Analysis of functional - structural changes in transitional villages of Aivan County

Rural settlements, as spatial systems, have always been affected by internal and external forces and changes in their structures and functions. Transitional villages are more dynamic and experience more developments than other rural settlements because of their features that are considered neither rural nor urban. The present study seeks to identify the factors affecting the changes occurred in transitional rural settlements of Aivan county (Illam province, Iran). This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in nature and method. Data collection was done by two methods documentary and field. In documentary method, statistical information and data of the settlements of the study area, literature, and related theoretical bases were collected and studied. In the field method, first-hand data and information were obtained using the Dehyar, Shura (11 questionnaires) and rural residents in transitional villages (184 questionnaires). The statistical population of the study is 55 inhabited villages with a total population of 16281 and 3848 households in Aivan county. Eleven populated villages were selected as transitional and sample villages using four indices of population, centrality, distance to city center and number of governmental and nongovernmental institutions. AHP and TOPSIS methods were applied to weight the aforementioned indicators by experts and to weight the sample villages, respectively. Data were analyzed using one-sample T-test. Findings of the study show that the physical component with a real average of 2.99 is in the first place, the economic component with a real average of 2.88 and the spatial component with a real average of 2.74 is in the third place. This means that the physical, economic and spatial dimensions as external and internal factors have had the most impact on the transitional villages of Aivan county, respectively