رعنا شیخ بیگلو

In rural areas with favorable capacities and potentials in terms of tourism attractions, especially the target villages for tourism, tourism development can be a suitable option for social vitality and rural development; it can help, on the one hand, stabilize and maintain the population in rural areas, and on the other hand, preserve the socio-cultural identity in these areas. The support of the host community is one of the main prerequisites for rural tourism development.

Design/Methodology/Approach: 

The current research is practical in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of nature and method. The statistical population of the research was 18 years and older people living in the tourist target villages located in the Marvdasht sub-province, including Dashtak, Kondazi, and Jidarzar. The required data was collected by completing 350 questionnaires and the data analysis was done by conducting one-sample t-tests and multiple regression analysis using SPSS software.

The villagers' attitude towards the favorable economic, cultural, environmental, and infrastructural consequences of tourism, as well as the local community support for tourism development, is higher than the average level. Also, at the 95% confidence level, the combined effect of villagers' attitudes towards the economic, cultural, environmental, and infrastructural consequences of tourism on support for tourism development is significant, and it explains 72% of the variance of support for tourism development.

Some actions such as sharing the host community residents in the economic benefits of tourism, emphasizing the preservation of the cultural content of the local community, developing infrastructure in rural areas and providing the services needed by the host community and tourists, can play an effective role in strengthening the local community's support for tourism development.

Originality/Value: 

This research is one of the few studies that examines the effect of the economic, cultural, environmental, and infrastructural consequences of tourism on the local community's support for tourism in the target villages of tourism.

Environmental quality is one of the essential and influential components in the planning and development of tourism in rural areas, and it plays an influential role in the tourists' satisfaction and, consequently, their loyalty. In terms of tourism planning, this study investigated the environmental quality of rural tourism destinations and explained the most important factors of environmental quality that affect tourists' satisfaction and loyalty. The descriptive-analytical research method was conducted based on the survey and documentary methods. The statistical population of this research, in terms of location, was the tourist villages located in the sub-province of Izeh, and the participants in the survey were the tourists who had visited the nine sample villages. The number of sample tourists based on the Kochran method for the unknown population is 450 people, and 50 people are considered for each town. The required data were collected through documentary methods and fieldwork (questionnaire). Results show that the environmental quality and tourists' satisfaction and loyalty in the studied rural areas are above average. Among the indicators of environmental quality, the index of dynamic quality of the environment has the most significant impact on tourists' satisfaction and loyalty.

Subjective well-being is the subjective component of quality of life. People with higher subjective well-being are expected to feel a good sense toward their surrounding environment, especially their residence place. Investigation of the relationship between subjective well-being and place loyalty is especially important for rural areas of Iran, which have lost a large number of their population.

The present study is an applied research with the descriptive-analytical approach. The research data were collected mainly by filling in the questionnaire. The statistical population of this study is the rural areas with a population of at least 100 people located in Dasht-e-Arzhan rural district, and the analysis unit is all people aged 18 and over. Data were analyzed using one-sample T-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and ETA coefficient applying the SPSS software.

The levels of place loyalty and subjective well-being are higher than the average. There is no significant difference between the studied villages in terms of level of subjective well-being, and the level of place loyalty as well. At the 95% confidence level, there is a positive and significant relationship between subjective well-being and place loyalty. There is a significant relationship between subjective well-being and variables of marital status, immigration history of relatives, age and residence length in the village. The relationship between place loyalty and variables of marital status, relatives' immigration history, age and residence length in the village is also significant.

Subjective well-being along with objective well-being and some other factors can explain the loyalty of individuals and households to their settlements. These findings can be used by rural policymakers and planners to take appropriate actions aimed at sustainable development of rural communities.

Many rural settlements of Iran are facing many problems including low level of employment and income, adverse effects of climate change, and inappropriate access to facilities and services. In this situation, villagers' participatory behaviors in various affairs of the local community can play a positive important role in improving the quality of life and improving the local environment. Considering the importance of the matter, this research investigated the relationship between place attachment and rural residents’ participatory behaviors in Mashaikh village rural district. The statistical population of this study is the villages with a population of at least 100 people of Mashayekh rural district, Mamasani County. The analysis unit is all people aged 18 and over. The sampling was done using the classified probabilistic method, and the questionnaire was filled by 380 people. Data were analyzed using some statistical tests by applying SPSS software. Based on the results of One-sample T-test, at 95% confidence level, the average values of participatory behaviors and place attachment are significantly above average. There is a significant positive relationship between villagers' place attachment and their participatory behaviors (r=0.424; p-value<0.001). A significant positive relationship was also observed between place attachment and each of the five dimensions of participatory behaviors. The result of one-way analysis of variance showed that there is a significant difference between the studied villages in terms of participatory behaviors. Similar results were obtained for place attachment. Place attachment and participatory behaviors, as two powerful factors, can play an important role in rural development, and the positive relationship between them shows that the two factors can have a desirable and valuable synergy to benefit the rural settlements.

Migration, with whatever intention and goal, is a process and requires certain steps, one important of which is adaptation. In the adaptation process, immigrants' behavioral patterns change, which affects some important aspects of their personal and cultural identity. The process of adaptation may lead to identity cohesion and a sense of community that has an important effect on psychological and social well-being; besides it makes immigrants more committed to the values of destination community. Taking the importance of this subject into consideration, the present paper, through studying a sample of 385 migrants settled in Isfahan metropolis and using the data gathered via questionnaire, investigated the effect of various dimensions of adaptation on place identity, and examined the moderating role of some variables. Analysis of the data was carried out using various statistical tests, and applying SPSS software and Process extension. The findings show that the mean value of place identity and three dimensions of adaptation including psychological, social and environmental adaptation are greater than average level. Results showed that adaptation has a significant positive effect on place identity, and approximately 52 % of the place identity variance is explained by variances of psychological, social and environmental adaptation. Based on the findings, the variables of education and psychological, social and environmental adaptation moderate the relationship between environmental adaptation and place identity; While the moderating role of the variables of gender, age and provincial origin of migration in the relationship between various dimensions of migrants' adaptation and  place identity was not supported.

Mountain parks are recreational environments in open spaces, which are considered pleasant places to spend leisure time and seek new experiences in interaction with nature. The popularity of these desirable areas of tourism can lead to increased visits to the environment and, consequently, increase the pressure on environmental resources. Therefore, researchers, professionals, and environmental practitioners attempt to find solutions to protect natural resources. In this regard, environmental behavior has recently received special attention as a tool to increase the sustainability of tourism attractions. Some previous studies have shown that when people feel attached to an environment, they tend to contribute to the protection of the environment through their behavior. On the other hand, according to the findings of some studies, those park visitors who generally feel more responsible for the environment, are more likely to engage in park-specific pro-environmental behaviors.Sofeh Mountain Park with an area of more than 39 hectares located in the city of Isfahan, is a significant place of entertainment and recreation for citizens and domestic and foreign tourists. With the development of space, facilities, and tourism services in this natural environment, as well as the increasing number of visitors to this unique mountain park, the issue of environmental protection becomes of considerable importance and necessity. Given that the behaviors of visitors in the visited environment directly affect all aspects of environmental sustainability, the present study investigates the effect of visitors’ place attachment and their general pro-environmental behaviors on the park-specific pro-environmental behaviors.

The present study, through studying a sample of 400 visitors to Sofeh Mountain Park in Isfahan city, has examined the effects of place attachment and general pro-environmental behaviors on the park-specific pro-environmental behaviors. The required data for the research were collected through a questionnaire in November 2019. The questionnaire consisted of two sections, including general attributes of respondents and the main part consisted of a set of questions regarding visitors’ place attachment and pro-environmental behaviors, which mainly adopted from Halpenny (2010). This part of the questionnaire was composed of 41 questions, of which 16 were about three dimensions of place attachment including place identity (6 items), affective attachment (6 items), and place dependence (4 items). Thirteen items measured general pro-environmental behaviors, and 12 questions were related to the park-specific pro-environmental behaviors. Analysis of data was conducted by applying some statistical tests and using SPSS software. Given that all values of skewness and elongation of the variables are in the range -2 to +2, parametric statistical tests including Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used.

The findings showed that general pro-environmental behaviors and two dimensions of place  attachment (place identity and place dependence) had a statistically significant and positive effect on park-specific pro-environmental behaviors in such a way that 56.3% of the variance of park-specific pro-environmental behaviors was explained by mentioned variables. Accordingly, it can be interpreted that if people consider themselves committed to the protection of the environment and also if they develop a sense of place identity and place dependence towards the park environment, they will be more concerned about protecting the environment of Sofeh Park. As a result, their behavior will be supportive of the park environment.The findings of this study on the effect of place attachment on pro-environmental behaviors are in line with the findings reported by some researchers, for example, Saif (2017), Abedi Sarvestani (2014), Halpenny (2010), Walker and Chapman (2003), Raymond et al. (2011), Ramkissoon et al. (2013), Buta et al. (2014), and Ramkissoon and Mavondo (2017). However, some contradictory findings reported by a number of researchers makes the generalization of the findings of the present study questionable. It is worth mentioning that the differences in findings can be due to the difference in the conceptualization of place attachment and pro-environmental behaviors that should be examined in future studies.

Overall, the findings of the present study showed that both place attachment and general pro-environmental behaviors positively influenced park-specific pro-environmental behaviors. However, the general pro-environmental behaviors were more powerful than place attachment in explaining and predicting the park-specific pro-environmental behaviors. These findings can be considered in the planning and management of Sofeh Mountain Park and similar recreation environments. On the one hand, the positive effect of place attachment on the park-specific pro-environmental behaviors implies that the deeper sense of place identity people develop toward the environment, the more favorable visited environments are in providing the tourism and recreational functions desired by the visitors.Some factors can play a positive role in strengthening the visitors’ place attachment. For example, security, safety, landscape beauty, lighting quality, services and amenities, a variety of recreational activities, and park's well management. Providing enough information about the unique features of the park can also be effective in creating a sense of attachment to the park. In addition, by providing opportunities for individuals’ participation in the park improvement and conservation programs, their sense of place attachment can be strengthened. The results also showed that people who generally are committed to doing pro-environment activities are concerned about preserving the park environment as well. Accordingly, one of the effective ways to develop pro-environmental behaviors in all environments is to strengthen people’s sense of responsibility and commitment to the environment. In this regard, raising the level of knowledge and awareness of people about the importance of the environment and various ways of protection can be effective, which, of course, requires in-depth research and studies.

Explanation of the effects and outcomes of migration on migrants in terms of urban life satisfaction provides a perspective about the probability of continuing residency in the city or relocation of migrants, from whom the main problems of rural environments about disposal of the population can be inferred.

The present study is applied and descriptiveanalytical. It investigates the various aspects of migrants’ satisfaction from living in Isfahan metropolis, and their overall satisfaction with migration. The statistical population includes those heads of households who, in their last spatial mobility and for permanent residency, have migrated from rural areas to Isfahan city. The sample size of the study is 400 people. The data were gathered through questionnaires. Analysis of the data was carried out using some statistical tests and applying SPSS software.

Findings showed that the migrants were highly satisfied with their current migration. Respondents’ satisfaction with their quality of life, occupational status, and household income-expense were above the average level. Satisfaction with quality of life and occupational status had a statistically significant and positive effect on overall satisfaction with migration. No statistically significant difference was found between the average satisfaction level of intra-provincial migrants and inter-provincial ones.

Policymaking and planning processes should be prepared in such a way that factors underlying life satisfaction can be created and developed in rural areas too. Otherwise, the migration of the rural population will increase the problems of involved villages and cities.

Tourist destinations and their societies are seeking to find new ways for competition in tourism market; as one of these ways, night tourism has been considered in recent years. Shiraz city with variety of attractions is one of the main tourist destination in Iran and has notable potentials for night tourism development. The aim of this paper was to investigate desirability of urban night tourism from Shiraz tourists’ viewpoints. Research statistical population was those tourists who arrived in Shiraz city in March 2017 and stayed there at least for three nights. Sample size was 400 and needed data was gathered through questionnaire. The questionnaire included three parts including general attributes of tourists, tourists’ viewpoint about nighttime desirability of city environment and tourist attractions, and tourists’ viewpoint about importance of environment and tourist attractions for night tourism development. Statistical methods of Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Friedman test, Mann Whitney test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Simple and multiple regression and SPSS software were applied for analyzing of data and testing hypotheses. Results showed that among urban nighttime environment criteria, the criteria of weather condition and night city beauty were more desirable for tourists. Among different attractions, historical monuments were the most desirable, and nighttime desirability of cultural attractions, gardens and parks, recreational spaces and religious places ranked second. 30.9 percent of variance of tourist satisfaction’ was explained by variances of ‘environment desirability’ and ‘nighttime tourism attractions’, and 54.4 percent of variance of tourist loyalty was explained by variance of tourist satisfaction.

Rapid urbanization, which refers to the rapid increment of people living in urban areas, is an attribute of many developing countries. This phenomenon has occurred in some metropolises of Iran e.g. Tehran, Mashad, Isfahan, Shiraz and Tabriz. Expansion of urban spaces, corrosion of villages and their peripheral lands are outcomes of rapid urbanization (Zia Tavana and Ghadermazy, 2009). If urbanization process -which often accompanied by urban expansion- is not managed prpperly, it would lead to urban sprawl, pollution, environmental discount, and unsustainable production and consumption patterns (United Nations, 2014, 3). Besides, unorganized expansion of cities has several spatial outcomes on peripheral villages e.g. land use and land coverage changes in common territory of villages (Afrakhteh and Hajipour, 2014, 159). Physical expansion of settlements toward each other usually leads to annexation of smaller settlement (village) to larger settlement (city).
The outcoms of annexation of villages to cities may be positive or negative. Some positive outcomes include improvement of physical infrastructures, development of urban services and increment of constructions, etc. Changes of agricultural lands, conversion of producer population to consumer one, rise of expectations, promotion of consuming and increment of life costs are examples of negative outcomes. When some villages annex to a city, these villages would consequently be part of that city; but in many cases, we can see obvious differences between annexed villages and main city in respect of social, cultural, economic and environmental attributes. In the way of urban sprawl, cities impose main changes and evolutions on peripheral areas -often rural. In fact, new spatial interactions between those two different areas and necessitate these changes. This is a process experienced in many developing countries e.g. Iran (Ghadermarzy et al., 2014).
Shiraz, an Iranian metropolis, experienced considerable physical expansions in recent years whose physical area increased from 3540 hectare in 1976 to 24000 hectare in 2011. During this periode of time, population increased from 425813 to 1460665. In other words, during 1976-2011, city population increased 3.43 times and its area 6.78 times; this condition is a sign of notable accelerate urban physical development in comparison to population increment i.e. urbanization bubble. In the way of expansion of city toward peripheral lands, adjacent rural areas would gradually annexed to the urban area. As mentioned before, annexation of village to city has various outcomes in social, economic, cultural and physical dimensions. Regarding importance of issue, this paper investigated the effects and outcomes of annexation of rural settlements to Shiraz city area. In this paper, we investigated the effects of annexation of some rural settlements to Shiraz metropolis in respect of economic, socio-cultural and environmental-physical dimensions, from the residents’ viewpoints. We collected needed data through library studies and questionnaire. Research population were head of households in 12 villages annexed to city. Sample size based on Cochran method was 315. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods. First, we studied demographic evolutions and urban area changes over the periode of 1976-2011 and then, analyzed the data extracted from filled questionnaires using statistical methods.
The questionnaire included 43 questions about various effects and outcomes of annexation of rural settlements to Shiraz city, with emphasis on economic, socio-cultural and environmental-physical dimensions for which 11, 18 and 14 criteria intended, respectively. Some of these criteria related to positive effects and some other negative. Data analysis were carried out using some statistical tests including Chi-squared test, Wilcoxon, Friedman test, Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, and Phi-Cramer’s V. Analysis of annexation economic effects showed that from the viewpoint of respondents, negative economic effects of annexation of studied villages to Shiraz city are relatively more than positive ones; In this respect, the mean value of all economic criteria are over test defult mean except the criterion of job stability. We assessed Socio-cultural effects via 18 criteria; mean value of all these criteria are over test defult mean. Evaluation of environmental-physical effects of annexation (via 14 criteria) showed that among these criteria only mean value of “officials’ attention to the physical condition” is lower than defult mean value. In socio-cultural dimension, as the economic dimension, negative effects of annexation is relatively more than positive effects.
Besides, results showed that there are significant differences between socio-cultural and environmental-physical dimensions, and there is no significant difference between economic and environmental-physical dimensions. Results also revealed that the negative effects of annexation of villages to Shiraz city is relatively more than positive ones in economic and socio-cultural dimensions from the respondents’ viewpoints. Other results showed that among personal variables including gender, age, job, literacy and habitation duration, the relation of satisfactory was significant with all variables except gender. Correlation coefficient of ‘satisfaction’ with two criteria of age and habitation duration is negative, meaning that those respondents who are older or have lived for longer time in annexed villages, declared less satisfaction. It seems that from the viewpoint of old residents of annexed areas, gradual changes happened in patterns of life and activity and relationships system may be a threat for sustained social attachments and place identity. Overall, results showed that from the viewpoint of respondents and in respect of economic and socio-cultural dimensions, negative effects of annexation of studied villages to Shiraz city is relatively more than positive effects; about environmental-physical dimension, there isn’t significant difference between positive and negative effects. Howevere, There is significant difference between effects of the three dimensions i.e. economic, socio-cultural and environmental-physical. We emphasize because of different conditions of various urban areas, the results of this paper cannot be generalizabled for all other cities encountered with this issue without accurate investigation and case studies.

Today, workshop industries play an important role in urban development by creating effective employment in urban areas. It has been stated that these small industries can cause environmental pollution. The purpose of this study was to investigate and analyze the contaminations caused by the workshops in Qom in 2016.
The present study was descriptive-analytic-cross sectional. First, all of the city's businesses were listed in 67 relevant :::::union:::::s. After identifying the polluting businesses, a total of 223 classes of all :::::union:::::s were randomly screened. Sewage, solid waste, air, sound, soil and landscape pollution were investigated. According to 15 specialists and using Expert Selection software, each pollution type and rating of each class were weighed and determined.
The results showed that the wastewater, solid waste, air, noise, and landscape pollution with a score of 0.399, 0.259, 0.169, 0.097, and 0.027, respectively, are important. Accordingly, in terms of the total contamination of the studied occupational units, authorized dealers of car sales, carwash, guest house, carpet cleaning, bath, brick plants, chalk plants, gemstones, chelokbaby, mosaic making, lathes and blacksmans, iron doors and window making, general blinds and shuttering, ceramic making, wood processing industry, mechanical, polishing with a total score of 1, 0.889, 0.881, 0.872, 0.709, 0.644, 0.644, 0.641, 0.62, 0.609, 0.582, 0.569, 0.552, 0.546, 0.518, 0.499, and 0.499 had unfavorable status, respectively.
In order to reduce the environmental pollution caused by these businesses, continuous monitoring and inspections should be carried out in the short term. Moreover, the polluting industries should be relocated out of the city in the long term.

Cities are areas for population concentration all over the world. Urbanization and urban growth are accounted as main indicators of economic growth and development of countries Dezful city such as many cities of Iran, continuously encountered with population increment and positive population growth rate. Population of this city from 52121 persons in 1956 has reached to 248380 persons in 2011; in other words, during this period of 55 years, annual average population growth rate was 2.88 percent. Regarding continuity of population increment of Dezful city and increasing need to convenient areas for habitation and activity and in result, inevitability of urban physical development, determining suitable areas for future development is of great importance.Regarding this matter, present research has studied geomorphologic indicators in Dezful surrounding area and then, convenient directions for future city development has been determined.
Base on analyzes, among studied geomorphological indicators ‘slope’ and ‘fault’ acquired highest importance coefficient, and directions of east, northwest and west gained the scores of 0.189, 0.158 and 0.149, respectively; so, these directions determined and proposed as preferred areas for urban development.
After determining importance coefficient of criteria and relative scores of alternatives in respect of each criterion, importance coefficient of criteria and relative scores of alternatives synthesized based on the method of Analytical Hierarchy Process; then, the scores of each geographic direction was calculated as follows: east 0.189, northwest 0.158, west 0.149, northeast 0.135, north 0.121, southeast 0.097, south 0.085, and southwest 0.065. All inconsistency ratio of comparative analyzes were at acceptable range.

Introduction Cities are vast arenas for the concentration of population and activities, and human health has an inseparable connection with the conditions and quality of urban environments. The quality of urban environment is an important factor in the way of providing health and life satisfaction. The dynamics, vitality and attractiveness of urban environments have a great influence on the creation of sensory richness and place attachment. Environment and place attachment meanwhile create the feeling of pride, effectively increase the social responsibility and people participation in the affairs of their quarter and city. The experience of executing urban plans in Iran has not shown any success in creating high quality urban environments. Regarding the importance of the quality of urban and residential environments in creating place attachment, recognition of difficulties and insufficiencies of these areas is essential. Studying the factors creating and reinforcing place attachment is a critical issue in the way of creating sustainable urban environments and quarters; in this respect, Bentley, Alcock, Murrain, McGlynn, and Smith (1985), clarifying principles and attributes of responsive environments including permeability, variety, legibility, robustness, visual appropriateness, richness, and personalization, have introduced a step by step process to achieve urban environment qualities. The present study, while explaining the characteristics of the responsive environments, has investigated the role of the indicators and components of the responsive environments- which are mainly related to the physical environment- in creating sensory richness and place attachment of citizens living in Arak.
Methodology This study is analytic and applied research that investigates the effect of responsive environment indicators on place attachment. The needed data have been collected through library studies, interviews, and a questionnaire. The geographical area of the study is Arak city. Based on the population and housing census in 2011, the population of Arak was 484212. The statistical population of the study is citizens living in Arak, but to reach the reliable results, citizens over 18 were considered as the basis for the study. Sample size was determined using Cochran formula with error level of 5% that is equal to 384.
The studied indicators in this paper are the same as responsive environment indicators including permeability, variety, legibility, robustness, visual appropriateness, richness, and personalization. The indicator of sensory richness was named as place attachment because of its implicit meaning. Each of the mentioned indicators was introduced by some related criteria; then, the effect of six indicators namely permeability, variety, legibility, robustness, visual appropriateness, and personalization was analyzed on the indicator of sensory richness, namely, place attachment. The needed data was collected through library studies, interviews, and a questionnaire. The reliability of questionnaire was tested using Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α=0.89). The level of desirability of indicators of responsive environments from the viewpoint of citizens was also assessed using one-sample T test. Then, the correlation coefficient of the indices of responsive environments was calculated and finally, regression analysis of place attachment index (sensory richness) and other indices of responsive environments was carried out.
Results The present study investigated the responsive environment indicators in Arak city. For this purpose, a questionnaire with Likert scale was prepared. After collecting the needed data, one-sample t-test was carried out. The numerical mean of indicators showed that convenient accessibility of house from different ways (Mean=3.80), existence of various services and facilities in quarter and city (Mean=3.48), unique features of streets for routing guide (Mean=3.16), potential of home interior spaces for performing various alternatives of furniture design (Mean=3.11), tendency to change the residential space scene according to individual desire (Mean=4.05), and tendency to continue living in this quarter (Mean=3.10), have the highest average number respectively; none of the criteria related to visual appropriateness had a mean value higher than test mean value.
To explain the relationships between each pair of indicators, Pearson correlation was calculated. Except for the correlation of personalization with variety, visual appropriateness, and richness, all correlations were significant. The maximum correlation belonged to the pairs of richness and visual appropriateness (r= 0.614), and richness and robustness (r= 0.465), and the minimum correlation belonged to personalization and robustness (r= 0.120).
In the regression analysis of indicators, the indicator of sensory richness (place attachment) was assumed as the dependent variable, and other six indicators as independent variables. Based on adjusted R square, 53.2% of the changes of place attachment is explained through linear combination of independent variables. The indicators of visual appropriateness and robustness had the maximum effect on place attachment whose influence coefficients are 0.453 and 0.192, respectively. The effect of the indicator of personalization was not meaningful.
Conclusion The results of this study showed that the indices of responsive environments have a significant effect on place attachment. Regarding the objective and physical nature of the mentioned indicators, it is suggested that the effect of other indicators especially social criteria on creating place attachment in urban environments be studied in future studies.

In the most modern cities, the traditional system of communications and interactions have been strongly changes whose one of their worrying appearance is fading the social relationships among citizens. Since the meaning and identity of urban environments is greatly dependent on their prevailing social system, the decrease of people’s social interactions changes the identity of these environments and spaces and fades their conceptual and functional authenticity. This matter leads to decrease of sense of community and consequently decrease of sense of place attachment whose reaction in urban quarters is a sense of indifference for residents about residential stability in quarters and in several cases, motivation for changing life area to other quarter or even other city. Regarding this issue, the present paper has investigated the social factors affecting citizens’ residential stability in Arak city and its quarters. The effect of social factors and their criteria on two settlement durability including ‘tendency to continue living in present quarter, and ‘tendency to continue living in Arak city’, was investigated. Needed data of research has been collected through library studies and questionnaire. For obtaining overall view about citizens’ evaluation on criteria of four social factors, One-sample T test was applied, and for clarifying relations of social factors and durability indicators Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated for each pair of factors and indicators, and the influence of social factors on each of durability indicators was examined using Regression analysis. The result of study show a significant relation between mentioned factors and indicators, and based on regression analysis, 61% of the changes of indicator of ‘tendency to continue living in present quarter’ and 59% of the changes of indicator of ‘tendency to continue living in Arak city’ is explained through linear combination of changes of social factors.

Nowadays, sustainability is considered by planners and researchers to be a dominant approach for development of rural tourism. In this respect, a variety of research studies have been done for studying this paradigm leading to introduction of various conceptual frameworks such as sustainability and strategic planning of tourism development. In this way, the present study attempts to provide a convenient basis for sustainable tourism development in the Qalat village located in the Shiraz sub-province through determining the sustainability based on the viewpoints of the host society about on tourism, and offering the appropriate strategic plan. This study is an applied research with the descriptive analytic method. The needed data has been gathered through library studies and field work. Descriptive statistical methods were carried out for data analysis. Statistical population of the research includes tourists and local native families. Analysis of local resident's perceptions shows undesirability of tourism development and approaching the threshold of saturation of sustainability of the tolerance of tourism. Yet, there exists a significant difference among the host society population's view based on their employment condition. Considering the results of this study, adopting a defensive strategy is necessary in the policy making and planning development of rural tourism in the village under study.

Tourism industrial, its benefits for a country -especially economic ones- has led communities to raise their great efforts to attract more tourists and create new opportunities in this area by optimal use of time and place for tourism development. So, various potentials of places were considered with respect to time factor. One salient topic in this area is ‘night tourism’. Night tourism has opened new chapter in the way of exploring potentials of regions for tourism development. Regarding the importance of night tourism in economic, social and cultural dimensions, appropriateness of basics, and great potential facilities in Iran -e.g. shrines, great historical and cultural works, ceremonies, and environmental desirability- this research attempted to give a comparative evaluation of five Iranian metropolises including Isfahan, Tabriz, Shiraz, Mashhad and Yazd for determining the priorities of planning and developing night tourism. Needed data have been collected through library studies and questionnaire. Evaluating situation and potentials of mentioned cities was done by experts in the field of tourism who were completely familiar with various aspects of tourism in different regions of Iran. In this respect, two questionnaires, consisting 17 questions about indicators of potentials of night tourism planning, were designed; the first questionnaire was intended to weight indicators through pairwise comparisons, and the second one to compare cities in respect of each indicator.The mentioned indicators were organized in four groups including ‘attractions and services’, ‘status quo of night city’, ‘environmental desirability’ and ‘night transportation system’. Analysis of data was done by using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and RALSPI method. Based on calculated final scores of cities, Isfahan was identified as the first priority for developing night tourism with score of 0.7420. Tabriz was placed at the second position with the score of 0.2072, and Mashhad, Shiraz and Yazd located in subsequent status whose scores are 0.1865, 0.1494 and 0.0496, respectively. So, we can conclude that if there is a will to found and develop night tourism at national level, based on synthesizing tourism experts’ viewpoints, Isfahan is introduced as prior alternative among five studied cities.

The number of decedents of road accidents within a year in Iran is equal to the population of one or some small cities. In these accidents, besides losing a large number of people and occurring serious injuries and disabilities for many individuals, other negative economic, social and psychological consequences will happen. Considering the frequency and the intensity of accidents occurred in Iran’s road transportation, thisstudy investigated the effect of transportation development indicators on frequency of road accidents in provinces of Iran.
It was a descriptive-analytical and a practical study. It investigated Iran’s provinces’ conditions with regard to transportation indicators applying the composite indicators of development and deprivation. Moreover, the effects of these indicators on road accidents variables such as the number of the dead and injuries were studied using Pearson correlation coefficient and Regression analysis.
The results showed that the provinces of Tehran, Isfahan and Mazandaran have better conditions in respect of indicators of road transportation development and the provinces of Ardebil, Sistan & Baluchestan and Southern Khorasan are less developed. More than 50% of changes in variable “Number of dead people” and more than 85% of changes in variable “Number of injured people” caused by road accidents were determined by linear combination of indicators under study. Moreover, those provinces with a high demand rate of transportation have less favorable conditions with regard to traffic safety.
Indicators regarding demand for travel such as ‘transportation companies and institutions’, ‘safety’ and “transportation of passengers and goods” have a significant effect on accident casualties. In fact, more demand for travel leads to more risky behavior exhibition by drivers which, along with the poor quality of road safety lead to more road casualties.

Cities are engines of economic growth and social development, and also the nodes of capital accumulation and specialized services; but, the employment aspect is easily overlooked in urban development strategies. Employment is one of the most important factors through which economic growth can be led into poverty reduction and less income inequality. The study of workers of economic sectors is of great importance; the identification of each sector in the structure of worker population of regions is useful to economic planning for their future development. Regarding the importance of this matter, this paper attempts to study periodic changes of urban population employment in economic parts in 24 seasonal periods since spring 2005 t0 spring 2011, and comparative analysis of employment situation of provinces of Iran and finally, explore the relationship among different economic sectors’ employment. For exploring employment situation and giving clear view of vicissitudes trends of the provinces during the studied period, the assessment of provinces’ employment changes has mainly done in comparison to changes of national level; for this purpose, it was used the third part of shift-share model which determines the economic situation of a province in comparison to national level. This paper also considers the relations among economic triple sectors. The analyses were done by Shift-share model, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient and cluster analysis; the graphs of the trend of employment indicator changes in economic sectors and the maps of spatial distribution of provinces were represented.

Rural sustainable development has different dimensions in which the dimension of social sustainability is of great importance. This dimension follows not only determining the minimum social requirements for long-term development but also recognizing the challenges ahead of the society performance for a long time. As a matter of fact, accessing social sustainability in rural areas requires the recognition and analysis of social sustainability of the villages. Therefore, regarding social sustainability, the present study aims at evaluating, analyzing and prioritizing rural area of Ghal’eh Biaban District (Darab City). The data are gathered through library method, (including books, articles, and statistics) and field method (the questionnaire in the frame of Likert range to evaluate and analyze social sustainability indices). The samples include the families of 7 villages with the population more than 20 families in which 10% of the population was chosen (185 people) as the sample families. Analysis of data was done using RALSPI model and statistical descriptive and inferential methods. Variance analysis was applied for explaining difference among villages in respect of social sustainability, and ranking cases was done through RALSPI method because of reducing substitution possibilities between indicators. This method requires weighting indicators, so the weight vector was calculated using entropy method whose results assumed as input of RALSPI method. The findings reveal that rural areas have higher than average social sustainability, although there are significant differences among the villages. Moreover, based on RALSPI method, it turns out that Fath Abad village has the highest rank of social sustainability while Bikh & Bongol the lowest rank of social sustainability.

With respect to expansion and development of high rise buildings in Iran and their high energy consumption, it is vital to apply certain solutions in order to reduce the energy consumption. Shells and its components are the most essentials factors which impact in energy consumption. Regarding the importance of present research, the relation of openings and energy consumption in high rise building and Tehran’s climatic conditions is discussed. In this research, the basic model of research in regard to annual energy consumption has been stimulated by eQuest. In this process, the opening ratio in basic model is considered 10% and then other tests with 80%, 60%, 40%, 20% as a whole and direction to direction have been carried out. The result displays that the opening ratio and annual energy consumption of research model have a direct relationship in such a way that the reduction of opening ration up to 20% can almost reduce the annual energy consumption to 17%. Also, the effectiveness of opening ration differs in different buildings directions. The priority is given to south, east, west and north.

Proper identification of backward regions is crucial for forming the reliable basis of national and regional development strategies to increase the overall growth rate and decrease intra- regional and inter-regional disparities; therefore, it is very necessary to comprehensively assess the status of regional development with regard to different dimensions of development. The ranking of regions according to degree of development is often treated as the problem of the multi-criteria classification of alternatives. This problem has been solved by applying different methods. The present analysis highlights the fact that Iran witnesses uneven development across different regions. Most of sub-provinces (64% of all sub-provinces) are at the below average level of development. These regions require concerted planned efforts to overcome obstacles to growth and consequently to improve their development level.

The absorption of the overflow of population has been one of the main reasons for establishing new towns and satellite settlements on the periphery of metropolises. A few decades after beginnings of the establishment of these settlements، many residents of new towns look these places as temporary settlement، and if prerequisites of migration are prepared، they would migrate to metropolis as soon as possible. This paper is analytical and causal research that investigates the factors affecting population migration in satellite settlements of Isfahan city. For this purpose and at first step، people’s tendency to migration was examined in studied settlements; for positive cases، the main factors affecting this tendency were questioned; finally these factors were analyzed to determine their portion in this respect. The questionnaire survey was designed to collect needed data، and analysis of data was done by using the method of regression analysis applying SPSS software. Theoretical bases: As previously mentioned the first step of this study devoted to investigate the rate of households’ tendency to migration. Then، among households with positive tendency، related affecting factors were studied; based on this research these factors are as follows: shortcomings in health and curative services، shortage of leisure time spending spaces and shortage of security. The intrinsic importance of these factors is attributed as follow. World Health Organization recognized health as a state or quality of complete physical، emotional، social، economic، cultural and spiritual well-being (Marotz، 2008). Each of these dimensions points one of the main aspects of human health، yet they have close relationship and reciprocal effects. “Basically four important groups of determinants can be distinguished: life-style، the physical environment، the social environment and endogenous individual attributes، either genetic or acquired during life; The physical and social environments، as well as life-style are regarded as exogenous determinants” (de Hollander and Staatsen، 2003). “Urban ecosystem health is not defined as a standard quantitative measurement، but rather described as what healthy urban ecosystems should or should not contain. This statement reflects the vagueness of urban ecosystem health. Based on the acknowledged need to sustainably integrate reasonable human demands and the ecosystem''s ability for renewal، the inclusive factors of a healthy urban ecosystem can be drafted from both the human and ecological dimensions” (Su et al.، 2010، 2427). Mental restfulness and psychological health is one of important dimensions of human health that is affected by life environment attributes. In this respect، “A prerequisite for a sustainable urban environment is that it should not pose a threat to current or future users. The reduction of threats to personal health and the natural environment are the objectives commonly associated with the idea of sustainable urban development. However، in a sustainable urban environment it is also essential that the inhabitants should not have cause for fear for their personal safety and the safety of possessions” (Cozens، 2002; Du Plessis، 1999). CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design) is defined by Crowe (2000) as “the proper design and effective use of the built environment which can lead to a reduction in the fear of crime and the incidence of crime، and to an improvement in the quality of life”. It involves the design and management of the physical environment to reduce the opportunities for crime (Cozens، 2002). WHO has sought to place health more centrally on the sustainable development agenda (Schirnding، 2002). Sustainable development cannot be achieved if there is a high prevalence of debilitating illness and poverty، and the health of populations cannot be maintained without healthy environments and intact life-support systems (Schirnding، 2002). Poor health may cause entire families to drop into abject poverty، because of inability to work or the necessity to sell assets in order to pay for treatment (Smith et al.، 2009). Regional inequality in health could be a result of inequalities in economic development، public health expenditures، and health care services (Fanga et al.، 2010). For some، a commitment to equity in health means that all social groups should have a basic minimum level of well-being and services (Braveman and Tarimo، 2002). Today، investment in health is touted as the route to economic development. Substantially increased fund allocations for health، from both domestic and external aid، are promised to usher in economic growth (John and Abel، 2002). Urban planners have become increasingly interested in how they can help improve human health (Slotterback et al.، 2011). It is widely recognized that the spatial planning of human urban activity is affecting quality of life، health and well-being (Barton، 2009). Health and land use planning are historically linked. Modern planning originated in the nineteenth century expressly in order to combat unhealthy conditions. It was recognized then، and still is، that there is an umbilical link between environmental conditions and human health. The environment is seen as one of the key determinants of health، alongside inherited characteristics، lifestyles، and social and economic variables (Barton، 2009). The result of study show that 39 percent of households tend to migrate to metropolis. The most important factors affecting on tendency to migration to metropolis are as follows: shortcomings in health and curative services، shortage of leisure time spending spaces and shortage of security; these factors was named as “Life Health Factors”. For determining the rate of effect of selected factors on tendency to migration، regression analysis was used; in this way، mentioned three factors were assumed as independent variable and tendency to migration as dependent variable. Results show that these factors explain 78% of the changes of tendency to migration. So، it seems that improvement of healthy city indicators in new towns and satellite settlements - whose one of their main goals is absorption of metropolises’ overflow population- emphasizing mentioned three factors can decrease their people’s tendency to migration to metropolis. The main goals of establishing new towns and satellite settlements in Iran were decentralization، absorption of the overflow of metropolises’ population etc. Achieving this goal depends on making new towns as healthy environments; because these settlements should be alive and responsive enough to be effective in the way of requested aims. The result of this study shows that life health and environmental health are of great importance in this respect; shortcomings in health and curative services، shortage of leisure time spending spaces and shortage of security were main factors effecting population tendency to migration from new towns and satellite settlements to metropolis or downtown. All of these factors are related to human health dimensions; in fact، the mentioned factors have close link with mental restfulness and psychological health، health services etc. However، if new towns and satellite settlements of metropolises are not healthy environments، they cannot act effective in maintaining absorbed people، and they would be seen as temporary settlements and consequently they would not achieved their predicted goals. So، for preventing or decreasing these migrations، improvement of the healthy city indicators and life health factors in periphery settlements is necessary; In fact، the environment of these settlements should have enough attractions to decrease migration tendency.

In this paper، Ranking Alternatives by Limiting Substitution Possibilities of Indicators (RALSPI) method is proposed as a Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method. Many MCDM methods have been developed over the years، but little is known about their shortcomings on similar problems. This study explores the main faults of some of the classical MCDM methods including SAW، TOPSIS، AHP، LINMAP، Numerical Taxonomy and Morris. The rationale for such selection has been that most of these are among the most popular and widely used methods in regional studies of classifying the development level of settlements، and each method reflects a different approach to solve MCDM problems. The RALSPI method resolves significant shortcomings of these methods. Theoretical bases: The typical MCDM problem is concerned with the task of ranking a finite number of decision alternatives، each of which is explicitly described in terms of different characteristics (also often called attributes، decision criteria، or objectives) which have to be taken into account simultaneously. MCDM plays a critical role in many real-life problems; it is hard to accept an MCDM method as being accurate all the time (Wang and Triantaphyllou، 2008). Several methods have been proposed for solving MCDM problems. The major criticism of MCDM methods is that different techniques may yield different results when applied to the same problem، apparently under the same assumptions and by a single DM (Zanakis et al.، 1998). Voogd (1983) found that، at least 40% of the time، each technique produced a different result from any other technique. Practitioners seem to prefer simple and transparent methods (Hobbs et al.، 1992). According to Hobbs et al. (1992) a good experiment should satisfy the following conditions: Compare methods that are widely used، represent divergent philosophies of decision making or claimed to represent important methodological improvements.

The efficiency of a method is not merely a function of the theory supporting it or how rigorous it is mathematically speaking. The other aspects which are also very important، relate to its ease of using، user understanding and faith in the results، and method reliability (Hobbs et al.، 1992). This section presents a new systematic MCDM approach، RALSPI، for evaluating and ranking alternatives. In fact، the RALSPI is a systematic method for decision problems with many criteria and alternatives. The algorithm for the proposed approach will be developed in eight steps. In this method، decisional process is decomposed into a hierarchy of criteria clusters، criteria، and alternatives. The RALSPI procedure is as follows: (In the RALSPI method، the decision matrix and the weight vector w are given as crisp values a priori.

Cities، with whatever function they have، cannot be away from commercial and trade activities. Because، human’s social life and needs call for these activities. Local bazaars and daily bazaars are salient samples of these commercial activities which have existed since a long time ago. In fact، daily bazaars concentrate the commercial activities and this concentration leads to consumer’s simple accessibility and time saving. One of the urban services is establishing daily bazaars to provide citizens’ daily needs sufficiently; based on the municipalities’ law، urban management is responsible for preparing this service. Tabriz city، as one of the metropolitans of Iran، has only five daily bazaars. Regarding the fact that none of these bazaars are located in regions 3and4، suitable localizing and establishing daily bazaars would improve citizens’ welfare. So، preparing convenient accessibility to daily bazaars for citizens of urban regions 3 and 4 of Tabriz city and providing their requirements in the local scale is the main aim of this study. The sum of the population of regions 3and 4 is 639106. Taking the population threshold equal to 40000، the number of needed bazaars in existent condition is 16. For localizing bazaars، all unused land lots were determined using Arc View software (104 lots). Then، these lots were compared and analyzed with respect to land area، slope، land form، accessibility، population density، parking potential، compatibility and land cost، using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Expert Choice software.