Urbanization cycle analysis in the macro region of Khorasan

macro region of Khorasan (including Khorasan-e-Razavi, North Khorasan, and South Khorasan) with a population of 7594321, 68/11 percent of them living in 119 urban areas in 2011, has passed a vicissitudinous process and pattern of urbanization and urban growth. to explain the patterns of urbanization and urban growth in Iran the models and theories of positivist approach and era have been used in nationally or provincially confined levels while those attitudes and models are either outdated or have been substantially modified. Thus,The aim of this paper was to investigate the urbanization cycle in sample case of macro region of Khorasan during the past fifty-five years from1335 to 1390. The data used in this study is demographic statistic of Khorasan region cities in eight census periods from 1335 to 1390. In terms of purpose the current study is a basic and applied research and the nature and method of the study is descriptive and analytical. This paper briefly surveys urban cycle at first and then the research literature in this area is reviewed. Then the Urbanization changes in the macro region of Khorasan in the recent Fifty-five years are studied and the urbanization cycle in the urban network of Khorasan region is evaluated. Some of the affecting factors on the patterns and trends of urbanization especially in the study area have been demographic (natural population growth and sever migration from rural areas to urban areas) and social-political (the presence of Afghan refugees in Iran in the last fifty years) that did not have an established structure and can be used to explain the failure to comply between the patterns and trends of urbanization in the area and the urban cycle theory.