Special Issue February 2016 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND CULTURAL STUDIES ISSN 2356-5926 http://www.ijhcs.com/index.php/ijhcs/index Page 2506 The Structural – Functional Research of Rural Settlements change in the North of Mashhad Metropolis 1 Mehdi Akhgari Geography and Rural Planning PhD student, Payame Noor University Mahmoud Moradi Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Payam Noor Mostafa Taleshi Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Payam Noor Reihane Soltani Moghadas Assistant professor, Department of Geography, University of Payam Noor Abstract One of the important shortages of the rural and regional plans in Iran, has been having no regular and compiled program for edges and fringes around the cities. In these fringes the living nature has withdrawal in front of the rush of physical development of cities and specially metropolises. The purpose of this research is a comparative study of the structural – functional dimensions of annexed settlements, in order to present a strategy and attain a desired and suitable framework to improve and settle an affair the situation of settlements encountering annexation. The research is applied and based on descriptive – analytic and inductive and the method of collecting data is field and document. Statistical population is 97 villages in Toos and Tabadkan rural district that has the largest number of annexed settlements and encountering annexation settlements. Data analysis has been done based on deductive statistics approach and Kruskal Wallis test. The theoretical approach of this study is based on the Structural – Functional Research. The result of this research shows that periphery rural settlements have not had desired conditions and has been seen discordant growth of Mashhad causes gradual annexation of periphery rural settlements. According to the findings, the most defects of annexation of rural settlements to city has been in social and cultural issues and the main benefits of annexation has been in functional relations and structural features. Therefore, by reforming the local structure and changing in spatial function of periphery rural settlements in Mashhad Metropolis, a rural–urban link is established. After all, considering the consequences of annexation and lack of concord of structure and function in these settlements, [according to UFRD Model ] by invigoration the structures of small town or central villages or even establishing township, the duty of serving to rural regions could be committed to them. Keywords: Structure, Function, Rural Settlements, Structural- Functional Research, Mashhad. 1 . The present article is extracted from thesis entitled “The Structural – Functional Research of Rural Settlements change In the North of Mashhad Metropolis," which is in processing. With shared guidance of Mustafa Mahmoud Moradi and Taleshi at the Graduate Center of PNU. Author: 09155344904 Email: m_Akhgari@pnu.ac.ir