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Full Length Research Paper
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Transforming large villages into small towns and studying
their role in rural development through Network Analysis
Methodology: Rural district of Southern Behnam Arab (Javad
Abad zone from the region of Varamin)
Homeira Mahdibeigi1*, Masoud Mahdavi2
and A. Alihosseini3
1Branch
of Sciences and Researches, Islamic Azad University (IAU), Tehran,
Iran.
2Branch
of Sciences and Researches, Department of Geography, Islamic
Azad University (IAU), Tehran, Iran.
3Department
of Science, Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ilam,
Iran.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
homairamahdibigy@yahoo.com.
Accepted 7
June, 2010 |
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Abstract |
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Within our
developing world, urban concentration has caused so many
problems in large cities of which dense population, immigration,
lack of accommodation, unemployment and environmental
destruction could be brought up as examples. Through using
network analysis methodology in this research, the most
efficient functions within this rural district as well as the
interactions and links between the town of Javad Abad and its
surrounding villages were studied before and after the
transforming of this village into a town. The following
functions and activities are formed in 26 parameters:
1-Educational/Cultural 2-Clinical/Medical 3-Political
4-Commercial and Civil Services 5-Telecommunicational. The data
obtained from the analysis of the activities shows that almost
all of the villages of Southern Behnam Arab rural district have
been linked to the city of Varamin (located in the region of
Varamin) with the internal degree of 25. However, the village
of Javad Abad with the internal degree of 5 had the least
interactions among the rural district. Turning into a town, the
internal degree increases up to 24 and this means that Javad
Abad provides services to 24 surrounding villages. In addition,
the reformation of Javad Abad into a town has led to a dramatic
increase in the external degree and concentration of each of the
functions. The average of all minimum distances and the value of
centricity (vicinity) resulted. From the data show that the
towns of Khaveh and Javad Abad are the most appropriate
locations to be set as the centre for providing services to
other residential areas and that is why they play an important
role in rural development and preventing people from immigrating
to larger cities.
Key words:
Large village, network analysis, small town, central location,
function, value of centricity.
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