فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

The rapid population increase has led to the formation of urban primacy in many developing countries. Iran as developing world has experienced an unbalanced growth which is resulted from the increasing level of rural-urban migration especially from 1966. This study tries to investigate the urban network of Kermanshah province from 1976 to 2006. The methodology of the research is based on descriptive and analytical models by using different techniques such rank-size and class difference limit. The results revealed that the city of Kermanshah as the primate city is almost 9.5 times larger than the second city Islamabad-Gharb. Such proportion however decreased to 8.8 in 2006 but still the province has a disordered urban network. The cities of Ghasr-shirin and Sarpolzahaab which placed in third and fourth rank lost their inhabitants in 1996 due to the war. In general the hierarchical level of the province urban places is quite unbalanced and Kermanshah city dominated the whole city system of the province. The research concluded that many of small and intermediate cities should strengthen to balance the urban network of Kermanshah province.