Urban System in Islamic Countries of Central Asia

Abstract

Article Type Original Research Introduction and Background: The countries of Central Asia, which include the republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, are among the nations of the world less well-known because of being placed behind the 74-year-old of the Soviet bloc. Aims: The purpose of this article, while getting acquainted with these countries, is to study the adaptive urban system in these countries. Methodology: This research method was of descriptive-analytic type.‌For this purpose, the population of the cities of the mentioned countries was obtained from the latest statistics from different sources. Using the Mehta index, the severity of the existence of the primary city phenomenon and with the help of the ranksize model, the distribution of population at the city level was examined and also the Herfindal Index, to determine the level of urban concentration. Finally, the standard score method (z.score) was used to summarize the status of countries. Conclusion: The results indicate that these countries have a low urban population and Kazakhstan is the highest with 55% and Tajikistan has the lowest urban population with 26%. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have the largest number of cities. The two natural factors of mountains and deserts were a major obstacle to the formation and concentration of urban populations. Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan has shown the best situation in the application of the standard score method and Kyrgyzstan have the worst situation. The Rank-size model has also shown a higher correlation between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Authors Annamoradnejad, R.B. *PhD How to cite this article Annamoradnejad, R.B (2018). Urban system in Islamic Countries of Central Asia. Iranian Journal of Geographical Researches, 2018;33(3):108-126. DOI: 10.29252/geores.33.2.108