Measurement of Sustainability of Development of Gilan Province Cities

Nowadays, sustainability and sustainable development have been the main subjects of debates and discussions in many scientific circles. Regional development along with total national development in the use of capacities and facilities are of prime concerns. Toallocate credits and sources among various regions, it is significant to identify the status of that region as well as its position in the hierarchy of regions. The main objective of the present research is identification of space inequalities and comparison of developedlevels in Gilan province through sustainable development approach within the framework of administrative & political area prevalent in 2006. It is based on practical research led by analytic & descriptive approach. The statistical techniques and methods employed inthis research are factor and cluster analysis, using SPSS and ARCGIS software.In this research it is concluded that there are many differences among Gilan province cities in terms of facilities and development features, and that the facilities and services available in Rasht surpass those found in the other cities of the same province. Unfortunately, due to too much population in Rasht and lack of balance between the inhabitants of this city with little available facilities, has caused degradation of Rasht into the fifth rank in comparison to the other cities of the same province in terms of development. As the final deduction, it is found out that the reduction of gap among Gilan province cities depends on the improvement of development features in unsustainable, semi-sustainable, and sustainable cities respectively, and of course, through the presentation of ‘equal opportunities’ mechanism.