A Spatial Analysis of Urbanism in Diyala Urban Townships 1987- 2021

Abstract

This paper explores how urban development has developed across Diyala cities, towns, and other urban centers from 1987 to 2021, which is a very well-known phenomenon in several other countries, including Iraq. Urban development has been found to be highly linked to other factors such as life services, industrial development, living conditions, and inter-city migration. Increasing pressures and the population rising lead to settlement and human movements outside the existing urban parts across the big cities. Therefore, this study assesses population development in the parts under study according to different scales, which are the Zipf scale, Mehta scale, and capital city ranking. The study, also, examines the role of development increase and decrease in the population and depopulation of metropolitan areas.