Analysis of the Spatial Interaction between the Iranian Southern Ports and the Regional Hinterland Cities

Ports in most parts of the world play a great role in creating integrity between the prosperous of the regions and balancing the supply chain (production, distribution, and consumption). This article is to analyze the spatial interaction between the southern ports of Iran and local-regional hinterlands and explain the role of ports in shaping the spatial structure. For this purpose, a network analysis of commodity flows method is used in 1996, 2006 and 2015. The findings indicate that southern Iran's ports are often the importer of consumer goods in the populated centers, located in regional hinterlands, and, at best, have exported energy sources and raw materials. While urban centers, located in local hinterlands, do not play an effective role in the production and delivery of goods to ports, they are often dependent on the regional center (Shiraz) to meet their consumption needs. It revealed that although the process of spatial inequality has been moving towards greater balance over the past two decades, the development of medium-sized ports and local nodes in the contiguous hinterlands and forelands has led to a balanced monocentric spatial structure in this region. Keyword Port, Hinterland, Network Analysis, Spatial Structure, Southern Regions of Iran. * This article is extracted from the Ph.D. thesis of the second author with supervisory of the first author. The research has been conducted at Tarbiat Modares University in March 2018 * Corresponding Author, Email: H-dadashpoor@modares.ac.ir 2  Town & Country Planning, Vol. 10, No. 2, Autumn & Winter 2018-19 Evaluating Ecological Networks of Urban Landscape (Case Study: Karaj Metropolis) Fatemeh Mohammadyari, Mir Mehrdad Mirsanjari, Ardovan Zarandian 1. Ph.D. Student of Evaluation and Land-use Planning, Faculty of Natural Resources, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran 2. Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran 3. Assistant Professor, Research Group of Environmental Assessment and Risks, Research Center for Environmental and Sustainable Development (RCESD), Tehran, Iran (Received: November 16, 2018; Accepted: January 30, 2019) Abstract Landscape fragmentation is the most important challenge in urban development. This challenge prevents the flow of materials and energy in the region. These changes affect ecological characteristics. In this regard, ecological networks are considered as tools for conservation planning. Therefore, satellite images were used in the years 2006, 2011 and 2017 to evaluate the ecological networks of Karaj Metropolis. The Classification and preparation of land map conducted based on land cover and with the support vector machine algorithm. Landmarks were also used to assess the status quo and the process of changing heterogeneity, continuity, and communication-isolation networks in previous years. The results showed that the trend of criteria changing in the study area is not desirable. The inappropriate process of changing of Space landscape heterogeneity criteria, the conjunction of the same spots across the land, and the optimal communication reduce the ecological function and the consequence is a decline in the sustainability of ecological networks. Also, due to the decreasing trend of metrics in green spots, especially human green, and the increasing trend of metrics in construction and open spots, in sum, it can be concluded that the ecological function and the ecological network characteristics of the landscape are following a descending trend.Landscape fragmentation is the most important challenge in urban development. This challenge prevents the flow of materials and energy in the region. These changes affect ecological characteristics. In this regard, ecological networks are considered as tools for conservation planning. Therefore, satellite images were used in the years 2006, 2011 and 2017 to evaluate the ecological networks of Karaj Metropolis. The Classification and preparation of land map conducted based on land cover and with the support vector machine algorithm. Landmarks were also used to assess the status quo and the process of changing heterogeneity, continuity, and communication-isolation networks in previous years. The results showed that the trend of criteria changing in the study area is not desirable. The inappropriate process of changing of Space landscape heterogeneity criteria, the conjunction of the same spots across the land, and the optimal communication reduce the ecological function and the consequence is a decline in the sustainability of ecological networks. Also, due to the decreasing trend of metrics in green spots, especially human green, and the increasing trend of metrics in construction and open spots, in sum, it can be concluded that the ecological function and the ecological network characteristics of the landscape are following a descending trend.