Ali Sheikh Azami - Assistant Professor in Department of Geography, Faculty of Marin Science and Technology, Islamic Azad University, Tehran North Branch ,Tehran, Iran

In the current world, social and economic inequalities have caused special population spatial patterns and activity under the influence of geographical differences. This population spatial pattern and activity at the level of ground have created a network of settlements. They play vital role in development of the regions, given the mentioned differences and resources available. The main objective of this study is evaluating the key role of urban network in regional development in the coastal environments. Given the type of research (descriptive-analytical), two groups of research techniques (regression analysis, graphical techniques, and mathematical determiners) and specialized techniques (urban primacy indices, rank-size, adjusted rank-size model, separation point model, urbanization rate, and employment model) were used in this research. Finding of the study suggests that urban network is effective in regional development of Mazandaran province and the level of using the resources (human and natural). Additionally, as resources are concentrated in a small space such as coastlines, urban network leaves low impact on regional development, since network cities in the coastlines used the resources in shared way.

urban hierarchy, urban system, urban network, spatial distribution, regional development, Mazandaran province