Evaluation of Urban Hierarchy in West Azerbaijan Province in the Period of (1956-2006)

This article is an attempt to evaluate the changes in urban hierarchy in west Azerbaijan in the period of (1956 - 2006). In this Province during the mentioned period Urmia had always been on the top of the pyramid of regional urban hierarchy as in 1335 the size of this city was the same size of the second city (Khoy). In 1385 the size of Urmia (the first city) was 3.3 times Khoy (second city) and also 592 times the size of the last city (Simineh). We evaluated urban hierarchy in West Azerbaijan Province using some models of urban and regional planning. This work benefits from documentation and Excel software for data analysis. In conclusion urban hierarchy in West Azerbaijan urban network is unbalanced while small and medium size cities should be supported to establish desired urban hierarchy and also to fill in the residential vacancy.