Economic and social impacts of desertification on cities: A case study of the city of Ferdows

Desertification is one of the major threats to the lives of all humans. So far, many efforts and inventions have been taken into consideration to deal with the issue, but its negative effects are still increasing. The effects of desertification are now beyond regions which are considered as deserts in terms of climate; rural areas are affected too. Ferdows is one of those cities which, because of being on the verge of the desert, suffers from the completely negative effects of this phenomenon. These effects are to such an extent especially in economic and social dimensions that they have changed the political structure and population of the city incredibly. On this basis, this study aims to deal with the situation by descriptive and analytical methods. The required data are obtained through empirical evidence and surveys of experts in this field. The number of samples is selective and determined by using the available sampling method (census) consisting of 50 experts. The collected data are analyzed by SPSS software, regression models, etc. The results indicate that the desertification phenomenon has a significant impact on the economic and socio-cultural development and this, in turn, affects other related aspects.