continuous evaluation process, tightly coupled with the development process, allowing them to develop high quality software products with adequate level of usability. The tool was evaluated through verification, followed by the validation on satisfaction. The evaluation resu
... Show MoreReflect the sustainable development of the interaction of three key elements are the economic component and the social component and the environmental component while focusing economic component to achieve economic growth and focuses social element to achieve social justice in the distribution of income and achieve prosperity, the environmental component related fields and including emphasizes the protection of the environment and to ensure the continuation and sustainability of resources physical, biological and form in which it believes the interaction required for development process real and effective and sustainable, and is considered the province of Kurdistan Iraq of important areas where the movement of developmental mount
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