The Role of Urban-Rural Links in the Formation of the Local Network in the Border Areas (Gomishan; Golestan Province)

  Background and Amis: Urban-rural links play an important role in the local economy and the livelihoods of the inhabitants of rural settlements so it is imperative to study more closely these links, their performances, their spatial-regional planning, and the "local network" approach in the scale of the district and the rural system. Like an efficient approach, the local network can cause functional dynamics in the examination of the underlying regional network and is highly suitable for the analysis of urban-rural links in rural systems. Gomishan city is selected as a sample of this study. Methodology: To study the local network in the study area, we use the results of the weighted average of the metrics obtained in the analysis of urban-rural links by the centrality index method, as well as their ranking based on the obtained scores and a communication matrix based on the main currents between villages as well as adjacent cities. For analyzing the results, Ucinet 6.658 and NetDraw 2.154 and Gephi softwares are used Conclusion: Our results show that the density of the local network of residences in the area of Gomishan is 0.58. Given the fact this value is relatively close to 0.5, it can be assumed that this network has a low or moderate density. Thus, it can be assumed that these residences have common criteria and indicators, and those that are similar in terms of criteria and indicators are more closely connected. The resultant clustering coefficient is equal to 0.322, which is relatively modest (lower than 0.5), and indicates the average tendency to form three rural systems in the local network.