Conjecture on the evolution of a city by morphological study of its building's yards by Geographic Information System (GIS) (Case study: the historical city of Boshruyeh)

In order to demonstrate the historical image of a city, historical texts and field surveys are usually used. Field surveys and archeological excavations seem to be the only accessible options when there is a shortage of reliable sources and written texts. The question raised in this study is: How can the historical evolution of a city be described before any archeological surmise if there are no reliable historical texts.The purpose of this article is to show the gradual formation of urban texture on the basis of the urban morphology. The historical city of Boshruyeh has been studied by using the descriptive-analytic method. In this regard the historical image of this city has been portrayed by considering the literature and particularly Norberg-Schulz’s theory, on three levels: the typological, topological and morphological study of its courtyards using aerial photograph and Geographical Information System (GIS) analysis.