Ranking of development degree of cities of Lorestan province by using numerical taxonomy

Regional imbalance might have harmful consequences. According to principle 48 of Iran Constitutional Law, the government is obliged to eliminate any discrimination in different regions (provinces and cities) in using natural resources and national capitals, provide context for growth of all regions proportionate with talents by maintaining constructive competitive, distribute economic activities in different areas in an appropriate way and use the capabilities and relative advantages regarding the country regional and international role optimally. In order to realization of this principle and according to this fact that gradual reduction of regional inequality is one of the civil programs policies in Iran, the first effective step is identification of the region. In order to measure the level of development and utilization of different regions, diverse statistical methods have been designed which numerical taxonomy is one of these methods used in this research for ranking cities of Lorestan province as one of western provinces in Iran and has high rate of unemployment and high populated province, and also proper natural resources. The results showed that the cities of Lorestan province have no high level of development and the cities can be divided into low developed, underdeveloped and deprived. Kuhdasht is one of the undeveloped and deprived cities in this province. According to this fact that Lorestan province has the second grade of unemployment in the country and regional imbalance has harmful economic and social consequences, it is necessary to prioritize elimination of regional imbalance in the country regional planning.