Geographical Distribution of Urban Population of Mid-Eastern Provinces of Iran with Passive Defense Approach

The purpose of this study is to investigate the geographical dispersal status (one of the main elements of passive defense) of urban population of mid-eastern provinces of Iran with the passive defense approach. The research method is a combination of documentary, descriptive, and analytical methods. In this study, the models of comparing the percentage of the population of province center with the total urban population of other provinces (to measure the concentration of population in the center of the province), rank-size law of Zipf and the prime urban pattern have been used to measure the geographical distribution of urban population of the mid-eastern provinces of Iran (passive defense). The results of population concentration model show that among the five provinces surveyed, Khorasan Razavi and Kerman provinces with 64.07and 34.01 concentrations and urban population percentage in Mashhad and Kerman have the worst situation (fifth rank) and the bestsituation (first rank), respectively. Examination of the prime urban index in the provinces under study shows that all the provinces surveyed face the prime urban phenomenon. In this regard, the city of Mashhad is the worst among the provinces surveyed. The results of Zipf rank-size model show that the urban population of Khorasan Razavi, Sistan and Baluchestan, South Khorasan, North Khorasan and Kerman provinces is different from Zipf rank-size model, which are -51.25, -36.03, -26.20, -23.78, and -21.26 from the worst to best, respectively. The situation in Khorasan Razavi and Sistan and Baluchestan provinces is worse than other provinces. According to the results of different models of this study, it can be concluded that Khorasan Razavi province with 64.07cumulative percentage of urban population in Mashhad has 10.25times more population in Mashhad in comparison to the urban population of the second city of the province and is -51.25 times far from the ideal population, which makes it the worst (non-compliance with passive population defense) among the provinces under study. Also, Kerman province with 34.07cumulative percentage of urban population in Kerman has 2.57 times more population in Kerman in comparison to the urban population of the second cityof the province and is -21.26 times far from the ideal population, which makes it the best (compliance with passive population defense) among the provinces under study.