Cities are one of the most coherent and at the same time the most sensitive ecosystems on earth, and currently more than 75% of the world's population lives in these types of settlements. Considering these things, the city and its natural environment provide suitable opportunities for development and planning. Paying attention to ecological development has a long history, and especially after the industrial revolution in the West, paying attention to the ecological development of cities became very important.

Ardabil, as the capital city of the province, has faced increasing growth in recent years, and as a result, it has suffered ecological problems and affected the development of the city. The present research is conducted with a descriptive and analytical method and using Mic Mac and Scenario Wizard software or forming a 32x32 matrix and in total including 932 interactions, so that 297 have strong effects, 408 have moderate effects, 227 have weak effects and 92 have no effect. The filling degree of 91.01 seeks to determine the drivers effective on the ecological development of Ardabil city and it has come to the conclusion that factors such as economy, housing market, employment, infrastructures, city growth, urban planning, housing market, urban management are driving and effective factors on the ecological development of Ardabil city. Graphs of direct and indirect effects of the effects of the mentioned components with the least displacement and the most impact (strong impact) and factors such as topography have had the weakest impact on ecological development.