جغرافیا و توسعه (Sep 2014)
Study of Development Rate of Small and Medium Cities of Iran
Abstract
The overall and integrated development of the country, in a way which covers all people and groups and also all its places, needs a balanced spatial structure and settlement system. Access to such balanced situation needs the strengthening and development of small and medium cities in Iran provinces. Therefore the main question of this research is that "How much is the development rate of small and medium cities of Iran's provinces in year 2006"? To answer this question, after reviewing the theoretical bases, the evaluation variables were determined and the research hypothesis was offered based on more development of small and medium cities in the northern and western provinces of Iran". For evaluating and testing the research hypothesis, in the frame work of analytical-descriptive method, the overall index of "development rate of small and medium cities" was operated and measurable by six main indicators and based on simple weighting method. The required data were gathered by library method. The weights of indicators were obtained by AHP group method. Data analysis and hypothesis test was made by descriptive statistical methods and also independent t-test. The results showed that expansion rate in small and medium cities in different provinces is various. The significant difference between the northern and western provinces with the provinces of southern and eastern ones was approved. The results showed a relation between the expansion rate of such cities with the natural environment and also the regional and national pattern of expansion.
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