An Analysis of the Urban Network System in Shahrekord County

Limitation of resources and spatial constraints in the territories of the country in general, and in urban areas in particular, along with the increase of human population, requires that the organization of the spatial system in human settlements (urban - rural) be carried out with a preparatory approach. Understanding and attempting to establish a reasonable balance in the urban network system is one of the effective strategies in organizing space and facilitating the process of achieving sustainable development. In this paper, using rank-size model, we examined and analyzed the spatial distribution and dispersion of the population and the dominant system of urban hierarchy in each of the cities of Shahrekord county (the studied area). The results show that of the total of 12 studied cities, Shahrekord city as the first city has 51.5% of the county’s population. After that, Farrokhshar, as the second city (small city) and then 10 other cities are among the very small cities. Providing guidelines for optimal and proportional distribution of the population and reducing inequality (gap) between the first city and other cities within the studied area are among the approaches addressed in this paper.