Regional transportation, especially between port-hinterland, plays an important role in the economic prosperity of the country and the efficiency of the supply chain of commudities. Due to the functional and geographical differences between the hinterlands, the impact of the performance of each port on the post-coastal regional development is different leading to the diversity of different types of spatial structure in the port areas. Due to this fact, many researchers who are working in various scientific fields focus on the analyzing the relations between ports and hinterland areas and explaining the changes occurred in the spatial structure of these areas. The purpose of this research is to systematic review of researches in this field and to classify the structure and content analysis of prominent articles during period of 1997 to 2022. All of articles downloaded from Scopus database and analyzed by VOSviewer software. A comparison of the results of this research shows that in terms of specialization and distribution of journals, “The Journal of Transport Geography” is one of the main attractive journals for the researchers of spatial geography of ports. In terms of the geographical scale of the studies, most of the researches in this field have investigated the spatial structure of port-hinterland as a national scale. In addition, the geographical areas are mostly focused on the East and Southeast Asia. In terms of spatial structure typology, two types of analysis have been proposed and used in the selected articles. The first type is morphological analysis of the port-hinterland structure. The components used in this type of analysis include the objective components of the spatial structure (center, corridor, and land use area); the second type is the functional analysis of the port-hinterland structure, in which it often includes the intangible components of space (interaction, regularity and spatial territory). The results of this research show that the set of theories of port-hinterlandcan be summarized in seven thematic axes: Relations between the hinterland, port and foreland; Regional development of ports; Dry and inland ports; Port-city interface; Connections between ports and corridors; Competition between ports and forelands; and Function of ports. Finally, by reviewing the methods and techniques used in the articles, we can find four approaches of positivism, neo-positivism, relationalism and criticism in the philosophical-historical evolution of the port-hinterlamd articles.

Cities have hinterlands which depend on various factors such as economic power, population, distance and etc. Tehran megalopolis has also numerous hinterlands .Tehran as the capital city of the country is considered at the top of urban system hierarchy and has a very special place from economic, political, educational and etc. points of view. All these abilities cause a daily stream of people from the towns in the vicinity entering for work and business and returning home at the end of the day as their activities are over. Also thousands of university students and professors commute between Tehran and suburban towns every day. Considering all of these items defines Tehran hinterland. Then the question is that what areas would make Tehran megalopolis hinterland? Because of economics, presentation of services and so on determining Tehran hinterland is of a great importance. This paper shows that towns closer to Tehran are more influenced than other ones. The south, southwest and the west of Tehran are more likely to be affected as for the ease of access, concentration of population and economic activities.

The Hinterland plains of the northern Persian Gulf are almost unknown in Iranian archeology. These plains are the link between the shores of the Persian Gulf and the northern regions. Numerous sites from the Sassanid era have been identified in the plains of Lamerd, Mohr and Alamarvdasht. The Site Golrokh is located in the east of Ala-Marvdasht plain, on a natural ridge in the shape of a fort enclosed in the southern foothills overlooking the city of Chahvarz. Considering the necessity and importance of recognizing Sassanid pottery, at first the main question of the research project was about how Sassanid pottery was designed. Accordingly, the cultural exchanges of this area with other contemporaries in the shores and offshore areas of the Persian Gulf were studied. This site was sampled by regular (systematic) survey method with the aim of identifying the settlement periods of networking and terrestrial pottery of 30% of the networks. 9364 pieces of pottery were collected, classified and analyzed and typologically in the statistical community. The sum of quantitative and qualitative analyzes of pottery shows: 5 samples of container body shape, 13 types of edges, 3 types of container floor, 2 types of container handle shapes and 7 types of decorative methods have been used on the surface of the container body of this area. The relative chronology of the pottery species discovered from this area shows that this area was inhabited in the late Parthian period and the beginning of the Sassanid era, in the Middle Ages and the end of the Sassanid era and finally the beginning of the Islamic era. This area was inhabited throughout the Sassanid era and in addition to being connected with the Persian region and the Persian Gulf in the commercial, economic and cultural process, the existence of a kind of red Indian pottery indicates Golrokh’s trans-regional connections in the Persian Gulf trade with India. Introduction The hinterland and coastalland of the Persian Gulf have always been considered by different people in different periods. During the Sassanid period, the The hinterland and coastalland of the Persian Gulf were important due to the existence of sea trade routes and possibly religious reasons, according to indications about the existence of fire temples in Karian (Askari Chavardi, 2013: 397) and witnessed an increase in Sassanid settlements on the hinterland and coastalland of the Persian Gulf. Information about the Sassanid settlement periods on the northern coastal land of the Persian Gulf is limited to a number of areas such as Siraf, Qeshm, etc. The situation of the northern coastalland of the Persian Gulf during the Sassanid period is more unknown than the hinterland of the Persian Gulf‚ Lamerd city which is located along and it is the mountains of South Zagros in Fars province, considered in the geographical area of the northern coasts of the Persian Gulf. This region was considered a part of Ardeshir Khoreh furnace in the Sassanid period. Qale’h-ye Golrokh area is located in the eastern part of Ala-Marvdasht plain in Lamerd city, and on the edge of a residential area. The basis of the present study is the classification of pottery in the area of Qale’h-ye Golrokh. Therefore, during this research, the area was first mapped and topographed. Then the area was divided into 10×10 M‚ networks and 30% of the pottery networks were collected. Typology, classification and comparison of pottery with similar samples in the hinterland and coastal land areas of the Persian Gulf are discussed. For this purpose, library studies were performed and finally the descriptive-analytical method was used for the final result. The results of this classification are compared with other regions of the Sassanid era, especially the Sassanid areas located in Persia and the hinterland and coastal land of the Persian Gulf. This comparison has been done to identify the Sassanid style of pottery, the influence of other regions on the region and to explain vice versa, as well as the economic exchanges and social interactions of different cultural fields and based on that the cultural status of one of the coastal regions of the Persian Gulf was determined. Identified Traces The most important cultural materials in Qale’h-ye Golrokh are the pottery collected from the studied networks from the surface of the area, which are culturally important. Most of the pottery was black (39.7%), gray (10.3%), dark gray (10.3%), dark brown (4.2%) and brown (6.9%). Among the pottery pieces of Qale’h-ye Golrokh, some groups of pottery are of great importance, which include the following groups. Glazed pottery (Qale’h-ye Golrokh glazed pottery can be divided into two groups: alkaline glazed pottery and sprinkled glazed pottery), 2- Pottery with thick red and brown slip (this type of pottery was produced in the late Parthian and Sassanid eras) 3- Indian red polishing pottery (this pottery was first defined in Baruda and dated to the 1st century AD and in other areas between the 3-5th century AD, and in some cases to the end of the 6th century AD (Whitehouse and Williamson: 1973, 39-38), 4- Pottery with Black Slip, 5- Large Incised Storage Vessels with carved patterns (similar examples of them are generally from the Sassanid and early Islamic periods (Kennet, 2014: 159), 6- Coarse Black pottery (These pottery have been found in Maliha and Addor from the 2nd century BC to at least the 4th century AD (Kennet, 2014: 158), 7- Sassanid Clinky (this type of pottery has been introduced in the southern area as Sassanid Clinky pottery (Kennet: 2002, 158-157), 8- Red & Black Polished Burnished pottery.   Conclusion As a result of reviewing and studying 9364 pieces of pottery according to the mentioned variables and taking into account the error coefficient (destruction of the area and the possibility of losing part of the pottery of Qale’h-ye Golrokh), it can be said that the shape of dishes obtained from Qale’h-ye Golrokh includes more ordinary pottery. It is used daily, which is rough in terms of manufacturing quality and average production, and in general, it has been a functional container with daily use. According to the results, in the area of Golrokh Castle, based on the typological comparison, Sassanid pottery makes up the largest percentage of the pottery collection, but in this area, there are also pottery of the late Parthian or early Islamic era. In Qale’h-ye Golrokh pottery collection, there is a variety of colors and different types of utensils, which indicates the commercial relations of this area from the late Parthian period, during the Sassanid period and the beginning of the Islamic era with the shores, hinterland and the Persian Gulf. The technical characteristics of Sassanid pottery in Golrokh Castle and their comparison with contemporary vessels in other areas of this period show that this area has played an active role in political, commercial and economic interactions in southern Iran. In addition to the existence of Darabgard coin in this area, similar decorative patterns or close resemblance of the edges of the dishes of this area with the areas of Suhar, Ras Al Khaimah, Siraf, Qeshm, Hajiabad, Darabgird, Bishapur, Qasr Abu Nasr and Karian show that this area Not only has it been associated with the sites and ports located in the Ardeshir Khoreh basin, but it has also been active and dynamic in the economic relations and trade route of Ardeshir Khoreh with the Persian Gulf ports. The presence of red pottery attributed to Indian red polishing pottery in the area of Qaleh Golrokh indicates direct and indirect connections within and outside the area of this area in the Persian Gulf trade.

The design of the transportation network connecting land and sea and the identification of effective factors in this relationship is an important factor in improving the performance of the transportation system. In the meantime, identifying the effective factors in choosing the mode of transportation in the ports is of particular importance. After integrating the data discrete choice model for choosing land and rail transport modes has been produced. The findings show that the tendency to choose the mode of transportation between rail and road was dependent on the distance, the actual weight of the load and the total price of the load, that the distance and the actual weight of the load had a positive effect and the price of the total load had a negative effect on choosing the mode of transportation of grain from Imam Khomeini Port to It had domestic destinations, but for the purpose of data integration, only 22 destinations where the cargo of imported grain was transported by rail mode to the destination railway station were considered for road destinations. The comparison of the share of rail and road in the cargo exchange of these common destinations has shown that the share of rail was 56% and the share of road was 44% of the total exchange of grain, while considering all road destinations, the share of rail transport was 12% and the share of road transport was 88%.

This article explores the relation of Iranian ports with their surrounding regions from the geopolitical-spatial perspective since 6th century BC. Content analysis of historical data obtained from written, pictorial and secondary sources is the method used to achieve this aim. The results denote that the geopolitical-spatial evolution of Iranian ports and the surrounding regions can be classified into three general eras: in the first era (from 6th to 15th century), with the domination of the most powerful Iranian states on both sides of the Persian Gulf, the geopolitical-spatial of Iran often had foreland-oriented structure with mutual interaction of ports and hinterlands especially up to regional scale. In the second era (from 16th to 19th century) which coincided with the arrival of powerful foreign forces in the Persian Gulf, the rulers implemented a geopolitical policy: the protection of mainland with the aim of territorial integrity maintenance. So, in this era hinterland-oriented spatial structure was formed based on the interaction in local, regional and national levels. Also, the geospatial scheme of the country was founded on the basis of endogenous activities and integration political power. In the third era and with the exploration of oil (beginning of the 20th century till now), production, trade and distribution system of the country has undergone radical changes and along with formation of powerful world capitalist system, it has become subject to political and economic changes of this system. Directing capital flow to the capital and obtaining such development policies as growth pole, spatial structure of the country has tended towards corridor- polarized pattern. This pattern has led to the pole oriented hinterland spatial structure based on single-product (oil) export. In other words, in Explaining the Geopolitical Evolution of … 193 the country has tended towards corridor- polarized pattern. This pattern has led to the pole oriented hinterland spatial structure based on single-product (oil) export. In other words, in this era, the political, spatial and economical geography relied on the political and economic decisions that were concentrated in the capital. Accordingly, spatial planning in the local-regional hinterland about habitats, activities and distribution of services depended on the capital decisions in the national hinterland.

Publication of newspapers in the Qajar period reflected many social, cultural, economical, political, official problems and different aspects of people’s lives in various hinterlands and helped at least the literate class become aware of the situation in different cities. Meanwhile, newspapers such as Vaghaye Etefaghiye and Dolat-e Alie Iran published differing news about the circumstances in cities (Kerman, in particular). For different reasons, Kerman of the pre-constitutional period set up the social movement which finally resulted in the constitutionalism. Therefore, in addition to the local sources of this hinterland, newspapers can also describe that epoch in Kerman. The basic problem of this article is to investigate political, economical, military, judicial, security, religious/theological, cultural, service situations and also the natural events of Kerman from the view point of printed matters of the Qajar period. Investigation of the printed matters according to the historical research and on the basis of data analysis indicates that conditions of this hinterland has been reflected clearly in the newspapers of the pre-constitutional period and from these sources the events of that hinterland can be reconsidered.

Global logistics includes transportation in land and sea side. In land, trains and trucks are used to transport goods. The design of the transportation network and connection between land and sea includes determining the location of distribution centers and their connections with the maritime ports. Determining the optimal location and capacity of distribution centers and type of transportation means for the delivery of goods between sea ports, distribution centers and customer nodes, has a high importance in the distribution network's efficiency. In this research, a two-objective math programming model is proposed for locating distribution centers in which multimodal transport is used to connect the port and hinterland. In this model, the internal and external supply and demand flows of each node are intended to determine the location of distribution centers or terminals in hinterland, with the aim of minimizing the transport costs as and pollution caused by vehicles. In this study, the modified Epsilon method has been used to solve the problem. The results of the research showed that the construction of distribution centers and the development of transportation modes should be in the range of 96 to 106 billion dollars. Also, the amount of carbon dioxide produced in each of these investments will be about 40 to 56 million tons a year.

During the last few decades, the number of population and activity in the suburbs of Tehran has grown rapidly and as a result, the buffer zone of the capital city has faced major challenges. Changing the land use, especially natural covers, gardens and agricultural lands in favor of authorized and unauthorized constructions, is the manifestation of these challenges. Factors such as the growing population of Tehran, the extensive needs for land and the inability to respond to these needs as well as the weakness of urban space management have doubled the scope of the negative changes that have occurred. Although different solutions have already been presented to manage the capital's hinterland, they have not been able to match the existing institutional-organizational and spatial structures. Now, the question is, in order to overcome the problems in the capital city, what characteristics should the ideal model have? To answer this question, a qualitative method based on content analysis of documents and interviews with trustees and experts was used. The results show that the appropriate and effective model of hinterland management requires the following: the participation of all management levels from the national to the local, maximizing the role of various departments and organizations involved in hinterland issues, the participation of non-governmental sectors, the provision of a continuous monitoring mechanism of hinterland according to policies, regulations and various programs. If the inadequacies in thehinterland management mechanisms continue, it won't be long before some valuable biological and natural spaces around Tehran metropolis and its surrounding cities will be lost.

Halokinetic Sequences are used for analyzing and connecting endogenous and exogenous influencing factors on the sedimentary sequences around the diapir. The most important effect of the diapir movement is the creation of different sedimentary spaces in the result of uplift and subsidence. So, the Handun Salt Plug has been selected as a classic example. In the Handun salt plug outcrop Upper Cretaceous to recent sediments. The most important effect of the salt plug movement is during the Eocene of the Jahrum. The initial phase of salt extrusion was observed in the Gurpi Formation. Continuation of salt extrusion carrying on hook forms in the deep-water shale of the Pabdeh Formation in the Paleocene-middle Eocene. In the middle Eocene, when the Jahrum carbonate sedimentation exceeds the salt rise, wedges onlap the salt plug. In addition, thrusting led to the emergence of the salt tongues and forming hook in the Formation. The final phase of salt extrusion has been seen in the hooks in the siliciclastic of the Razak Formation. Finally, ongoing shortening is recorded by Guri member growth strata of the Handun salt plug. Our results provide new insights into using Halokinetic Sequences in tectono-sedimentary analysis of the Zagros diapirs.

Land allocation strategy in port areas usually leads to defining services and productive activities in a broad scale but it will not end in providing an optimum plan for a set of industries of a certain classification. Obtaining the major objectives of each port in the scope of revenues or competitions depends on optimal selection of proposals suggested by the investors. Otherwise, these valuable lands will be allocated to set of activities which will not lead to elevation of the port competitive power. Assuming that the major strategy of a port is to provide warehousing services, the present research investigates allocation of hinterlands based on the performance criteria, evaluation and prioritization of competing items using the multi-criteria decision-making methods such as Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The results reveal that land allocation for container terminal construction is at the first place (0.64 %), warehouse construction is at the second place (0.25%), and silo construction is at the third place (0.11%). Accordingly, the proposals which can present the most economic advantages for port will be singled out as the best proposal.