In recent years, the city of Khamir (Hormozgan Province, Iran) has been introduced and marketed by certain institutions and companies active in the field of urban branding primarily on the basis of the “lagoon and mangrove forests” as its main competitive advantage. However, a one‑dimensional reliance on a single ecological component and its elevation to the core of the city’s brand identity reflects a fragmentary, reductionist, and at times speculative approach to urban branding—an approach that may lead to developmental instability and a distorted, incomplete understanding of the city. Adopting a holistic and ontological perspective toward the phenomenon of the city, this study seeks to demonstrate that an urban brand can only be sustainable and valid when the totality of the urban landscape system and its constitutive elements is taken into account.

The research methodology is grounded in a qualitative approach and a systematic reading of the urban landscape. To achieve this reading, three analytical pathways were pursued:

1. Examination of intellectual and historical documents (travelogues, archival texts, local reports), aimed at identifying the authentic elements in the city’s formation.
2. Field observations, conducted to understand lived experience and the actual landscape components beyond promotional and commercial discourses.
3. Interpretive–critical content analysis.

The findings indicate that the triad of mountain, plain, and sea constitutes the foundational structure of the landscape and the physical–spatial identity of Khamir Port. Only through a balanced consideration of this totality can sustainable development and a stable urban brand be achieved. Although the lagoon and mangrove forests represent a new relative advantage for the city, exclusive emphasis on them—consistent with some reductionist urban branding models—may disrupt the balance between the city’s natural and human landscapes and produce unsustainable consequences.

In line with the researcher–practitioner paradigm, the study concludes by presenting a set of overarching strategies for understanding and guiding the urban branding of Khamir. These strategies underscore the necessity of moving away from one‑dimensional approaches and returning to a systemic perception of the city.