Assessing the Impact of Competitiveness on Urban Network Transformation Using Social Network Analysis (Case: Isfahan City-Region)

The urban network is a collection of large and small cities, each of which, in terms of size and performance, affects the evolutionary process of the area. This study uses the two concepts of competitiveness and urban network to investigate the effective factors in the occurrence and intensification of inequalities in the urban network of Esfahan. In this regard, the changes and transformations of Esfahan urban network during three periods of 1375, 1385 and 1395 with regard to competitiveness indices and considering the distance between cities (based on flow analysis method) and creation of competitiveness matrix, using urban network mapping In the social network analysis (Gephi) software is measured. In this way, for each concept at any given time, a separate network is plotted and analyzed. The results indicate that in the mentioned periods distribution of competitive ability as a stream of capital, labor, and information in the city-region of Esfahan has been unfair. As far as the metropolis of Esfahan with much difference, the gap in the urban hierarchy of city-regions Based on the concept of competitiveness. The second place in comparison with this view belongs to Najafabad and the third place belongs to Falavarjan. In addition, except for a few exceptions, the process of changing cities' competitiveness has been consistent with the process of changing the hierarchy of cities in the same time frame. Therefore, it can be said that the urban hierarchy pattern in the Esfahan urban network follows a competitive ranking.