شناخت ‌الگـوی ‌تـوسعه‌ی ‌کـالبدی ‌ـ ‌فضـایی ‌شهـرهای ‌منـاطق ‌خشک(مطـالعه‌ی ‌مـوردی ‌شهـر ‌بـافق)

Understanding the Pattern of Physical-Spatial Development of Cities in Arid Areas
(Case Study: City of Bafgh)

Hasan Hekmatnia 
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography , Payame Noor University


Extended Abstract

1- Introduction
Investigation of the stages of physical growth and development of cities shows that technological change over the past century, especially in transportation technology, has caused rapid growth of cities in arid areas and transformation of compact cities into extensive ones. Despite the severe limitations in land and water resources, in addition to environmental and ecological instability, development of Bafgh as a compact city is obvious in social-economical dimension. But economic changes caused by mining and industries shifted the size of the cities and growth of urbanization.
In this article, it is attempted to investigate and identify the pattern of physical development in Bafgh and changes in the spatial form of the city as well as ranking of the regions in Bafgh based on their stability in relation with the new form of urban development.

2- Theoretical foundations
City growth is considered as a dual process of external expansion and rapid physical growth or internal growth and internal reorganization. Each of these methods creates a different and separate structure. External expansion appears as growth in the suburbs which is called sprawl and internal growth as internalization of population and the pattern of compact city. With the shift in general pattern from compact city to expanded city, the cities face a kind of unplanned, uncontrolled, imbalanced and single-use development which doesn’t provide a combined-use role and doesn’t have any practical relations with uses for the suburbs and has been isolated as a low density, linear, scattered development.

3- Discussion
Bafgh like other cities of the country has experienced rapid growth of urbanization after land reform. Demographic changes show that the population of this city has been constantly increasing during 1335-1385 which is more noticeable in the period between 1345 and 1355 so that the annual rate of population growth has been 8.5.
Concentration of mining-industrial factories especially iron ore and plumb mines particularly after Islamic revolution has caused migration of workers to this city and has increased the population. Investigation of location quotient indicates that the LQ of ‘mine’ workers in Bafgh has been much more than 1, that is, equal to 6.5 and it clarifies the basic role of mining in the physical development of the city.

Moreover, the entropy in 1388 compared to 1375, is closer to Shannon entropy and shows that the expansion and growth of Bafgh moves from compact physical development (based on the initial core of city) to scattered physical development. According to the results, region 3 is identified as the most stable and region 8 as the most unstable. Physical studies and scattered growth of Bafgh shows that migration to work in mining industries is the main factor in this horizontal and scattered development. Moreover, in Bafgh, drought has resulted in destruction of farming lands and these lands have been utilized for residential construction resulting in urban development.

4- Conclusion
The pattern of urban development will lead to the sustainable form of the city if social justice is achieved. Comparing the regional differences in combined indices indicates that the dispersion coefficient (C.V) has been equal to 8%. This figure shows that inequality among the regions of Bafgh is very high with respect to sustainable development indices. Therefore, none of the regions is in a state of complete stability or ideal development and all are in semi-stable state. Only regions 1 and 3 have more suitable conditions and regions 6 and 8 are the most stable ones. The findings show that the growth and expansion of Bafgh is moving from compact physical development (based on the initial core of city) to scattered physical development. The results of this scatteredness have been the development of industry and mining in city and migration.

5- Suggestions
Considering previous studies and the recent findings, some strategies can be effective regarding sustainable physical development such as allocating part of the mining income to the construction and development of the city, utilizing policies of population control, doing researches and physical modifications, determining usages relevant to the needs of residents with short-term and middle-term plans, preventing the city from horizontal expansion and increasing facilities which causes the population to move from the unstable regions in the margins of the city.

Key words
sustainable form of the city, physical-spatial development, arid areas, city of Bafgh