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)

Abstract

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.