Environmental Management and Sustainable Development ISSN 2164-7682 2014, Vol. 3, No. 1 www.macrothink.org/emsd 243 Sprawl Growth of Yasuj City, a Barrier to Achieve Sustainable Development Gholam Ali Khammar Assistant Professor, Geography and Urban Planning, University of Zabol, Iran Tel: 98-091-5342-0818 E-mail: Ah.khammar@gmail.com Akbar kiani Associate Professor, Geography and Urban Planning, University of Zabol, Iran Tel: 98-091-2246-3826 E-mail: kianiakbar@gmail.com Ali Ashkabos (Corresponding author) Ms.c student, Geography and Urban Planning, University of Zabol, Iran Tel: 98-093-661-444-982 E-mail: aliashkbos@yahoo.com Sajjad Ghasemi Kafrudi Ms.c student, Geography and Urban Planning, University of Kharazmi Tehran, Iran Tel: 98-091-3870-2420 E-mail: sajadghasemi68@yahoo.com Received: February 15, 2014 Accepted: March 11, 2014 doi:10.5296/emsd.v3i1.5124 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/emsd.v3i1.5124 Abstract In times past, the Iranian cities were generally built in the areas where there were wide agricultural hinterland and the importance of cities depended greatly upon this factor. But, gradually by developing technology and using technical equipment, the role of this factor diminished and led to the degradation of these lands around these cities. The present paper has been presented with the purpose of assessing and analyzing the innermost development indices to avoid the irregular growth of the city and destroying agricultural lands in order to achieve sustainable development with regard to the social-economic indices, the exploitation of urban lands, the degradation trend of agricultural lands and gardens, and the ecological