Geographical Analysis of the Socio-Economic Consequences of the Relocation of the Capital City in Iran

Capitals play an important role in all countries. One of these roles is political-administrative which often accompanied with the concentration of economic, social, educational activities. High Concentration of different types of activities in Tehran as the capital in recent years has had positive and negative socio-economic consequences and has led to the suggestion of relocation of the capital’s functions in order to reduce these problems. The purpose of this study is investigation of the geopolitical, socio-economic consequences of the relocation of the capital. The research method is analytic- descriptive. Statistical sample is the experts of social and economic fields and the sample size is 40 patients that are selected by cluster sampling. Data gathering procedure is based on library and field findings. Structural equation modeling (LISREL) is used to analyze data. Results of Structural equation modeling related to the capital relocation indicate that the economic concentration would take place in new location, but the capital cannot achieve political decentralization. Also, its population would be increased, environmental crisis would not be reduced and indicators of quality of life (with a coefficient of -0.83) would not be improved. The results of the structural model suggests that there is a direct and strong relationship between organizing Tehran and taking strategies to transfer some functions to the other cities and integrated urban management. Based on the studied factors, it can be concluded that the capital relocation cannot be the best logical solution. Instead of a complete relocation of the capital, if some of its functions transfer to other cities, Tehran would not be attractive to migrate. In this regard, transferring some of industries and organizations to other provinces can help to reorganize Tehran and also can lead to the development of other cities and provinces.