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Urban system or city distribution across regional geographical space is a reflection of the outcome of economic and social forces as well as human groups that are structured under an organization. A key stage of regional planning is urban hierarchy system analysis and its developments at the levels of districts and regions. The desirable urban system and consequently appropriate urban size distribution is one of the development factors in region or country. Considering the importance of urban system, this paper attempts to analyze the evolution of urban system in Fars province in the period 1976 to 2011. For this purpose, a descriptive-analytical method is adopted and measurement criteria of primate city, concentration and balance are employed to analyze development of urban system in Fars Province. Based on the findings, key features of urban system of Fars province are high concentration of population in Shiraz, absence of major cities in the urban hierarchy and expansion of small towns with population less than two thousand people, which have largely affected the developments of urban system in this province. The results suggest the strong presence of primate city phenomenon at this province, which has been at work at all time periods, but it has intensified over years. In the period of 1976 to 2011, development of cities through the transformation of rural to urban areas has mitigated the degree of concentration in urban system so that according to entropy criterion, population distribution shows a tendency towards balance. However, based on rank-size graph, imbalance especially in large cities is extremely tangible.

Keywords: Urban System, Primate City, balance, Fars Province

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