Typology of nodes in Urban Network: A Case Study ofUrban Network of Ardabil Province

The position of points in the network is one of the most important aspects of urbannetwork analysis. The capacity of urban nodes depends on their role in the urbannetwork. One can provide a unified policy framework for the urban network byrecognizing the points and relationships and how they interact with each other. Thisresearch seeks to determine 1)the role of points in the urban network; 2) the capacityof the urban network, and 3) the integration of the urban network. Methodologicallyspeaking This is applied research. Research data include intra-provincial and inter-provincial passenger flow. 43 selected urban and rural settlements of Ardebil provincehave been selected for the analysis. Indices of power of linkages, degree of centrality,network entropy and core-periphery analysis were performed in UCINET6 software.In this research, a new typology of nodes in the urban network is presented.Accordingly, nodes in the network play one of the five roles of central, articular,independent, isolated and other foci. Analyzes show that Ardebil, Khalkhal, MoshginShahr, Parsabad are the centers and Sarain, Grammy, Aslanduz, and Bale are the articular nodes of the urban network. It was also found that the high number of isolatedfoci (22 foci) in the network is one of the major threats of Ardebil urban network.Finally, suggestions have been made to realize the integrated urban network andincrease network capacity.