Modeling the Levels of Development in Rural Regions of Central District in Boyer-Ahmad County

Today, awareness about distribution of rural development is the first step in formulation of plans and programs. In this regard, modeling the levels of development is an efficient tool. Therfore, this research aims at modeling rural development in the central district of Boyer-Ahmad county. For this purpose, a descriptive-analytical method with the aid of a comparative approach was used. The statistical population of study was the villages in the county with 20 or more households (89 villages). Accordingly, 566 rural households were determined and selected as a sample using Lin sample size table. To collect data, a questionnaire was used. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.561-0.955) indicated the reliability of the questionnaire. In order to model development of rural areas in the district, organism approach (structured) interms of selecting criteria was used. In addition, the Fuzzy theory was used to select criteria and 51 criteria were identified and finalized. Furthermore, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and VIKOR were used in order to determine the degree of importance of each of the criterion. Findings revealed that the VIKOR model with absolute approach was powerful and recommended. The findings showed that Sarabtaveh, Deh Bare- Aftab Olia, and Tangary villages with regard to 51 criteria by 0.635, 0.608, and 0.579 scores, respectively were developing villages and Gavbarg, Cheshmeh Tabarghoo, Tal-Gahi with 0.182, 0.201, and 0.233 scores respectively were non-developed villages. Also, there wasn’t any village in level of completely undeveloped, developed and completely developed. The findings also indicated the undesirable rural development (with mean 0.387 and range from 0 to 1) in the region. Also, approximately half of villages (48.31 percent) with 32.94 percent of the population of the rural region were undeveloped villages.