Up to the beginning of this century, Iran had a relatively balanced urban network
but with the rule of political economy of oil and land reforms (1962 to 1972), huge
rural -urban migration was instigated, leading to instability and heterogeneity of
Iran's urban network. The creation of large population centers that absorb most of
services, productions and infrastructures in some parts of Iran has led to the
attraction of new population, exacerbation of the distance between these centers
and their surroundings and intensification of unevenness trend.
Khorasan province, which constitutes about 14.6 percent of the total area and 10.01
percent of the total population of the country, is faced with nonequivalence and
heterogeneity like other urban network of the country so that Mashhad (the largest
city in this province) contains about 53.6 percent of the total urban population and
36.54 percent of the total population in Khorasan province.
This research tends to study the changes of Khorasan's urban network in the period
between 1956 and 2011 census, explaining the factors affecting these changes.
Also, it seeks to study the correlation between the various results obtained from
common indicators in Khorasan’s urban network.