A Study on the Role and Function of Cities in Mazandaran Province’s Urban Levels System by using Fuzzy Logic

In analyzing functions of cities, it is important to notice geographical, population, economic and communicative characteristics. Formation of settlements and urban networks in Mazandaran follows Alborz mountains, water resources (permanent and seasonal rivers and springs), and communication networks in heights and plains. The purpose of this study is applied; its nature is descriptive-analytical and its method of data collection focuses around documents and field data. For data analysis (intensity of function and role of cities), this study relies on fuzzy logic. Drawing provincial cities function map was accomplished in Arc GIS. Results obtained from various population, distance (Km, time), centrality in fuzzy logic indexes suggest that distribution of population levels follows the current trend in national urban levels system. Although centers of the cities enjoy numerical supremacy, they have negligible shares of the province’s urban population. The reverse and symmetrical relationship between the number of cities and urban population is perceivable by moving from lower levels (city center, rural-city) to (sub-regional centers, metropolitan regions) such as: Sari, Babol, Amol, Qaemshahr. According to the indexes of provincial urban levels system table, stairwise ascent (city center, rural-city) from weak to medium and good function in (small, medium cities) and from good (sub-regional centers, metropolitan regions) to prominent function is observed. Thus, (reginal metropolitan) Sari and Babol have prominent functions and (sub-regional centers) Amol and Qaemshahr show good functions. Around 41% of 58 provincial cities including (urban centers and rural-cities) demonstrate weak function with Western and high altitude cities having the greatest share. Keywords: urban systems, population levels,, regional metropolis, urban function, fuzzy logic Research Paper.