Analyzing Power and Position of the Cities in Iran's Urban Network"Based on Land Transportation"

The power and position of the cities depend on various factors. The present literature states that the fate of cities and their inhabitants pertains the power and position of the various flows especially the international flows between cities. For the analysis of the urban network of power, a two-step method has been used. At first, centrality indicators including Outdegree, Indegree, Clossness and Betwenness, which are used to analyze the power and position of the cities in the world and to determine the global urban network, have been applied. These indicators reflect the power of the cities based on the number of links sent and received by a city. Next, the REGE algorithm has been used to determine the position of the cities based on land transport and the resulting urban network. To carry out urban network analysis, the transport and land transport data of all metropolitan and provincial centers of the country have been used as one of the most important and influential factors. The main objective of the article is to introduce the city's national network based on the power and prestige and to identify the clusters and cities that play the main role in the urban network of land transportation. Therefore, the present article is based on the theoretical foundations of network analysis and analytical methodology of the above indicators. The output of this analysis is a nearly complete urban network but with that are far from astral and concentrated. In the analysis of the four indices, Indegree, indexes in Tehran is at the top of Indegree levels, then the cities of Bandr Abbas and Isfahan are at the second and third level of indegree and at the first and second level of outdegree Isfahan and Ahwaz are. Third level of Outdegree is Tehran. The resulted network represents an important cluster by combining the cities such as Bandar Abbas, Ahvaz and Karaj.