Spatial Integrated Network Analysis of the Settelmenet System in the Central District of Tonkabon Township

Theoretically, methodologically and empirically, the process of regional development in Iran shows that most top-down planning and policy theories have not been able to guide regional development as it should be. Adopting such approaches not only did not reduce the inequality, but also destroyed the internal natural-ecological and socio-economic structures of the regions. The reflection of these attitudes in the framework of the functions of the planning and policy-making system has caused spatial inequality and imbalance at the regional and national levels in the past few decades. Such conditions can be seen in the entire spatial extent of the country, including in the central part of Tunkabon township. The present study has analyzed the level of spatial integration of the settlement system in the central part of Tunkabon using the network analysis method. The research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical based on the method. The statistical population includes all urban and rural settlements in the central part. The data on the flow of people, goods and services, products and capital have been collected by documentary and field methods (questionnaire) and analyzed with Nodexl, Usinet and GIS tools. The results of the quantitative and qualitative investigations of the flows of people, goods and services, capital and products show that the settlement network and its spatial pattern have moved away from its initial state, which was concentrated in one or two settlements, towards the pattern of decentralized development. In this process, the functional complementarity relations of cities and villages are emerging in the settlement pattern of the studied geographical territory.