Explanation of Spatial Development Strategies in the Old Agricultural Regions by Hilhorst System Approach Case: Gilan region

Since the spatial structure of each region and equilibrium amount of urban system represents the physical reflection of social and economical structures of the region, the current Academic models such as Rank-size, Entropy, Herfindahl and. .., despite the simplicity and quantifiable values, do not have sufficient capacity. Because these models ignore the social, economical, administrative and physical indicators, and just focus on the population of cities. The aim of the research is the application of -Hilhorst systemic approach for explaining the regional spatial planning strategy for Guilan region and the research method is systemic analytical method, with documentary data and information, through the application of models as Rank - size, Gini coefficient, the urban Primacy indicator. Case study is Gilan Province as functional planning region. Hilhorst systemic approach analyzes four factors (extent of favorable ecological zones, mineral resources capacity, a regional economic performance, management concentration), then evaluates their reflections on the two spatial components (marginal zone extent, Urban system). Subsequently, the regions will be divided into four categories and based on national position of each region, the optimal Spatial strategy of the region will be developed. According to the findings, Gilan region has extensive and appropriate ecological zones, lack of mineral resources, the economical, agricultural and tourism performance, Centralized administrative system and first urban primacy index, but the relative extent of marginal area is small. Gilan region was considered as "old agricultural area" the appropriate strategy of the area was determined as “consolidation distributed" or "Fixed spread” and finally the axes and fields of investment were determined.