Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to model the national and regional city-size distribution of the Saudi Arabian urban system using 1987 population estimates, and to examine the factors that have influenced the development of the urban system. The pareto coefficients of the national and regional distributions were found to be low, signifying the prevalence of smaller sized cities in the distribution. The national system was found to have a multi-city primacy situation, while the regional distributions displayed varied primacy characteristics. Factors noted to influence the development of the urban system include geographical and economic factors, as well as public policies. The paper identified three areas of population agglomeration and it is concluded that future growth might lead to a regional convergence depending on policy initiatives and on whether the urban system follows the typical pattern of other urban systems.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 185-198 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | International Planning Studies |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1996 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors acknowledge the support of the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and wish to express their thanks to the anonymous referees for their comments.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geography, Planning and Development
