Imbalanced Urban Hierarchy in Ardabil Province

In this paper urban hierarchy of Ardabil province has been studied based on descriptive-analytical method during 1365-1375, and 1385. The results show that the urban hierarchy has been not balanced during the studied years, yet it showed a trend of improvement. According to the results, Ardabil city (province center) has been a permanent immigration destination because of the allocation of the most portion of investment in political, social and cultural aspects. Further, it has caused noncompliance of the urban hierarchy from rank-size rule. Therefore, Ardabil city population has been 9 and 10 times to the second city (Meshkinshahr) and the third city (Parsabad) in 1365, respectively. In 1375, Parsabad has been enhanced to the second city while its population has been one sixth of Ardabil city. Urban hierarchy has been balanced in 1385. This way, Ardabil had 5 and 7 times the population of the second city (Parsabad) and the third city (Meshkinshahr), respectively. In this paper, urban hierarchy is studied not only using rank-size model but also via the calculation of the entropy factor, Henderson index and Mehta Four-City index. The results of these methods were similar. The results revealed that it is possible to establish balancing urban network and development of balanced space in the province using creation of equal opportunity for all cities, as well as making attempts creating mean city and supporting rural-urban areas development to small cities are all possible.