Explanation of the regional dynamics and imbalances of Zanjan urban settlements

The spatial pattern and transformation of urban systems is an important manifestation of social, economic development processes that reflect the spatial, social, and behavioral transformation of society. These changes and patterns are the basis of sustainable development research. The purpose of the study is to investigate the dynamics and imbalances of the urban system in Zanjan. The paper is descriptive, analytical research and the method of data collection is documentary. The characteristics of the urban system and its changes have investigated in two sections: demographic and functional. To analyze the demographical dynamics and imbalances, acceleration of urbanization index, gravity and rank-size model, and urban primacy index and time series have been used. The acceleration of urbanization in the province is 2.53, which is higher than in the country (1.81). The most attraction between the cities is found between the Zanjan, and Abhar and Khorramdareh. The urban primacy index in the province (0.61) has always been higher than the country (0.15). Also, the rank-size slope value was more than -1 in all periods, indicating urban primacy. But modeling the demographic changes of the first six cities shows some sort of balance. Also, we applied the service-centric index to analyze the functionality of this system, the results of which indicate the dominant role of Zanjan. Numerical taxonomy has been used to investigate the position of urban areas in communications and interconnections. The results showed that Zanjan is the only settlement that has a higher value of flow power than the upper limit, which indicates the long-distance of Zanjan from other settlements. Although Zanjan has a weak position in the urban hierarchy of Iran, it is the dominant settlement in the province and different flows of population, capital, goods, and travelers flow unilaterally from other parts to this city. The difference between Zanjan as the prime city and other areas has caused a gap in the settlement system and regional imbalances.