Determining Underdevelopment Rankings of Isfahan County (Numerical Taxonomy Method)

Introduction It is more than a quarter of century that economical development has been discussed as a goal and better value in the western and eastern societies, developed and undeveloped. It is mostly determined based on following believes and requirements: - Economical development is a linear trend, assessable and with an infinite persistence - Fulfilling the development will ensure the social and political development Accepting such theories and pre-requirements and this point that fast development is the only way by which all society’s complications such as housing, nutrition, employment, training encountered in most undeveloped countries will be removed, resulted in ambitious objectives in developing countries. But evaluating the result of first decade of this policy by UN (1960- 1970) as well as the social situation of countries which experienced fast development, indicates that there is no reciprocal and direct relation between discussed development and balanced development such that even it has heightened the social inequalities and increased internal conflicts in most developing countries. This indicates that development is not merely an economical event and in order to promote their developmental bases and to remove and reducing the imbalances and most economical, social and cultural problems, most societies need planning and knowing the possibilities and their current and potential resources more than past. Theoretical Bases New development is a development paying attention to the rights and dignity of man and of his living place (regional planning thinking) and its final goal is attaining the man to the stage satisfying him from his living. For this reason, during development, the growth of human capacities and talents must be together with increasingly reduction in his material deprivations and social inequalities and these are the results of structural changes and economical renovation. One of the methods for ranking the regions based on development is taxonomical analysis. Taxonomical analysis is applied for different classifications in the science. Its specific state is numerical taxonomy and by definition, it is the numerical evaluation of similarities and closeness between taxonomic units as well as ranking those elements to taxonomic groups. This method for the first time proposed by Anderson on 1763 and discussed as tool for classification and ranking the development between different nations by Professor Heloing, from economical super school, UNISCO, on 1968. This is an excellent method for ranking, classification and comparing different regions based on the development rank and their modernity as well as a method dividing a set to some homogenous sub-sets and provides the planners with an acceptable scale for studying the development rate of regions. - Discussion Need for spatial and logistical planning followed by regional planning as the final goal of those plans will be occurred when “development density” in some regions in the national or provincial area results in some imbalance and norm inconsistencies and comes with two bad first, increased irregular immigrations of population and second, lag in other points of country or related province. Therefore, one of the tools that can be extendedly applied for integrated development of different regions of the country is classifying the regions or towns based on their development or lack of their development; consequently, determining the rate of development of any towns of Isfahan province as well as related weaknesses and strengths and opportunities and threats and existing needs in the towns can be considered as efficient tools for planning and resulting in regional balances with the emergence of more justice among the regions. Conclusion By determining the development rate, this study has investigated the development level of Isfahan based on different dimensions. Accordingly, Kashan, Aran and Bidgal towns respectively in 1996 and 2006 were the most developed towns and Ferydoonshahr town is the most undeveloped town during these years. Towns such as Ardestan, Lanjan, Khomeini Shahr, Feridon, Samirom and Ferydoonshahr are among towns that always (in 1996 and 2006) were under the development limit and among undeveloped towns of the province. Suggestions In order to better the situations of towns of Isfahan, following alternatives can be proposed: Attempt for adapting the part planning by spatial planning system; promoting and clarifying the planning system and method as well as properly managing it through out the country particularly provinces; achieving the strategies for removing the deprivations in the towns such that it can provide the required field for promoting these towns; population control; studying and knowing the weaknesses and indicators that are in their low level in undeveloped towns; deconcentralization and reducing the economical and social inequalities between urban areas and rural areas; providing the needed services for towns including medical care centers, training services, post and telecommunication centers, etc.., promoting and completing the connecting network system of province hierarchically for facilitating the communication between all population centers; controlling the immigration of rural areas to cities.