Extended Abstract
Introduction
Spatial inequalities in developing countries such as Iran are more visible due to various factors, so many Scientists (Dadashpour & Shojaei, 2022-Mosayebzadeh et al, 2021- Fotres & Fatemi Zardan, 2020- Dadashpour & Alvandipour, 2018- GhaderHajat & Hafeznia, 2018) consider the most important feature of Iran's space organization to be spatial injustice, which is the manifestation of the country's center-periphery structure at micro-local and macro-national scales. In Iran, inequality and lack of balance in the optimal distribution of facilities as a result of unprincipled past policies in industrial-service locations, growth poles, and the trend of centralization in dominant regional cities, the spatial imbalance between national, regional, district, and local levels is one of the important issues, which has emerged under the influence of mechanisms governing economic, social and political structures, this anomaly and imbalance have increased with the increase of the government's role in the economy due to the nature of its concentration and departmentalism, and more planning has been provided to the government (Faraji et al, 2019). Finally, today, the issue of inequality in many countries is mentioned as a fundamental challenge in the path of development, So it is considered one of the main obstacles in the process of national development and disruption of regional balance, Therefore, the first step in development planning is to identify the position of each region in terms of development and inequalities (Amanpour and Mohammadi, 2021); Therefore, the main goal of this research is the spatial analysis of regional inequalities in Iran during the years 2011, 2016, and 2021.
 Materials & Methods
The current type of research is applied and its research method is descriptive-analytical. The collection of data in this research is in the form of a library. The statistical population of this research is 31 provinces of the country based on the last administrative and political divisions of 2021. To evaluate the state of development, 47 indicators have been used in 3 main economic-infrastructural, educational-cultural, and health-treatment dimensions. The analysis of research data has been carried out quantitatively using GIS, EXCEL, and SPSS software. In this research, to rank the provinces from the VIKOR multi-indicator decision-making model, To weight the indices using the Shannon entropy method, For data clustering using the K-Means-Cluster method, To evaluate the changes of inter-provincial inequalities using the CV statistical method, To interpolate the development of the country using the Kriging method, To evaluate the spatial correlation and the type of clustering of the development of the provinces using the Spatial Autocorrelation method (Moran's I) and Geographically weighted regression method has been used to find the relationship between development as a dependent variable and population and area as an independent variable.
Results & Discussion
The results of this research show that in 2011 due to the strong concentration of administrative, political, economic, and industrial activities in Tehran, there was a sharp divergence between Tehran province and other provinces. The growth pole theory has entered the second stage and the degree of divergence has decreased and the degree of convergence between provinces has increased. According to the results of Moran's correlation, the clustering of the country is still multipolar and there is still regional inequality in the country, so the country's border and port provinces are in a worse situation than other provinces, despite their development potentials and capacities as border corridors. The geographic weighted regression model also shows that the influence of independent variables (area and population) is greater in the northwest of the country than in the southeast of the country, This issue is estimated at 76% in 2011, 35% in 2016 and 43% in 2021.
Conclusion
In general, the most important cause of Iran's regional inequality should be sought in the structure of the planning system and the pattern of regional spatial development of Iran. The formation of the planning system in Iran is based on neoclassical economic theories, the growth pole and the intense concentration of activities in the center of Iran, and this issue is very influential in creating regional inequalities, and on the one hand, due to top-down planning and lack of attention to environmental potential in the country's provinces, Actually, spatial injustice is spreading in the country and this issue can act as a dangerous factor in the direction of sustainable development of the country.