Journal of the planner and development

Economic Development is closely linked to efficient social and physical infrastructure systems. This paper investigates the impact of this tandem interrelationship with an emphasis on the case study of Iraq. A review of nature of the Iraqi economy and existing conditions of selected infrastructure sectors indicates clear deficiencies. This deficiency constitutes an obstacle to sustainable economic development needed for a steady population growth. Overcoming deficits to infrastructure service levels require the implementation of a Public-Private partnership to catch up with needs and demand.
One form of this partnership is the BOT contracts which can accelerate the delivery of services. Existing economic and business environment are not ideal for the local and foreign n investors to engage in such contracts, but impediments are diagnosed by concerned governmental entities which may reverse the infrastructure reality in Iraq.

The research investigates the concept of sustainable development of housing in light of the National Housing Policy in Iraq and the role of empowerment of the local community to achieve it, through meeting the current and future housing need with its economical, social, environmental and urban dimensions to all segments of society, especially the (low-income and the poor families ), of affordable housing that is provided for the family to meet its basic needs with a cost commensurate with its income at the current term and for the foreseeable future, according to the determinants of the Iraqi situation and what can take advantage of it.
The continuing accumulated housing need, especially of the low-income and poor families, constitute the research problem. In view of this, the aim of this research is to adopt the strategy of empowerment the local community of the low-income and poor families within the sustainable development of housing. Based on the hypothesis of the research that the provision of affordable housing for low-income and poor families within the sustainable development of housing, is achieved by the partnership between the state and the local community, defines the roles of those who involved through the strategy of empowerment the local community within a comprehensive future planning perspective of the National Housing Policy in Iraq. The research Follows, the inductive scientific analytical approach based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of information and data for the study as well as the creation and preparation and conduct of the process of the questionnaire after selecting the appropriate sample.
The research found that the growing need of affordable housing and achieving sustainable development of housing requiring to develop and facilitate two complementary approaches: the first deals with the immediate short-term issues and focuses on strengthening the existing strength in the housing sector, mainly the production of housing units by the beneficiaries, without adversely affecting the basic configuration and principles for the longest- term approach, which is included in the National Housing Policy, which it is the second approach, that will take into concern the requirements of establishment for medium-and long-term of sustainable production of the housing sector, as it will focus on dealing with the housing sector across a broader framework includes the axes of a National Housing Policy to format the housing sector in a coherent manner and for all types of income. The two Approaches will promote each other and become a unified strategy, nor can any approach alone to be the only way to achieve the goals.

This paper focuses on the environmental standards that should be taken into account when selecting the urban site. These standards subject any area to the decisions based on criteria respect the ecological nature and urban characteristics reaching urban sustainability which should decide the suitability of various sites for various uses. This will achieved by studying the site characteristics and its environmental resources briefly (using Baghdad city characteristics ), which can be developed into a standard matrix with weights to each criterion in terms of its importance, also it could be collected to give the best results for knowing the site suitability for his urban environmental performances.

The informatics mainstay depend on the activities of the organization and administrative functions where , as well as the widening of knowledge in the late twentieth century in all areas of life that have left new directions represented by globalization and the emergence of the so-called revolution of information and the information society in the context of these trends , we find that more organizations in the Horn of being taken it upon themselves to leave the traditional frameworks familiar in planning activities and orientation methods and techniques are modern and sophisticated systems , and based on the above approach of this research to study (The impact of information technology in human resource planning ) An Empirical Study in a number of colleges and institutes of the technical education in the province of Baghdad , the study included two parts included the first part theoretical framework to keep the study variables and the second part included the analytical framework of hypotheses have been building model Default determines the nature of the relations between the independent variables and the dependent variable adopted emerged from the premise of the President that notes that the use of computers in the field of human resources are still limited to the collection transactions , registration and preparation of lists of data , and did not move after the analysis , interpretation and reporting management and strategy, has been tested through means and methods of statistical data that have been collected for some colleges and institutes of the technical education in the province of Baghdad, has been used descriptive method of analysis based on the methods and statistical tools (such as spss ) The study concluded this set of recommendations and conclusions that show the relationship between the dimensions of the study variables .

The study aims to identify the substantive trends of the theses that approved at the Institute of Urban and Regional Planning for Graduate Studies at the University of Baghdad / Jadiriyah for a period (1971 - 2011) and to indicate their time distributions by sex researcher for these theses. The study used survey _ documentary method in data collection for the study population which consisted of (497), and the most important results of the study are: -
1 - The Multi urban planning came first place in the number of theses,(25) theses and by (5.86%) with topics Lakes - drying and remote sensing, and infrastructure services and sewers services, bridges, dams and horizontal housing and random housing and tourism - economics, architecture and law planning and the water stations were ranked last with a total of (1) and (0.24%).
2 - The number of substantive trends Masters (66) trend objectively Included (16) general topics (50) special topics.
The study found a range of recommendations including: -
1 - taking into account the balance of substantive theses and gives the topics less searched priority within the future plans of the Institute.
2 - taking into account the balance of substantive theses and gives the topics less searched priority within the future plans of the Institute.
3 - stay away as much as possible from redundancy in the theses themes, which in turn leads to fragmented efforts without adding anything to the knowlige and it come at the expense of freedom of a researcher at the choice of subject.

The research drives at determining the abstract dimension in the architecture forms of Islamic architecture in particular and in Islamic architecture in general, with the aim of reaching out to the unitary objective implied by them. The research hypothesis is that the architectural entities in Islam attempt at fulfilling a uniform architectural pattern regardless of the diversity of representations. Meanings are being embodied in various parts of the architectural whole work. While the research problem represented in the shortage of knowledge about abstraction strategies in architectural system and forms in Islamic city.
Generally, Islamic architecture is an expression of the spiritual aspects of Islamic life and as such it has its own symbolic value. Following up this hypothesis, we come to the concision that every level of abstraction in Islamic architecture is a reflection and embodiment of a symbolic aspect related to Islam. Thus providing a proof for the validity of our hypothesis.

The change in the age structure of the population is a result of demographic during the long period of time is relatively accumulated indexes in the earlier stages and formed the basis for the operations demographic significant that will happen in the coming years , this structure reflects the operations demographic long-term which may extend to more than a generation in his previous stage can also at the same time sensing of demographic processes that control the subsequent changes of the population in the next stage and its relationship with the complementary development , especially that the demographic changes can be predictable
The change of the population happened in the Arab countries states and Iraq , which is characterized by an increase the size of the working age population and production against a decline in the size of age groups ( children and elderly ) , the dynamic in the population will lead Iraq at the threshold of the new demographic changes, (According to the United Nations definition is required for entry into demographic dividend phenomenon that the less proportion of the population under the age of 15, about 30% of the total population and not to increase the proportion of seniors 65 and over 15% of the total population) may resulting in an opportunity for development as if human capacity building and development on the basis of the interaction between efficiency at the level of education and skills and the required process of economic growth and development, According to these demographic changes and the prioed that it estimated should approach the openness of the demographic dividend and availability of development opportunities complete and amonge the limitations and restrictions on local and national levels represented by human development and skills and enable provide suitable job opportunities as well as the optimal investment of available resources, of the criteria for sustainable human development.

The services of the city and urban areas has always been considered to be a critical subject linked to the ability of both the implementer and planner of the plans and evaluating them periodically to come up with features that contribute to bridge gaps and catching up with scientific development in all areas.
The efficiency of water services has become a norm for people\\'s development and progress, although they are considered to be the basics of life (as some may call it the simplest services rights), it had suffered a lot of technical and administrative problems in our country and still did not meet the ambition, from here the Research was highlighting these two aspects.
According to the researcher criteria that includes the quantity, quality and continuity of coverage of water services, conclusion of the research refer to the existence of a state of convergence with the standards in quantity and quality and continuity and coverage of most water projects in the city in the light of the results of the theoretical analyzes with the presence of some disparities in these rates when compared to the results of the practical analysis and field study. The results showed the variation of the citizen\\'s vision to evaluate the provided water quality and quantity. In addition, some were completely dissatisfied with some components of the service in the areas of study, which calls for improving these services. Note that work is being slowly in a new central filtration station located in the north of city covering 10000 M3/day, is expected to meet the population growing need for this service.

The investment in the housing sectoroffers a huge potential to achieve economic advancement and fill the growing need for residents of housing units, among a legal and legislative environment protects the investor. The study focused on the Kurdistan Investment Law No. 4 of 2006 and the province of Sulaymaniyahwas chosen as an area of study.The research problem Indicates to the existence of gaps in the law that led to the poor in the distribution of investment projects , the poor land management, failure to protect low-income housing and the existence of deficiency.
Research hypothesis suggests that the existence of an enabling legal and legislative support for private investment can solve problems related to housing production. The research aims to statement the role of investment in the housing sector and its contribution to bridging the needs of the population for the housing units and the role of laws and legislation and its importance in attracting investors and strengthen their confidence in government institutions with the importance of reviewing and review laws to fill gaps and overcome obstacles.The researchfollowsdescriptive and analytical approach with regard to the problem.The structure of the research, was split into two parts, the first, theoretical part, which regards the basic concepts for the housing and display the successful experiences of countries to take advantage of them,The second, is the practical part, which included a brief about the province of Sulaymaniyah and the field work, which included three trends revolves around the triangle that has to do with the investment law, a state - citizen - Investor and after the study and analysis, the research is over to a set of conclusions and recommendations, thatdespite the positives of this law, there are some drawbacks and loopholes that were displayed in the research, and highlighting the importance of reviewof the laws from time to time to find out the most important pros and cons to achieve the desired goals.

The school buildings are considered the most important public utilities, and an effective factor for a successful educational system, it is in fact, considered the vessel in which it contains all the interactions of the practical, educational & pedagogical elements, though every space in the school works with an integration and coordination with the other spaces within defined parameters, to provide comfort, physical and psychological for its occupants, with the aim of contributing toward mental & physical growth of the student, and to secure his psychological balance, as well as promoting of his personality\\\\'s aspects. So, if the school building is well equipped with appropriate amenities, it shall positively reflect on the educational process as whole; otherwise deep psychological effects would appear on the students\\\\' behaviors, (i.e. scholastic problems, which possibly could be sensed them through their behavior in school).
Hence, here, it appears the importance of the study of the primary schools\\\\' area factor, and focusing on its psychological effects on the students\\\\' behaviors, especially when those criterions (which were prepared for this purpose) by the Ministry of Education are not applied, in light of the scarcity of land related to the buildings of the schools, besides, the increasing numbers of students enrolled in the schools in the current time.