Spatial Analysis of The Cities' Network Characteristics in The Mountainous and Semi-Mountainous Territories of Iraq – A Comparative Study

The study aims to demonstrate the cities' network properties in the mountainous and semi-mountainous in Iraq and compare them. It relied on inductive and comparative approaches with the analytical methods. It was divided into study area, methods, urban and demographic evolution, and results and discussion. The study reached several conclusions, which is that natural conditions, particularly topography, played a significant role in the variation in the cities' network characteristics in the study area, including high urbanization degree in the mountainous region. The majority of the urban mountainous population is concentrated in one large city, Sulaymaniyah. However, in the semi-mountainous region, this percentage was distributed among three large cities: Mosul, Kirkuk, and Erbil. The network of cities in the semi-mountainous region exhibits greater complexity and imbalance compared to the mountainous region. Political, administrative, and socio-economic factors worsened the influence of natural factors on the variation in city network characteristics between mountainous and semi-mountainous areas.