Comparative Evaluation of Changes in Structural and Functional Integrity of Yazd Incorporated Villages, Case Study: Kheyrabad and Ayshabad Villages

In all over the history of settlement, the city and its surrounding areas such as its villages have been always connected together in an organic way. It will not be found in any historical sources that the city and its surrounding areas are mentioned independently (Rezvani, 1382: 2). Since increased rural migration to cities, the quantity and population growth of cities, emerging new cities from large villages and developing industrial activities face the country with different issues of urban construction. In response to these issues, different approaches were proposed. One of these approaches emphasizes on the use of combination of city and its area, city and its villages in order to urban development. This approach considers villages as primary and small nuclei which will be merged to cities or spending the early stages of urbanization. Thus, while the range of needs and demands of rural and urban areas are emphasized separately, responding to the diverse range of demands, and placement and provision of each demand in spatial field is designed and performed. This approach is as rational as being the most natural way of dealing with urban and rural development. Yazd is an ancient city at the central of Iran plateau and adjacent to the central desert of Iran with people who lived there centuries before Islam. Causes of expansion of this city can be listed as winds, being at the center, water and Business Economics. This city includes 3 urban areas and 9 urban regions. The city has 45 neighborhoods in which the old and traditional ones have been faced with the physical changes (tall and town building) which led to structurally different viewpoints from the past. According to the physical criteria, we can consider all surrounding rural - urban areas as neighborhoods’ of Yazd and recognize the urban set which is called “Yazd urban area” (Yazd Regional Comprehensive Plan , 1381 : 220 ). This comparative study aims to evaluate the functional and structural changes due to the annexation and cohesion of rural areas of Yazd. This study used descriptive and analytical methods. Under studied Geographic region are Eish Abad and Kheir Abad villages, in Zone 3 of Yazd, with 750 hectares spaces and population density of 17.04 people per square. Required information of this study has been prepared through documents and theories, using statistical sources including the results of Population and Housing Census of 1385. To study the impacts of annexation to Yazd on these two villages, functional and structural changes through well-known models of population growth index, Holdern and Shannon entropy have been used. The results show that by joining these villages to Yazd, some structural and functional changes have emerged which have caused in widespread development, destruction of agricultural lands and allocating surrounding lands to different land uses. Evaluating the comparative land use table of these two villages in 1365 and 1385 Shows that the annexation phenomenon have not strongly influenced on changing land uses and some public land uses such as health care, green space, sport and religious places face with shortage. The results of analyses prove the effect of population growth in Eish Abad and Kheir Abad on the level of physical development of Yazd is low although it can influence on increasing residential land use. Although the annexation of these villages to Yazd is a natural and inevitable occurrence in urban development of Yazd which can cause trends of new jobs and welfare, this urban development should be based on sustainable development in order to decrease environmental damages and bring many benefits.