ANALYSIS OF THE DISTRIBUTION NETWORK OF THE URBAN POPULATION IN YAZD PROVINCE, DURING 2011-1956

Regional imbalance in the context of national space, made the study of network and system required to build the urban hierarchy a necessity in order to identify distribution and patterns of urban population and balance and imbalance in the regional urban hierarchy system. After assessment of current situation, some solutions can be suggested. Main objectives of this study are to assess the status of urban network and the phenomenon of prime urban of Yazd province. This paper analyses the urban network related to years 2011-1956 using the model of Zapf’s rank-size order, as modified; the prime urban and focus city index of Yazd. The results of this study show that this province, from one hand side, has encountered to elevated number of cities and population of urban areas, and from other side, reduction of hierarchical order of cities and imbalance in their distribution and their spatial distribution. Logical imbalance in the distribution of population in Yazd is due to centralization system in this geographical area. Therefore, the prime urban index exists in the province. Furthermore, the distribution system of the city in 1956 was coexisted with trend of greater focus and more prime urban. The focus was diminished from 1956 to 1986 and the focus has been moving toward a more appropriate distribution. From 1986 to 2011, the prime urban index was increased.