Course of Change and Physical Development of Islamic Cities and Determining the Development Directions (A Case Study: Ardakan City in Yazd Province)

The phenomenon of urban settlement has created certain changes in physical، economic، cultural and social structure of cities. Ardakan city is located in the north of Yazd city. With regard to the growth of population، the physical development of this city has been in the horizontal direction and the constant expansion of urban constructions has destructed agricultural fields and gardens around the city. This article is an attempt to study the physical change and development of Ardakan. The research method is a combination and uses the field، historical، descriptive and analytical methods. Furthermore، the data of population، employment، industry، culture، social، educational، municipality’s، area and existing use in Iranian Statistical Center and urban pilot projects and their comparison in different periods from 1956 to 2012 and finally the place topographical maps have been used. The findings show that Ardakan city has passed four urban development stages. Qanats have had a basic role in the formation of city and then deep and semi-deep wells and transfer of Zayanderood water، all have had important roles in physical development of Ardakan. The factors of population increase، the expansion of city area from 1956 to 2012، the presence of four important transit routes، development of industry، employment and education in the link axes of north-south specially the pivot of Ardakan-Nayeen and the western part of the city، the presence and expansion of religious places in different districts and the 600 hectares of scattered uncultivated lands at city level have played important roles in the physical development of Ardakan. Due to limits in northern، eastern and southern parts of city، its physical development towards these regions is unfavorable.