Distribution patterns of rural settlement centers in Numaniyah district

Abstract

The study dealt with the patterns of geographical distribution of rural settlement centers in Al-Numaniyah district and the degree of their convergence and divergence using statistical methods, including the criterion of dispersion, the three central points, the square of Chi2, and the connexion of the nearest neighbor, as well as direct observation.  The study found that the dispersion coefficient for the study area reached (20.1) degrees, i.e. there is a spacing between the rural settlements of the study area, and the study also found that the cadastral center of Al-Numaniyah district is located between Umm Al-Sajyan district, south of Al-Hakim village, at a distance of (2,200) km between Abu Jamous district  East of the village of Al-Baqaratain Al-Gharbi, at a distance of (2,500) km, and the point of Al-Wasit is located within the borders of Al-Baqaratain district, southeast of the village of Al-Hakim, located at a distance of (1,250) km, while the central attraction point is located southeast of the rural settlement center (Al-Hakim) within the borders of Umm Al-Sijyan district.  The congruence between the three points is not mentioned, and this indicates that the phenomenon of dispersion of the rural human settlement centers in the district is a prominent distributional picture of the rural population of the district in its various agricultural districts, and that the geographical distribution of those centers is not ideal, which confirms the fact that the point of attraction is away from the cadastral center by a distance of (25  km) towards the east, and the median center is 40 km away from the east. The arithmetic value of the chi-square was (130), and the tabular value was (107). Thus, the arithmetic value of the chi-square is greater than the tabular value. This indicates that the real distribution of the rural settlement centers of the district  Al-Numaniyah in general is far from random distribution, as it follows a certain pattern or patterns in its distribution, and by applying the nearest neighbor presumption to the study area, it was found that the distribution pattern was close in the study area’s districts, which confirms the fact that the close pattern tends towards randomness, and therefore the settlement centers  Al-Rifi is distributed randomly so that it does not take a specific geometric shape or close to it.