Abstract

Each geographical region as a system is a space of rural and urban settlements which is proportional to the structure, degree of accessibility, economics and environmental conditions have a special function inside the region. The city in the center and the villages in its peripheral areas play different roles. The local and small towns that have close ties with the villages, corresponding to their degree of accessibility, settlement attraction and also the increase of reciprocal rural-urban flows, make equilibrium and spatial transformation in population, social, economic and development dimensions. The research has a descriptive and analytical approach that its objective is to address the performance of the Masiri Rurban in providing the equalization and spatial regularization for the surrounding rural areas. The data were acquired from literature and field survey. The statistical population of the study is Masiri City and 91 villages located in the central district of Rostam County. To investigate the performance of Masiri in evolution of the villages we analyzed population, job creation, and accessibility of the district villages using numerical models. The results indicate that the Masiri City since the establishment in spite of an increase in its influence and spatial performance was not able to be recognized in the stature of a dynamic city. Despite an increase in population of the city through immigration, it was not able to maintain and stabilize the rural population of the region. The city also has a poor performance both in distribution of services and facilities to the surrounding areas and in job creation in the region. Finally, it can be concluded that the city could not provide the surrounding villages with a balance and spatial regularization.

Key words: Village, spatial equilibrium, rural and urban relations, rural development, Masiri.