An Analytical Model for Polycentricity Measurement on Urban Regions (Case Study: Tehran Urban Region)

Deep changes in economic approaches and importance of functional efficiency in global urban competition era, has changed urban form and spatial structure. Metropolitan areas to comply with this complex and multi-dimentional system have been leaning towards more flexible structures. Despite more three decades of polycentric concept, definition, scale and dimentiones are not rest. Different perceptions of the polycentric, make it difficult to choose this approach as spatial development strategy for urban regions. The main objective of this paper is to specify polycentric concept and to propose a comprehensive model for polycentricity measurement. Research method is mixed method and required information and data was extracted from books, articles, other research's results on polycentrism, Tehran's statistical yearbook and population and housing censuses data in 1385 and 1390. VIKOR and SPSS are research's analytical tools. At the first step, this paper analyzed the different features of polycentric's definitions and sub-center delimitation methods. At the second step, based on network concept, this research proposed integrated analytical model for delimitation sub-center. At the third step, Proposed model was used to specify Tehran urban region's sub-centers. In this regard, indicators calculation methods were difined. Then, data were converted to comparable quantitative results by SPSS and results were ranked by VIKOR. The final results show, polycenteric essential concept is mutual flows between centers. The analytical model imporves the coordination of proposed indicators with available statistical data in Iran. Further, the research find that Damavand, Pakdasht and Ghods county (Respectively, with 0.95, 0.84 and 0.78 final score) are new centers of Tehran Province.