An Analysis on a Settlement's Network with an Emphasis on Population Flows in Firuzkooh Township

The relations between both rural and urban settlements in the township of Firuzkooh are established based on population flows. These relations have led to the development of some structural networks and a settlement network pattern at the local and regional levels. This study already provides a key question on the features of this pattern.

Data concerning this study have been derived from enquiries of 25 model villages and 436 operational model families of Firuzkooh Township which are selected based on Chocran and by considering far and near distances of the villages compared to Firuzkooh town.

It contains the size of networks, density and internal / external degree of network, flow intensity or internal degree of the whole communities enjoyable by each village as the key standards of network and varieties of centralities with commanding standards of a settlement network. Based on findings, the metropolis Tehran, qualified as a degree centrality, eigenvector centrality and betweenness centrality are known as key settlement as far as the network structure of Firuzkooh Township is concerned. Again, Mehdishahr, Karkebeneh, Mahmiodabad, Najafdar and Fereydounkenaar qualified as farthermost centralities, were identified as the poorest settlements in this network.

Based on study finding, the general pattern governing the settlement network in Firuzkooh, is a seasonal pattern of population flows in the forms of regular and cyclic one also in the forms of summer and winter network pattern at local and regional levels. This pattern is in line with the characters of views expressed on growth pole. However, it runs away from network views patterns. Multiple and directional linkages belonging to rural and urban settlements are owned by settlement network characters of our area under study.