جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « نظام شهری » در نشریات گروه « جغرافیا »

Planning in the form of development and construction plans in Iran is the most basic tool for shaping urban settlements based on pre-planned systems. In this article, two issues have been followed to evaluate the feasibility of the goals of comprehensive regional plans on the spatial distribution system of the population in the urban settlements of Hormozgān province. First, has the residential system in the urban areas of Hormozgān province been realized based on the regional plans and goals or not? Second, how is the spatial distribution of the population, especially in terms of concentration and balance, in the minimum prime urban settlements of Hormozgān province? It was an applied-developmental research based on quantitative-analytical investigation. Considering the major goals of all four district plans in Hormozgān province based on proportionate and balanced distribution of population and settlement points, the first urban situation, balance, and concentration of population and distribution pattern of urban settlements in Hormozgān has been discussed province according to different indicators and models. The results indicated that while regional plans in Hormozgān Province have reasonably succeeded in predicting and suggesting urban settlement points at the provincial level, population predictions seem lower than the current situation. Nevertheless, in recent decades, the intensity of population concentration has decreased, and the population distribution in the provincial urban system has moved toward relative balance.

The formation of balanced pattern of urban network based on the small cities is a basic step for suitable distribution of facilities and services and leads to a spatially arranged distribution of the population and human settlements on the national scale, as well as, with the forming of such cities, the chain of big cities, towns and villages will be completed. The purpose of this research is to investigate and spatial analyzing the status of the urban spatial system of Ilam province in the periods from 1355 to 1395 by using the evaluation models of urban system analysis such as; Ziff's rank- size law, adjusted rank- size model, entropy coefficient, Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient, two-city index, Mehta index, first city concentration index, Herfindahl concentration index, Henderson centralization index. The method of collecting information and data was done using the non-field method; a library based on the necessary data from Statistical Centre of Iran between 1355 to 1395 years. The results of the research shows that the spatial system of the cities of Ilam province has an unbalanced pattern; the low role and position of small cities in the urban hierarchical system of the Ilam province despite low population and high numbers of small cities, the superior political-administrative position of Ilam city are the most important characteristics of urban network of ilam province. These factors cause to move of population from small towns to Ilam city to access the few facilities and services available in Ilam city, therefore this factor has exacerbated the gap in the hierarchical system of Ilam province between small-towns and Ilam city. Interventional actions of the government in order to strengthen small towns through increasing provincial credits in order to strengthen small cities and develop educational, health-care, infrastructure, IT technologies, road infrastructure, creating job opportunities, housing development, decentralization Administrative and political orientation are the most important solutions in order to adjust the urban system of the province.

Imbalances and regional imbalances are one of the major challenges of spatial development in Iran which has led to the formation of inefficient and disrupted urban system in the country with the expansion of urbanization and increasing number of cities. The cities of Zanjan province, like most of the provinces in the country, have regional imbalances such as the imbalance of the province's spatial organization. This research aims to understand the differences and changes of the urban system, It has studied the transmutation of the spatial organization of the urban system of Zanjan province during the period 1335to1395. In this research, descriptive-analytical research method and documentary-library data collection method were used. Descriptive-analytical method and library and documentation information using quantitative models: Urban Primacy Index, Two City Index, Four City Index, Mahta Four City Index, Todim model, digital elevation model were used. The results show that spatial imbalance is evident in Zanjan province's urban system and despite 21 urban points in this province, urban growth and development is more specific to the four main cities of Zanjan, Qidar, Khorramdareh and Abhar. Over time, unlike the first urban decline in Zanjan province, the urban system tends to be in equilibrium. Despite the increase in the number of small towns in order to reduce the imbalance in the urban system of the province, we see a large distance from these cities with the first city leading the urban system to imbalance. have given; Other factors that exacerbate this inequality and imbalance include geographical factor, budget allocation in provincial cities, inadequate population distribution and concentration of facilities and infrastructure in Zanjan city and its undesirable role in provincial urban system and insignificant role of cities. And their almost one-sided relationship with the center of the province, the city of Zanjan.

In analyzing functions of cities, it is important to notice geographical, population, economic and communicative characteristics. Formation of settlements and urban networks in Mazandaran follows Alborz mountains, water resources (permanent and seasonal rivers and springs), and communication networks in heights and plains. The purpose of this study is applied; its nature is descriptive-analytical and its method of data collection focuses around documents and field data. For data analysis (intensity of function and role of cities), this study relies on fuzzy logic. Drawing provincial cities function map was accomplished in Arc GIS. Results obtained from various population, distance (Km, time), centrality in fuzzy logic indexes suggest that distribution of population levels follows the current trend in national urban levels system. Although centers of the cities enjoy numerical supremacy, they have negligible shares of the province’s urban population. The reverse and symmetrical relationship between the number of cities and urban population is perceivable by moving from lower levels (city center, rural-city) to (sub-regional centers, metropolitan regions) such as: Sari, Babol, Amol, Qaemshahr. According to the indexes of provincial urban levels system table, stairwise ascent (city center, rural-city) from weak to medium and good function in (small, medium cities) and from good (sub-regional centers, metropolitan regions) to prominent function is observed. Thus, (reginal metropolitan) Sari and Babol have prominent functions and (sub-regional centers) Amol and Qaemshahr show good functions. Around 41% of 58 provincial cities including (urban centers and rural-cities) demonstrate weak function with Western and high altitude cities having the greatest share. Keywords: urban systems, population levels,, regional metropolis, urban function, fuzzy logic Research Paper.

The positions of cities within an urban system have been studied on a variety of geographical scales ranging from the metropolitan and regional level to the national level. The two main approaches can be distinguished: attribute-based and interaction-based. First, focuses on the concentration of activities or functions in a node and characterize cities’ importance by using data on the internal attributes of nodes such as the population size, economic profiles, and the presence of transport and communication functions. Second, one could rank cities from an interaction perspective by using flow data and concentrates on the degree to which nodes interact with each other in the system of flows. Although the fundamentals of both approaches are well documented, the nature of the relationship between these two approaches has remained hitherto largely unexplored. Even though many studies employ either interaction- or node-attribute data to study the positions of cities in the urban system, relatively little is known about the relationships between these two different types of data. This study aims to examine the extent to which the positions of cities using the interaction- and node attribute data correlate with each other, and how possible (dis)similarities between the two can be explained.

Although there are several types of flow that could be used for studying interaction, we have concentrated on flows of people travelling between distinct metropolitan areas for two reasons. First, face to- face relationships continue to be important for the development of urban systems. Second, it is the less frequent journeys undertaken over greater spatial distances rather than daily (commuting) journeys that are pertinent to the development of urban systems on the higher spatial scale. The analysis has been conducted separately for aerial and terrestrial journeys. In this study, we have employed data on long-distance mobility which has been collected in Comprehensive Transportation Studies of Iran in 2016 .As reported in this study, the origin- destination survey was carried out in 56 study areas which are according to political divisions. In this survey, a long-distance journey was defined as a journey to a destination more than 100 km away. With respect to node attributes, information on sociodemographic and economic was obtained from the Population and Housing Census data collected by Statistical Center of Iran (2016).According to the enactment of Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, each city which has more than 500 thousand population is known as metropolitan; based on, in 2016 Iran has had 15 metropolitan, But in this study, the metropolitan areas were operationalized via the concept of functional urban regions (FURs) to represent the spatial units that are functionally interrelated in economic terms, because these can be compared with one another more easily. However, the delimitation of such areas is constrained by the availability of data in at least two respects. First, the functional interdependencies should ideally be derived from interaction data such as daily commuter flows. Second, because the flow data is only available for 56 defined study area of CTSI, the metropolitan areas necessarily is constrained to these areas.

The results show that not only ranking of cities by interaction data differ for types of flow but also the relationships between interaction and node attributes differ for these types of flow. Tehran, Mashhad, Esfahan and Ahvaz there are in the highest orders based on aerial flow data while Tehran, Esfahan, Qom and Arak are the most important metropolitan areas based on aerial flow data terrestrial flow data. In addition, Tehran, Mashhad, Esfahan and Kerman has acquired the first to forth position respectively based on attribute-based data. This division indicates that nodes do not necessarily hold an important position on both aspects simultaneously. The difference between transportation modes in representation of rankings of cities by using interaction-based data _aerial and terrestrial_ has been approved: The choosing destinations in terrestrial transportation from each origin gravitate to nearer distances and the number of passengers is affected by distances more intensely which is known as “Distance Decay” factor. We also find that the differences between the two rankings can be explained to some extent by the fact that corporeal interaction is influenced by the “physical barriers” which means that the top ranking metropolitan areas are those located centrally in our study area, Iran such as Tehran, Esfahan and Qom.

In this study, we have considered to what extent the rankings of metropolitan areas using interaction and node-attribute data are correlated. Data on long-distance passenger mobility for aerial and terrestrial journeys and the attributes of the metropolitan areas have been used to generate the rankings of 15 metropolitan areas.The results shows that node attributes data tend to overestimate the importance of metropolitan areas that are not situated on central area of Iran like Kerman and Shiraz. These metropolitan areas function as central nodes in their regional economies and hold high positions on the economic attributes, but may have weaker relationships with other metropolitan areas. This contrast suggests that the physical barriers imposed by distance play a part in limiting the interaction between metropolitan areas as far as corporeal travel is concerned. Oppositely, the results shows that interaction data based on terrestrial flow tend to underestimate the importance of metropolitan areas that are not situated on central area of Iran like Zahedan and Orumia. This result may suggest that none of node attribute data or flow data are not sufficient to explain the positions of metropolitan areas on the two overall rankings, at least for the current data. Nevertheless, compared with terrestrial flows, aerial flows and node-attributes are more strongly correlated. Aerial-interaction and node-based data show a correlation factor of 0.85 suggesting that they are good proxies for one another. However, since different types of flow tend to have different characteristics, terrestrial-interaction and node-based data show a correlation factor of 0.36. It can be concluded that ranking of urban regions by means of node-based attributes can be better explained by aerial flow data than terrestrial flow data.

The spatial pattern and transformation of urban systems is an important manifestation of social, economic development processes that reflect the spatial, social, and behavioral transformation of society. These changes and patterns are the basis of sustainable development research. The purpose of the study is to investigate the dynamics and imbalances of the urban system in Zanjan. The paper is descriptive, analytical research and the method of data collection is documentary. The characteristics of the urban system and its changes have investigated in two sections: demographic and functional. To analyze the demographical dynamics and imbalances, acceleration of urbanization index, gravity and rank-size model, and urban primacy index and time series have been used. The acceleration of urbanization in the province is 2.53, which is higher than in the country (1.81). The most attraction between the cities is found between the Zanjan, and Abhar and Khorramdareh. The urban primacy index in the province (0.61) has always been higher than the country (0.15). Also, the rank-size slope value was more than -1 in all periods, indicating urban primacy. But modeling the demographic changes of the first six cities shows some sort of balance. Also, we applied the service-centric index to analyze the functionality of this system, the results of which indicate the dominant role of Zanjan. Numerical taxonomy has been used to investigate the position of urban areas in communications and interconnections. The results showed that Zanjan is the only settlement that has a higher value of flow power than the upper limit, which indicates the long-distance of Zanjan from other settlements. Although Zanjan has a weak position in the urban hierarchy of Iran, it is the dominant settlement in the province and different flows of population, capital, goods, and travelers flow unilaterally from other parts to this city. The difference between Zanjan as the prime city and other areas has caused a gap in the settlement system and regional imbalances.

Demographic changes in recent decades have led to rapid changes in Iran's urban system and its hierarchy, with one of its consequences being the increase or decrease in the ranking of cities in this system. The present study examines the position of Tabriz metropolis in the urban system of Iran from 1335 to 1395, and by forecasting the population of this metropolis by 2031, it tries to determine the future position of this city in the urban system of Iran. This study is practical in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of nature and research method. The data in the present study were obtained through document analysis and field study (questionnaire and interview). Interviews were used to understand the causes of emigration and a questionnaire was used to understand the causes of fertility decline in Tabriz metropolis. The sample sizes for both instruments were determined based on the saturation principle. The exponential model, Spectrum software, and rank mobility index were used to predict the demographic factors, population forecast, and the study of metropolitan rank changes in the urban system, respectively. The obtained results showed that the decrease in fertility rate and migration are the main reasons for the sharp decline in population growth in the metropolis of Tabriz, with the economic reasons being the main reason. In addition, assuming the fertility rates of 1.5, 1.8, and 2.1 in Tabriz, we will see 1.64, 1.69, and 1.74 million increases in the population of the city, respectively, as well as a decrease in the population of minors and a doubling of elderly population over 65 by the year 2031. The results of population forecast show that the position of Tabriz metropolis will be stabilized as the sixth largest city of Iran's urban system by 2031, but its distance from the seventh metropolis (Qom) will be less, which requires special attention and proper management to prevent its rank from falling again.

Population distribution, economic functions, as well as the status and role of cities in the urban system change and evolve through their interaction with other cities over time. This change in the organization of the urban system is not a static one,   but rather it is a context-dependent issue. Alborz province has experienced highly rapid changes in the urban system that have led to the emergence of severe imbalances in the urban system, increasing population and functional concentration in its metropolitan area compared to other cities and the marginalization of other cities of the province in the urban system. The typology of urban system in Alborz province that aims at describing the spatial pattern in which the cities of this urban system are organized and proposing the possible scenarios for the future spatial pattern of this urban system are the subjects of this article. This issue has been pursued through the analysis of the morphological and functional spatial pattern of cities, the analysis of the grounds affecting the formation of the urban system, and for the examination of the possible futures for the urban system. This research had mainly a descriptive nature, relied on quantitative methods and spatial analyses, and emphasized both morphological and functional aspects. According to the findings, the main east-west corridor of the province is the most important factors in the spatial pattern of this province’s urban system. The urban system of the province might develop in future through three possible spatial scenarios. These scenarios include the corridor, polycentric, and monocentric development patterns. It seems that in the urban system of Alborz province despite the spatial concentration of the population and the majority of the provincial functions in Karaj metropolis, there are potentials for the realization of a more balanced development. The potential and tendency to the corridor development model around the east-west axis, which agrees with the natural, infrastructural, and economic structure of the region, is one of these tendencies that can create a demographic and functional balance in the urban system of the province and lead its cities to take various economic roles.

One of the important strategies that has been considered in the last half of the last century to deal with regional imbalance due to the cumulative growth of large cities, is to strengthen small and medium cities and villages in urban network. Accordingly, the main purpose of this research is to investigate and analyze the functional effects of village - cities and its role in the development and balance of urban network system in Ilam province during the past half century. The present study is descriptive - analytical based on the nature and method of research. In order to analyze the data, quantitative analysis has been used by relying on models and urban planning and regional planning techniques. The results of this study show that the share of village conversion process to the city in the net increase in urban population of ilam province is more than 1 % of total increase. In spite of these villages, they have managed to attract and retain the population and have a positive impact on the spatial integration of population and adjusting the settlement system of the region.

Statement of Problem: It has grown and is currently in progress. These areas have special services and service capabilities that you can grapple with using different programs and urban mosques. Among other things shown in these countries, the middle, number and rural boundaries of education are lagging behind. The purpose of the research is to achieve adjustments, improve spatial equilibrium, and optimize space distribution, activity, and collection at the regional level. Teaching This is a descriptive-analytical method. In this study, in order to change the distribution of urban settlements, the Wi-Fi system maintains the security of the cities and manages the city of Ilam on peripheral landscapes using other models (TOPSIS ....) using Excel and GIS software. Be able to get it caught. Access to reputable sites: Ilam city-based authentication is especially feasible. It is important to have a place to live and have an important housing restriction, you can give it a go and you can ask them to give you more opportunity so they can give you more opportunity so they can give you more opportunity. To give you more opportunity. The Rafah Provincial Space plays host to the services of kidney services in the shadow of the south and north and northeast divisions of the province to divide into the provinces of Khuzestan, Lorestan and Kermanshah. Counseling services in the urban system of the province have been stabilized by showing signs of surface fluctuations.

To achieve its developmental goals and for its improvement,the urban system requires social discipline without which it will face disorder and many problems.Various factors are effective in social discipline which nowadays have caused many problems for the metropolises of Iran.In this regard, the commercial and services zones of cities face social discipline problems more than other zones and this issue has decreased the level of welfare of citizens of such zones. Region2of zone12 of Tehran is one of the regions which faces order disruption due to its central situation and service-commercial and touristic centers and these issues have decreased the social discipline of the zone. Accordingly, the present research explains the social discipline of city with the approach of political organization of space in region2of zone12of Tehran with a descriptive-analytical and applied (practical) method. This research evaluates the descriptive statistics of the present spss organization challenges by the average test and Pearson correlation coefficient in the space political software and dimensions of social discipline in region2of zone12of Tehran. The results show that the infrastructural challenge is the most important challenge of Urban Management in region2of zone12and cohesive order and using violence consist the most important dimensions of social discipline in region2of zone12.In the end, there is a relationship between certain elements of Urban Management and dimensions of Urban Management and the intensity of this relationship in most variables is rather weak. Keywords: urban system, social discipline, Urban Management ,region2of zone12of Tehran

By studying urban systems, it becomes more specific the condition distribution and measure balance of population distribution. This article is being Compilation by aim the study changes in the urban system of the northern region to determine its equilibrium situation. The research method is descriptive-analytic and the basis of statistical data is the results of general census of population and housing in the past 8 years. In this paper, classifying the cities of the region over the past 60 years, used of indexes urban primacy includes primate city, tow city, Ginsberg, Mehta, moomaw and alwosabi, dominance mosavi and indexes centralization includes herfindahl, Henderson and indexes Balance includes entropy, coefficient of variation, rank-size to study the urban system of the region. The results perquisite from urban primary indexes and centralization it shows the measure urban primacy and centralization from 1335 to 1365 the trend has been decreasing but from 1365 to 1390 the trend has been on the upside until it in 1395 rebounds Slightly trend has been declines. The results of the indexes Balance also show the imbalance in the spatial distribution of the population in the urban system of the region from 1335 to 1395 has always increased. The results of the rank-size index also is indicate a relatively large difference between the actual population and the desirable population of the cities of region during the studied years and also, the relative importance of middle cities from 1335 to 1355 and domination of urban primary from 1355 to 1395.

In the country after the land reforms and development plans and policies adopted there have been significant changes in the urban systems that have led to the widening gap between the major cities and the provincial capitals. The existence of such a rift has caused problems and problems at the district and city level. The purpose of this study was to investigate the urban system developments in the war-torn areas of the west of the country in Kermanshah province. The research method was descriptive-analytical, using census data from 55 to 95 from the statistics center for quantitative data and using expert opinions for qualitative data of the research. Information analysis methods are urban planning models and techniques and the Surah method. The results show that Kermanshah and Islamabad West as the first and second cities in the hierarchy of cities in the province during these years. The cities of Qasr-e Shirin and Sar-e-Pol-Zahab are in the last years of the imposed war. But after the war, they are almost back to their original form. In general, the urban structure and system of Kermanshah province, like other provinces and developing countries, is completely unbalanced and faces prime urban conditions. The results of Savara method showed that the administrative - political factor and the imposed war were the most important factors affecting the urban system changes in Kermanshah province in recent decades.

One of the important strategies that have been taken into consideration in the last half century to counter regional imbalances caused by the growing growth of large cities are small towns, which, due to the availability of some facilities and services, are one of the important centers for developmental balance The research is descriptive-analytic, and its purpose is to investigate the role of small cities (25-100 thousand) in sustainable regional development in Alborz province. In order to achieve the position of small towns in the urban system, rank-size models, entropy and balance sheets have been used, and then their role in regional development balance has been evaluated. The results show that the entropy coefficient without considering small cities is also a continuation imbalance Will have. In the logarithmic model, the rank of size, with the inclusion of small towns, slipped to -1.99, and with no small cities down to -21.1, which indicates the undeniable role of small cities in the urban system and the results of the balance sheet model The changes in components are mainly in-class and due to the growth of cities, and only in 2006, due to the transformation of villages into the city of Shahdad, we have been affected by changes in new cities.

Excessive concentration of population and activity, mainly in the largest cities of developing countries, has caused the spatial equilibrium in the urban network of these countries to be problematic, and has provided the basis for the emergence of the first urban phenomenon. First urban phenomenon on the one hand enhances the attraction of a large part of facilities and services in large cities, and on the other hand, these great cities have faced many problems. The first urban analysis in Iran and most of the world's countries is often limited to large cities, and the high-level analysis processes result in a top-down (centralized) planning fate. In this research, the first urban phenomenon has been tried, in a comparative manner, in addition to high levels, at low levels. The research method is descriptive-analytic and the required information is collected from reliable statistical centers such as Fars Governorate and Statistics Center of Iran. One of the most important results of this research can be a severe rupture in the cities of the province, so that the city of Shiraz in 1395 with 1565572 inhabitants as the dominant city and first in the province of Fars and the city of Marvdasht as the second city With a population of 148858 was on second place. In the regional level due to the natural, economic and geographical conditions that are observed in the Larestan area, the urban network has a better order, so that the city of Lar as the first city with a population of 62045 people and the city of Ghorash With a population of 34469 were on second place.

In the urban hierarchy, besides of urban primacy, there is some reasons that led to an internal order among cities and it create a hierarchical system where in cities make up some groups. These groups are recognizable via population gap on linear curve. Findings show that urban primacy is a dominated phenomenon in urban system of Iran. Of Course it appears in different pattern which can be classified in weak, medium and strong level. Beside of urban primacy dominance, there is another dominated system called stair system. Study of urban system in Iran confirms the existence of stair system in urban hierarchy in both national and regional level. This system divides the urban hierarchy into several urban groups. The group mate cities separate from upper and lower level cities due to population gap and it seems that they make a new form of urban hierarchy. In this system, cities are able to classified into several groups and each of them have caused more homogenous hierarchy system than entire of urban system in region. One of the most important issues in this area is the Identification of main factors causing it. Because the variables that are been studied in this research are not the main factors in the creating of stair system. Study of this system and mechanism of its function, can lead to identify new dimensions of urban hierarchy system at the other scales.

The change in urban systems is a continuous process that simultaneously occurs at different levels of space. This article aims to study the evolution of the urban system of Mazandaran province in the last 60 years. The research method is descriptive-analytic and the statistical basis of the data is the results of general population censuses and housing. In this research, Excel data was categorized by demographic data of urban areas and using the rank-size models, the class-adjusted minimum and the pulling coefficient of the urban system of Mazandaran province were analyzed. With Gis, maps of the spatial distribution of urban population were also drawn. The results show that urbanization in Mazandaran is moving along with the whole country, but its acceleration is slower than that of the country. In this period, the number of cities increased 6 times, urban population 12 times, and urbanization increased to 42.2 percent. According to the model, the size of the real and desirable population of cities is seen to be increasing as a surplus population, and as the tendency to balance is evident at high levels of the hierarchical system, there is no such improvement at the lower levels. In the corrected rule of Storges, the degree of difference between classes is increased to 5.6 times, and the number of classes to 10 metropolitan areas has increased, and there is a significant difference between the number of cities and their population in the last floor of this model, which indicates the imbalance and disruption of the situation The hierarchy of the urban system. The results of the model of pulling coefficient show that the small towns and villages in recent decades have been low and negative growth, whose declining role has caused a serious risk of balance in the Mazandaran city system.

The urban network can be understood as the spatial concept of how to deploy and distribute different cities in terms of population size and, in its economic sense, the system of exchange and trade between cities based on their basic functions, which is both the result of and the cause of many of the issues and phenomena Contemporary urbanization. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the urban network of Mazandaran province. The method used in this study is descriptive-analytic type. For data analysis have been used entropy technique, rank-size model and its modified type. The results of the analysis of the urban hierarchy of Mazandaran province indicate the imbalance in urban system and population concentration in the four major cities of the province. On the other hand, the study of the urban hierarchy of the province showed that the ranking line - the actual size of the cities of the city has never been matched by the theoretical model of "rank-size". Also, based on the entropy coefficient model, it can be concluded that the spatial distribution of the number of cities in the urban classes of the province was less than 1 in three periods of 1355-90, indicating an imbalance in the urban network of Mazandaran province. In general, the results indicate an imbalance in the hierarchical system of the provincial cities.

While various political, social and economic factors have changed in Iran during the last decades, the urbanization rate has risen from 28% in 1921 to 74% in 2016. In the last few decades, reclassification of villages to cities can be noticed as one of the most important dimensions of urbanization process in Iran. Among these, factors affecting on reclassification of rural settlements as cities and the impacts of this change on urban system and spatial organization of regions have attracted a lot of attention among researchers. Although the process of reclassification of villages as cities varied with the degrees of intensity and speed across the country, but this has been more important in some regions. One of these regions is Guilan province located in the north of Iran. The existence of susceptible agricultural lands, existence of the most important forestry areas of the country, aggregation of urban and rural settlements in this region are some factors that make this more important subject for wider researches. Accordingly, the questions that this article seeks to respond is, what is the most dominant process in reclassification villages as cities in Guilan and what impacts had on this region's urban system?
Reclassification of villages as city refers to factors and processes that lead to the recognition of a village as a city. There are three points of view in this regard. The first emphasizes on the transformation of villages to city as a natural process. In this view, the growth of population size of rural communities leads to a change in economic, social and physical dimensions. Economically, the natural process is the same as market process in which economic forces freely lead to the reshaping of human settlements. The second view emphasizes on the involvement of political agents on the reclassification of villages as cities. The recognition of urban and non-urban centers in countries is important for various administrative and political tasks, such as distribution of governmental credits, allocation of facilities and etc. Therefore, it is important for governments to determine relevant criteria for the reclassification of rural settlements as urban areas. However, the reclassification of villages as cities with natural or political interventions cannot always be a reasonable and acceptable process, because of necessities in regional development. It is sometimes necessary to strengthen rural settlements as an urban settlement; that is the third point. The roots of this view, backs to 1960s and 1970s, and emergence of new perspectives between various views of regional development, can be described as small towns approach.

This research can be considered as an inductive-deductive research. The method used in this research is a descriptive-evaluative method and data collection method is documentary. This paper tries to evaluate the status and processes associated with the reclassification of villages as cities in Guilan province in Iran. With the population more than 5,000 people has been assumed as the main criterion for natural changes. Political, centrality as an index for political intervention and introducing in development plans as a potential settlement for reclassifying as city was counted as planning factor.

The Guilan province in Iran is always considered as one of the agricultural hubs of the country and is divided into 16 counties. In the two censuses before the Islamic Revolution (excluding the 1956 census as the basis), nine cities were added to this region's urban system, where only one city (Rudbar) had less than 5,000 people. In addition, all of these cities had municipalities before being counted as cities. Therefore, it can be said that before the Islamic Revolution, the political process of recognition of a city has preceded from natural changes. After the Islamic Revolution, it was attempted to reconcile the identification of urban areas in the censuses and administrative system. Statistical surveys of cities based on criteria's that set out in the theoretical framework, reveals that 19 cities have been shaped from natural process and 24 cities have been shaped due to political interventions. Study of urban system of this region shows that most of new cities in Guilan province have less than 5,000 inhabitants. Urban Primacy Index reveals that since 1996, there has been a great concentration on Rasht as the primate city. Rank-size rule analysis indicates imbalance in urban hierarchy of this province. Therefore, it can be said that the emergence of low-population cities in this province influenced mainly by the government's policies and decisions, couldn't lead to an efficient change in urban hierarchy of this province.

The results of this research show three basic issues on the Guilan province's urban system: 1) Dominance of Rasht as capital city, which according to the census of 2016, includes near of 42.4% of the province's urban population. 2) The absence of middle size cities in its true meaning, as consolidators of urban network, which has led to an urban bias between primate city and small cities. 3) Sharp increase in the reclassification of villages as cities over the last few decades, especially after the Islamic Revolution. The rapid rate of reclassification of villages as cities in recent decades, has caused these cities not to be able to provide a significant instance on the urban hierarchy. Therefore, the reclassification of villages as cities has not led to adjustment of urban system, and there is a need for some different strategies to reshaping spatial organization of this province. In this case, the middle-size cities development strategy can be considered as one of the efficient strategies.