The Study of the Settlement System of Yazd Province - Urban System

The urban and rural networks in the geographic areas have a complex system in their interaction with each other, whose result is the settlement system. The study of the housing system in the regional development process is one of the key issues. Yazd province, with its unique geography, is the heir to the primitive life pattern that, due to natural difficulties, has over time survived as discontinuous residential centers. However, its urban areas, following the national economy and regional necessities, have been subject to more rapid development, so that the organic linkages of the urban and rural communities of the province have been gradually weakened and the conditions for the decline and desolation of villages and, finally, instability of settlements have been provided. As a result, the settlement system of the province has shifted, not through a logical process, from a highly dispersed rural model towards a largely concentrated urban one. Desolation of more than 43 villages in the province and the concentration of about 60% of its urban population in the city of Yazd are evidences of this claim.