Rural Planning
Mohsen Aghayari Hir; Mohammad Zaheri; Hossein Karimzadeh; reza talebifard
Abstract
Introduction Sustainable rural development based on information and communication technology can be realized as the enjoyment and use of ICT in the area of public services’ support, general management, and interaction between the planners and the rural community and it has to cause contingent participation ...
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Introduction Sustainable rural development based on information and communication technology can be realized as the enjoyment and use of ICT in the area of public services’ support, general management, and interaction between the planners and the rural community and it has to cause contingent participation of the villagers in the decision-makings, improvement of the social and economic development in the villages and protection of the natural resources for the future generations. On the other hand, the existence of spatial inequality in the enjoyment of the ICT-based facilities and services can cause diversion and imbalance in the development amongst the rural regions. In this regard and based on the investigations, it seems that Iran’s rural regions hence Jiroft County do not enjoy a so much optimal situation in terms of the ICT-based sustainable development indices despite possession of abilities like high populational potentials and agricultural economy. Therefore, the present study intends to adopt a novel approach towards ICT-based sustainable development concept for elaborating and valuating its indices in line with planning and achieving sustainable development; to do so, the position and the levels of rural region’s enjoyment in Jiroft County will be assessed and evaluated in terms of the distribution of the ICT-based sustainable development indices and an answer will be found to the following question: How is the status of the villages in Jiroft County in terms of the ICT-based sustainable development level? Data and Method The present study is applied research in terms of the objectives and it is descriptive-analytical research in terms of nature and method. For collecting the information and data, use has been made of the documentary and field methods. The study area of the present research includes the rural regions in Jiroft County. For selecting the sample volume from the study population, two sets of villages, one with and another without ICT centers, were taken into consideration. In sum, 19 villages were found having ICT centers in Jiroft County until 2016; efforts were also made to select another group of the villages by considering several important indices (number of households, the village’s distance to the center of the county, and the village’s elevation from sea level) and some conditions similar or in contrast to those of the villages from the first set. In a match with the total number of the sample villages’ households, i.e. 16170 households, the study sample volume of this group was selected equal to 376 households based on Cochran Formula and the share of the questioned cases was determined in proportion to the number of households in every village. After confirming the validity of the study’s operationalized framework, some elites’ ideas were gathered for determining the weight of the indices in proportion to the conditions of the country’s rural society. Next, COPRAS multiscale decision-making model was employed for analyzing the data and rating Jiroft County’s rural regions in terms of the ICT-based sustainable development. In the end, use was made of K-cluster analysis in SPSS Software’s environment for determining the homogeneous regions and, after determining the level of development in the studied villages, the weights obtained for every village were added within the format of a field to the layer of villages in ArcGIS Software and the results were offered in the form of a map. Results and Discussion In line with achieving the study’s objective and assessing the level of ICT-based sustainable development in Jiroft County’s rural regions, 17 indices were applied. The items related to each of the indices were measured in Likert’s scale and the mean of every index was considered according to the idea of the sample households in every village as a basis for the formation of a matrix indicating the status quo of the ICT-based sustainable development level and rating of the studied villages. In the second step and after the formation of the status quo matrix and to normalize the existent status quo matrix, the indices’ weight determination had to be seminally done. Based thereon, electronic instruction in the social aspect, electronic marketing in the economic aspect, and electronic risk management in the bioenvironmental aspect were found with the highest weights. Then, after finishing the calculational stages of the COPRAS decision-making model, the villages were rated based on Qj’s amount; this way, the villages with the highest amounts of Qj and Nj were found in the highest ranks of ICT-based sustainable development and, on the contrary, the villages with the lowest Qj, were found in the lowest development ranks. Moreover, use was made in this part of Nj for performing K-cluster analysis based on which the studied villages were categorized into five clusters in terms of ICT-based sustainable development level. Therefore, considering the results of the cluster analysis, it can be stated that 8 villages fall in the cluster “developed”, 11 villages in the “relatively developed” cluster, 6 villages in the cluster “intermediate (normal) development”, 8 villages in the “relatively deprived” cluster and, finally, 5 villages in the “deprived” cluster in terms of the ICT-based sustainable development. Conclusion The study results indicated that the rural regions of Jiroft County enjoy a different situation in terms of ICT-based development. Based on the study’s investigations and observations, it can be stated that villages like Dwolatabad Esfandagheh, Dowlatabad Markazi, Daryacheh, Doboneh, Poshtlor, Hosseinabad Dehdar, Ferdows and Saghdar that have the highest development levels under the current conditions enjoy auspicious environmental and spatial states like good position on the plain, high groundwater levels, suitable soil, closeness to the city center and appropriate connective routes and they have also accommodated more population. The aforesaid villages also have better situations regarding cases like ICT infrastructures and equipment, trained human workforce, and services offered in the area of ICT. In opposite, villages named Abshour, Kohan, Hishinsofla, Darrehroud, and Abbasabad that enjoy the lowest level of ICT-based development from the perspective of the study sample volume are small and distant villages usually located in mountainous regions and often with unstable populations. Weakness in access to ICT-based equipment, facilities, and services, as well, in the aforementioned villages is an evident phenomenon. The collection of these conditions have caused the witnessing of different levels of ICT-based sustainable rural development in the rural regions of Jiroft County. The collection of the indices offered in this research can be utilized as a pattern for analyzing the level of ICT-based sustainable development in the other rural regions; additionally, this collection can assist the rural development planners in offering development programs and policies.
Rural Planning
Mohammad Zaheri; Mousa Vaezi; akbar Esmaili; habil khorrami; tohid ahmadi
Volume 23, Issue 69 , December 2019, , Pages 143-173
Abstract
Considering the importance of drinking water in the rural areas, identifying and paying more attention to the factors concerning wasteful and improper consumption of water would be an appropriate approach to pinpoint the hazardous risks in this regard. This article, investigates the status of drinking ...
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Considering the importance of drinking water in the rural areas, identifying and paying more attention to the factors concerning wasteful and improper consumption of water would be an appropriate approach to pinpoint the hazardous risks in this regard. This article, investigates the status of drinking water in Tabriz villages and identifies the effective factors on water consumption and also determines the weight impact of each one. Finally it prioritizes the factors and provides strategies for optimal management of drinking water consumption in the villages of the county. The results obtained from the field treatment information with 1320 questionnaires filled by the consumers, 28 experts, 44 villages in addition with undergoing factor analysis and cluster analysis suggest that elements such as management, cultural, health, welfare, technological, legal, economical, psychological, and social factors . are among the most important ones behind the improper consumption of drinking water. According to the analysis model, after identifying the weaknesses, threats, strengths and opportunities, four strategies are recommended. These are 15 defensive strategies, 8 competitive strategies, 23 review strategies and 14 diversity strategies. Furthermore, the content an face validity of the research tool used for this research was reviewed and confirmed by professional the reliability of questionnaires was also confirmed by using Cronbach's alpha in the preliminary study with a sample size of 82 individuals and value of 0/71. The various internal and external weaknesses and threats, reasons and causes of wasteful consumption in the field of water consumption are far more than of its internal and external strengths and opportunities. This indicates the low threshold of vulnerability of this city in terms of regional development in the area of drinking water therefore it is necessary to exploit defensive and review strategies to address the issues of the weaknesses and threatening risks of the region
Rural Planning
Mohammad Zaheri; Nahid Kargar
Abstract
Abstract The spatial and functional interrelationships between cities and surrounding areas, including rural areas in their influence on districts, gradually lead to different changes in different cases. One of these phenomena is spatial mobility (positional movement) of population from village to urban ...
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Abstract The spatial and functional interrelationships between cities and surrounding areas, including rural areas in their influence on districts, gradually lead to different changes in different cases. One of these phenomena is spatial mobility (positional movement) of population from village to urban areas. Considering the effect of the village-urban migration, it is quite clear that the population, economy and villages physical structure will change. The present study discusses the changes in demographics, economics and the physical structure of rural settlements in east Tabriz which have been taken based on the village residency. Moreover, an attention has been paid to the root causes of such formation. This article is based on field studies (direct observation, various questionnaires and interviews with experts).The ultimate goal of the present study is the applied one, because it is aimed at understanding the physical changes, demographic and economic way to provide optimal solutions. The results of this article revealed that the interactive effect of the spatial and functional interrelationships between Tabriz metropolitan and under study villages has had a major role in the development of population, economy and physical changes of villages. Among this, ungovernable extension of Tabriz and existence of problems like high costs of life and livelihood problems, high price of land and settlement, excessive air pollution, are the educator elements on the contrary of the low cost of land and settlement, clean air in villages and existence of equipment of transport and the suitable roads in the under study villages which acts as a suction element and actuates some of the urban people to settle in the stated villages.
Mohammad Zaheri; Nahid Kargar; Bahareh Rahimipour
Volume 17, Issue 43 , October 2013, , Pages 123-144
Abstract
Spatial interactions and functional relationships between cities and surrounding regions such as rural areas, located in their hinterland, gradually lead to different changes in their different spheres. Among important changes mainly affected by cities and seen in some rural areas of Iran in recent decades, ...
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Spatial interactions and functional relationships between cities and surrounding regions such as rural areas, located in their hinterland, gradually lead to different changes in their different spheres. Among important changes mainly affected by cities and seen in some rural areas of Iran in recent decades, there are functional changes originated from promoting rural tourism in them. Rural areas of Tabriz metropolitan are not excluded from of this rule and they are experiencing significant functional changes by formatting and promoting construction of second houses as a form of rural tourism. To explain how the functional changes are made and effective factors on them three village of Tabriz hinterland, have been chosen as reprehensive villages and were examined. Methods in present study are descriptive, analytical and we examined and express the relationships among research variables. The document method was used to review previous works and their changes and developments. This was a practical study in terms of our ultimate goal. The findings of this study show that these changes mainly have occurred during recent years and construction of second houses have to converting a significant proportion of agricultural function of these villages to entertainment-leisure function and also imposing major changes on land use of these villages.
