Spatial Equilibrium Analysis in Rural Population Distribution in Small Towns of Golestan Province (Case Study: Kalaleh City)

Today, the issue of inequality and spatial imbalances between urban and rural settlements is an important issue for economists and regional planners. Existence of economic duality, growth poles and dispersion of rural areas are among the effects of this phenomenon. Therefore, in order to achieve balanced and integrated development in the regional space, creating a balanced and systematic hierarchy of settlements is one of the basic needs, among which attention to small towns is one of Balancing solutions to this situation. The aim of this study was to identify the status of settlement pattern, how to concentrate and the process of population distribution in the regional space of Kalaleh. In this regard, 11 villages have been considered as a sample and first entropy models have been used to measure the concentration of population in the network of settlements. Findings obtained from the entropy coefficient show the population imbalance in Kalaleh urban area has a coefficient of (0.572). In fact, spatial imbalance prevails in the urban area of ​​Kalaleh.