فهرست مطالب عباس امینی

In the current situation, it becomes more necessary to pay attention to social and economic sustainability, taking into account the challenges and bottlenecks facing developing countries, and in the meantime, rural areas are facing many problems. A significant share of rural instabilities goes back to socio-economic instability, which, in addition to deteriorating employment, income, inequality of opportunity, access to services, basic needs, and the like, also has negative feedback on environmental sustainability. Due to these instabilities, rural areas are experiencing consequences such as urban-rural inequalities, population evacuation, migration, and environmental degradation. Economic sustainability and social sustainability are two inseparable components because individual welfare is not separate from the welfare of society, and the existence of social cohesion, empathy, and tolerance leads to the creation of space in which people feel more responsible and believe that a fairer distribution of resources plays a key role in the long-term survival of society.

The type of research is applied and descriptive-analytical in terms of its nature and method. Inferential statistical methods (one-sample t) and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data. The statistical population of this research uses spatial analysis in GIS for sampling (Using the adjacent layers raster to the province's permanent rivers, settlement density, rural population density, distance from the road, distance from the nearest cities, the province's land layer, slope, and height and their overlap in the final raster and placing the whole province in 3 classes are high, middle, low. Out of 378 villages with more than 20 households, 37 villages were selected as a sample, and 250 questionnaires were calculated and randomly completed by the villagers in 2020-2021.

Numerical mean analysis obtained from the calculation of components affecting socio-economic sustainability in rural areas was obtained among the respondents using questionnaire data. To investigate this issue, a single-sample t-test was used, in which the component of social participation with an average of 3.1646 was higher than the average (3). Also, the analysis of research data with the structural equation modeling approach in PLS software includes the study of model fit in three parts as measurement model, structural model, and general model. Measurement models show the relationship between each hidden variable and its indicators. The reliability and validity of the variables are checked to evaluate the measurement models. After testing the measurement models, it is necessary to evaluate the structural model of the research that shows the relationships between the variables. For this purpose, are examined the coefficient of determination (R2) and the predictive power of Stone and Geiser (Q2). After evaluating the measurement and structural models of the research, the fit of the overall model is examined. The GOF criterion is used to evaluate the fit of the overall model. Finally, the results show that according to the results of t and the significance of path coefficients in PLS software, social stability has a more important role in creating overall stability than economic stability.

Structural analysis of components affecting socio-economic sustainability in order to identify, strengthen, and develop socio-economic factors affecting sustainability in the study area was the main purpose of this study. In terms of components and factors affecting the socio-economic stability of the study area, the results of the one-sample t-test showed that the component of social capital (social participation factor) has the greatest impact on social sustainability in the study area and in terms of economic stability except for the rural investment factor, other factors are in a weak position. The results obtained from estimating the structural equation modeling of fit indices have good validity and reliability. Also, the results of the structural equation modeling technique (in three parts as measurement model, structural model, and general model) showed that social capital has a greater impact on social stability than social welfare. Also, the economic justice component has the most significant impact on regional economic stability.

This study aimed to design a sustainable social development model considering social barriers in Bashagard County. Mixed method was used for conducting this study. The population of Bashagard in urban and rural areas was considered and Morgan’s table was applied to determine the size of the sample. Considering the unlimited statistical population, the maximum number of the sample size, that is, 384 people were selected. In the qualitative phase, 20 professors and 10 experts in urban and social sustainability development in universities, and 10 experts from cultural heritage organization were interviewed. The data collected by the questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS and LISREL (descriptive statistics and inferential statistics). A mix of statistical techniques and descriptive indicators were applied to analyze the data and rank Bashagard in terms of possessing facilities and services. Then, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to design a sustainable development model. Excel and SPSS were used for data analysis, and LISREL software was used for structural equations and the model made by this study. The standard deviation of results showed that the dispersion of responses to research items is higher than average (0.050). The t-test results showed that the t value (8.09) is higher than the standardized t value (1.96), being in H1 zone. It can be stated that the research hypothesis is confirmed at a significance of 95%, meaning that social factors have impacted the underdevelopment of Bashagard County.

Sustainable tourism as an adoptive paradigm, which could be conducive to sustainable development, associated with the local communities’ prosperity and wellbeing is the outcome of local and strategic management of social, environmental and economic resources. Sustainability is achieved by harmonizing the specific values, attitudes and knowledge of each target community. Management of natural resources additionally requires recognizing and considering the views of stakeholders and attitude of beneficiaries as the key component of decision making process. A complex of subjectivities, attitudes, opinions, meanings and representations concerning the oak forests, tourism development and rural area must be identified to achieve comprehensive understanding and assessing of function and sustainably implement of tourism. In order to contextualization of this diversity at the local level, the Q methodology was used that showed be appropriate approach for interpretation and discrimination of existing discourses. Three distinct discourses were identified. The "sustainable rural ecotourism development discourse", is characterized by an unambiguously positive view of tourism and positive aspects of the economic effects of it at the local scale, without paying attention to its macro dimensions and negative effects. "Conservation discourse incompatible with tourism development" has a great emphasis on the dimensions of environmental protection and the possible negative effects of tourism development in natural areas, due to its focus on the protection of forest ecological areas, it does not agree with the development of forest-based tourism, and development of tourism beyond the regional concerns is pivotal in "trans-local mass tourism development discourse", with the aim of getting out from national economic crisis, were identified.

Asking questions about the nature of a rural area, attempting to identify its traits, and construing the rurality realm are some of the discussions in rural studies. The concept of rurality has remained ambiguous and concentrating on its different magnitudes and grades is necessary. In scientific discussions, different definitions and categorization methods have been proposed for measuring rurality differences. The population density, population decrease and increase rates, size of habitat, structure of local economy, accessibility, and landscape are some of the studied parameters in this area. The most operational definition, which is used in quantitative studies, is based on spatial and demographic theories as they present a simple definition for geographic categorization. Most of rural areas have undergone population growth regarding their continuous developments. It seems that there is a population stability in some of these areas even if they have not got an enhancement. This article aimed to structurally review and analyze temporal and spatial evolutions of demographic rurality in Isfahan Province.

Isfahan Province as the study area has got 88 and 12% of urban and rural populations according to the census of 2016. The village was the unit of analysis in this research. The statistical community included all villages with more than 4 households (totally 768 villages) based on the databases of two latest housing and population censuses conducted in 2006 and 2016. Considering the mentioned censuses and taking several correction steps, the research data and variables included the number of households, male and female populations (6 years, over 6 years, 10 years, over 10 years, under 14 years, 14-64 years, and over 65 years), total population, number of literate persons, and number of employees. The processed indicators for modeling and analyzing demographic rurality and its evolutions in the studied time sections could be mentioned as family size, sex ratio, youth rate, aging rate, aging ratio, dependency ratio, dependency burden, literacy rate, employment rate, and population growth rate. These indicators were operationalized and calculated cross-sectionally at the beginning and end of the period and longitudinally for evolutions over the period.

After studying nearly 800 villages during the decade, a slight decrease in family size was observed. The sex ratio had averagely increased by 17/3 people. There was a slight decline of the youth (25/0) in the villages. However, there was an extreme range from decreasing by 32 to increasing by 36 in this regard. The aged population had also increased slightly by 76%. Also, the indicator of aging ratio almost showed a similar changing procedure. The dependency ratio had nearly remained unchanged. There was only 22 units of increase in the dependency burden, ranging from 58 to 10. The average literacy rate had undergone an overall increase of 28.3%, but there was a vast variation after considering the villages separately. The employment rate had decreased 86.1% in return. There was not a considerable change in the total population of the villages. It had only decreased to 192 people, which showed a growth rate of 0.004 with the variation of 21 to 6/20% among the villages. Overall, the structural components for rural population in the province had nearly remained unchanged during the studied decade.A significant structural model was found in the province based on the statistical modeling performed for analyzing demographic rurality and its evolutions with the indicators of family size, sex ratio, literacy ratio, aging ratio, dependency ratio, and youth ratio in 2006. The indicators of aging and dependency ratio were compatible with the family size, literacy rate, and youth ratio with a negative impact on demographic rurality, while aging ratio played an intense negative role in it.Spatial analysis was regionally and separately done for 3 types of villages in Isfahan Province based on the developments of population configurations in the rural mountainous, plain, and desert areas. The positive changes in the rates of population growth, household dimension, and literacy and negative changes in the aging rate were observed to be similar in all the studied areas. There was more similarity in the structural changes of rural population in the plain and desert areas, which were weakened by changes in the dependency ratio and strengthened by changes of the sex ratio, thus remaining in equilibrium. In return, the negative changes of employment rate and more appropriate position of the young population within the age composition had caused more weakening and strengthening in the structural changes of rural population in the mountainous areas, respectively

Rural areas have experienced various evolutions in terms of structure and function, causing some vagueness regarding rural conceptions and identities. Agriculture, as the most fundamental rural activity, has had severe evolutions. This paper aims to structurally analyze the spatio-temporal evolutions of agricultural rurality in Isfahan province by conducting a comparative study considering villages consisting of more than four households during two agricultural censuses in 2003 and 2014. The same variables were extracted and two series of cross-sectional and one series of longitudinal indicators of agricultural rurality and its evolutions were calculated. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal evolutions were modeled using structural equation modeling and bootstrapping procedure. Rate of employment in agriculture, stakeholders’ per capita land, irrigated lands and irrigated cultivation were the indicators affecting agricultural rurality in both years. Results generally showed that water as input and its sub-indicators have a more determinant role in agricultural functionality than land; also, this functionality has mainly been based on farming rather than gardening. Regional analysis on the mean structures of agricultural rurality indicated the negative impact of the changes in employment rate in agriculture and farming stakeholders and contrarily the positive impact of the changes in farmers’ literacy rate and gardening stakeholders on the evolution of agricultural rurality among three groups of mountainous, plain and desert rural regions. This impact has been more influential in terms of employment and literacy rates. The changes of irrigated lands have only affected the evolution of agricultural rurality in desert rural regions.

A country that wants to develop must have an entrepreneur. People with knowledge in a field of specialization, high risk-taking power and creative and innovative, all of which depend on the intrinsic values ​​of entrepreneurs. Factors that are considered important in the development sector. Spiritual life does not necessarily mean belonging to one of the institutional and historical religions, but it does mean having an attitude towards the world and man that gives man peace, happiness and hope. The research method is qualitative and has been done with the aim of the role of spirituality in entrepreneurship. In this research, the theoretical method of data foundation has been used. For this research, 10 interviews were conducted, but after 9 interviews, data analysis did not lead to the discovery of new concepts and categories. However, to ensure theoretical saturation, 5 more interviews were conducted and their data were analyzed. The data collection tool is a semi-structured interview based on the findings of this study of different environments (different biospheres) Pluralism-Normative relativism-Individualism-Eclecticism were identified as causal factors that affect the process of spirituality on entrepreneurship. Familiarity with schools of thought and sports such as yoga - experiences of poverty in the family, the occurrence of the imposed war, the Islamic Revolution, the spread of Islamic ideology in the decades after the revolution, religious upheavals were identified as mediating factors. Personal growth, personal satisfaction, self-transcendence, self-knowledge and self-knowledge, cost-reward analysis, knowing others, helping others as strategies and independence, innovation, empathy, social responsibility, self-writing, altruism as consequences Were.

The research is a study on rural areas of Bamposht district from Saravan County in Sistan and Baluchestan province and assesses the impact of the borderline situation of rural settlements upon their developmental status. The statistical population consisted of the villages’ households. Totally 342 householders from 25 villages of more than 20 households were selected as a statistical sample by stratified random sampling. Data gathered via field operations. The dependent variable of the research is the level of development of studied villages, which has been measured comparatively by using the multi-criteria evaluation methods. Moreover, independent variables were contained population and the distance between village’s border and district center, economic status, border economies, border exchanges, exchange security and accessibility. Data has been collected at the level of the household heads and has been summarized in order to change the measurement level by averaging the relevant sub-samples at the village level. According to the results, the developmental level of 84% of the studied villages was moderate and lower, and the border economy has not have any effect on rural development, despite the high role played by the livelihoods of the studied communities. In addition, border economic activities has have a significant negative relationship with security of exchange and accessibility. Because of it, these activities are performed without structural backbones, mainly from unofficial channels and smuggling; and if they are beneficial activities, they are completely personal and will have no interest for developing the region or improving the situation of the community.

The formation of villages as the core of civilization and activity can be attributed to the environment. However, there have been major challenges in socioeconomic continuity of villages due to the decline of agricultural functionality as the most significant environmental function. This study aims to consider the evolution of agricultural functionalities in rural areas of Markazi Province over the last decade. Based on the objective, the study is applied one and descriptive – analytic in methodology. To this end, all villages with more than the 20 households in two censuses of 2003 and 2014 were taken into account. Then, all the similar agricultural variables in two time sections were extracted and 20 indicators for each section were defined and calculated. Following the statistical description and evaluation of the distribution of the indicators, agricultural evolution of rural areas was modelled in two time sections using structural equation modeling based on bootstrapping approach in AMOS Graphics environment. The path coefficients and their sign at the beginning of the period revealed that the rural areas’ agricultural identity at the beginning of the period was mainly based on farming than gardening and based on the land than water. However, the results of the end of the period showed that the land has been replaced by water. Therefore, the declining trend of changes in the agricultural functionalities the study area during this period was significantly influenced by water. Establishing an integrated organizational structure in order to land and water resources’ policy regulation and decision-making along with a provincial governance to implement the policies and decisions, beyond the sectoral approach, hopefully is a suggestion that can help to solve the problems agricultural identity of rural communities is engaged with. 

Accurate and real time information on land use and land cover and their changes is very important in urban management decisions, ecosystem monitoring and urban planning. In recent decades, widespread changes in land use of the Khan mirza plain as one of the northern Karun watersheds have occurred, that need to monitoring these changes.In this study, Landsat 5, 7 and 8 satellite images and TM, ETM, and OLI sensors for the period of 1996, 2006, and 2016 were used to produce of land use and land cover map of Khan mirza plain by four methods maximum likelihood, artificial neural network, minimum distance and Mahalanobis distance and theirs Kappa coefficient were evaluated.The results of the evaluation of the accuracy of these two methods by using Kappa coefficients have shown that the artificial neural network algorithm is more accurate than the maximum likelihood algorithm. Also, by results of two algorithms of artificial neural network and maximum likelihood with an overall accuracy of 90.29 and 86.79, all of land cover maps were classified in six classes (agriculture, rangeland, residential area, rocky and bare lands, gardens and flatlands).The analysis of the classifications showed that agricultural and residential classes had a rising trend, 62.5% and 3.5%, respectively, and rangeland, rocky and bare lands and flatlands were decreased.The largest change is related to the conversion of rocky and bare lands class to the agricultural class, which 1673 hectares of rocky and bare lands in 2006 changes into agricultural lands in 2016. Another obvious land use change in this area, are change of rangelands into residential areas, which 40.8 ha of rangelands changed into residential area.In overall, this research showed that the best way to produce of land use map in the study area is to use artificial neural network algorithm. According to the results, it is suggested using this method to produce of land use change map for this region.Accurate and real time information on land use and land cover and their changes is very important in urban management decisions, ecosystem monitoring and urban planning. In recent decades, widespread changes in land use of the Khan mirza plain as one of the northern Karun watersheds have occurred, that need to monitoring these changes.In this study, Landsat 5, 7 and 8 satellite images and TM, ETM, and OLI sensors for the period of 1996, 2006, and 2016 were used to produce of land use and land cover map of Khan mirza plain by four

According to studies conducted by the International Water Management Institute, 65 countries with a population of over 7 billion will be facing water scarcity in 2050, which means that even with the highest efficiency and productivity, there will be a problem to meet the water needs. About 25 percent of world population, including Iran, is in this group. In this research, the indices were identified for measurement using the library method and the research background. Measurement of the indices and changes was done through the data from the general census in 2006 and 2016, comparing aerial photos, questionnaires, and field studies. Changes in access to water resources have led to different reactions to balance and adapt to new conditions. Investigating the sample population of the study showed that the change in agricultural water resources did not significantly change the population in rural areas, which could be due to different conditions of the region, including its proximity to Qom and its effects. Increasing the cost of exploiting water resources, such as increasing the depth of wells, dredging of aqueducts, and covering creeks, etc. are also associated with the change of water resources, and more importantly, these measures are related to life satisfaction and the immigration incentives and job opportunities. Generally, it is concluded that facilitation measures should be taken for producers to reduce their operating costs, to increase life satisfaction level and job opportunities and as a result to decrease immigration incentives.

Salinity is one of the most important factor that prevents plant growth and physiological development. To study the soil application of zeolite on alleviating the adverse effects of salinity on milk thistle, this research experiment was conducted in research greenhouse of College of Agriculture, University of Tehran, Karaj in 2016. The experimental treatments were arranged as factorial based on randomized complete block design with three replications. The first treatment was salinity levels of irrigation water including of control (as check), 4, 8, and 12 dS/m, and the second treatment comprised of different levels of zeolite application in soil (control, 0.01, 0.05 and 0.1%). The result indicated that salinity had adversely effect on the vegetative and physiological characteristics of milk thistle. Application of zeolite at 0.05 % in salinity levels of control, 4 and 8 dS/m increased the plant total biomass by 38, 43, and 41%, respectively. Application of zeolite at 0.05 and 0.01% increased the potassium and decreased sodium content in the root. Also the lowest Na+/K+ ratio (1.65) was achieved at severe salinity level (8 dS/m) while zeolite was applied at 0.05% level. As the salinity increased, the antioxidant activity in the plant was also increased. Result of this experiment showed that application of zeolite could be considered as a solution to modify the adverse effect of salinity in milk thistle.

Land use intensification refers to the increase of land productivity and yield through human activities. Despite the potential challenge of unsustainability, land use intensification is the main approach of de-veloping agriculture and meeting the increasing food demand. It also serves as a measure for the eval-uation of agricultural efficiency. This study is an attempt to evaluate and analyze the intensification of legume cultivation in Khorramdasht rural areas of Khomain County. The statistical sample of the study consisted of 183 stakeholders, and the data were gathered primarily via field work with a question-naire whose validity was confirmed formally and its reliability was statistically assessed with a pretest. Land use intensity, as the main variable, was quantitatively operationalized and measured based on a normalized weighted linear combination of the components, specialized cropping, proportioned mean farm area, productivity level, machinery coefficient and fallow period intensity. The relative weights were calculated through factor analysis followed by the normalization of the first component’s factor loadings. Despite the large area under legume cultivation, the results revealed that nearly 98 percent of the farms are intensified below the average level while only 2.2 percent are above it. The increment of land-use intensity is technically easier to achieve in systems that are currently at a low intensifica-tion levels, but low land-use intensities do not necessarily imply strong development and yield in-crease in the future. In this regard, the process of land use intensification has led to a marked diver-gence of the economic performance in the study area. At the same time, poor agricultural policies and management practices call for more attention and deliberate planning procedures in the future.

 settlements are actually the primary spatial patterns of man and nature interaction, reflecting the environmental effects on community behaviors. Inevitable evolution of these patterns temporally, also affecting from environmental factors as well of none environmental ones. One of the major structural evolutions of rural areas, beyond a demographic one, is extraordinary migration depopulating some villages, namely rural exodus, which can be considering as a geographical phenomenon related to the environmental contexts. Transformation of irregular extended rural-urban migrations to the escape of rurality and rural life style is one of the serious environmental, socioeconomic and structural dilemmas of third world under developed countries. Technological evolutions and especially the information and communication revolution in recent century have extended the broadness, impacts and importance of this phenomenon. The problem originates from the incompetent structures and foundations for encountering the contingences of the new era. These situations are unfortunately reproduced in all of the third world countries as Iran as an unavoidable reality that generates and expands a significant abnormalities and shortages against the indigenous development process of the societies, especially rural communities. In the other words and from a systemic point of view, rural-urban migrations and escapism of villagers toward the cities, is one of the chain-work mutual interactivities among the weakened communities to encounter the new world mechanisms and arisen institutions, which is occurring as a last resort. In such bi-polarized societies, the process of development has been imbalanced towards the urban areas. Centralization of investments in the forms of developmental infrastructures and import technologies often in the progressive urban areas has changed them to the destination of mass populations of undeveloped and under developed rural areas. This action is taking unavoidably place as a last resort against the new global contingences, which has weaken and disabled the old traditional societies and their orders for living now and here.

This study is aimed firstly at identifying of depopulated rural settlements over a quarter century since 1365 (1986) by 1390 (2011) in Isfahan province and secondly representing an environmental interpretation of the phenomena, using statistical methods and spatial analysis in the geographic information system environment. To do this, at first, layers of the spatial distribution of settled villages of 1365 and identified depopulated ones over the two and a half decades period of the study have based on the detailed reports of public censuses’ results of Iran statistical center identified and prepared in ArcGIS environment. Afterwards, the rural settlements exodus analyzed based on the prepared environmental layers of altitude, slope, aspect, temperature, land types and distance from wells and springs, spatially.

Spatial analysis of exoduses in relation to each of these environmental factors indicated that there is a significant relationship between exoduses and environmental factors of slope, land types, altitude and distance from wells respectively. While that wasn’t true for aspect parameter. Environment’s potential (or poverty, contrarily) emanates from mutual and especially none compensatory relationships between all environmental factors. Therefore, the land inhabitability necessitates the least liability of all none compromisable environmental functionalities and their simultaneity to guarantee the communal durability and livelihood. Taking this principle into consideration, the exodus of rural settlements also analyzed based on the overplayed raster layer of all studied environmental parameters, calculated as their weighted linear combination (WLC), using map algebra in ArcGIS. To do this, at the first the layers normalized linearly so that the negative (or cost) criteria such as slope and distances (the less, the better) and the piecewise linear or moderation criteria such as altitude and temperature, transformed both positively (the more, the better) and re-ranged from zero to one. The operation performed using the linear and fuzzy normalization procedures appropriately. Flowingly the different relative importance of the layers evaluated and obtained using the eigen vector method, based on the experts’ pairwise comparison judgements. Like the previous individual ones, two statistical indicators calculated and used for spatial and environmental analysis of rural settlements’ exodus; “the settled villages density at the beginning year of 1365” and “relative percent of depopulated villages over the study period with respect to the total beginning settled ones”. The indicators calculated separately for each of five environmental potency/poverty classes verified using the natural breaks method in GIS. The standardized scores of overall environmental potency/poverty for any of the classes calculated using the “zonal mean statistic” function from the spatial analyst tool of ArcGIS. Correlation analysis of environmental potency/poverty and previously mentioned indicators, revealed 80 percent positive relationship between the environmental potency and settling density, and contrarily 56 percent positive relationship between the environmental poverty and relative exodus percent.

Although the role of the environment is undeniable in both formation and the exodus of rural settlement, its role is more determinant in terms of formation and continuity of rural settlements compared to their exodus and depopulation. It is perceivable that the exodus and depopulation of rural settlement is affected by various none environmental parameters and mechanisms even more than environmental elements. In this regard, internationally it is mentionable that the predominant industrial development approach caused by the industrial revolution and the information and communication revolution of the contemporary era, have also deepened the gap and inequalities between the quasi-developed urban and undeveloped rural areas of the third world countries. The strategy of rural areas in facing of these undesirable national and international situations interacting with environmental disadvantages has commonly been expansion of the rural-urban migrations, in some instances as a geographical phenomenon of villages’ depopulation and rural exodus. Both of the rural origins and urban destinations have disadvantaged from such of unavoidable rural depopulation. In this regard, counter-ruralism is the attitudes and psychological situation of villagers, drives them to leave the village. It is so that the synergic trade-offs between the “poverty of environmental functionalities” and “socio-economic insufficiencies” reproduce and accelerate this inauspicious phenomenon, conducting subsequently to delay and deficiency of the whole society’s development process.

This study is aimed at identifying of depopulated rural settlements over a quarter century since 1365 (1986) by 1390 (2011) in Isfahan province and representing a geographically interpretation of the phenomena, using statistical methods and spatial analysis in the geographic information system environment. To do this, at first, layers of the spatial distribution of settled villages of 1365 and identified depopulated ones over the two and a half decades period of the study have based on the detailed reports of public censuses’ results of Iran statistical center identified and prepared in ArcGIS environment. Afterwards, the rural settlements exodus analyzed based on the prepared, corrected and classified natural parameter layers of altitude, slope, aspect, temperature, land types and distance from wells and springs, spatially. Definition and calculation of two spatio-statistical indicatorsdad been the basis of analysis; “the settled villages density at the beginning year of 1365” and “relative percent of depopulated villages over the study period with respect to the total beginning settled ones”. The indicators calculated for each of the layers’ zones using the “zonal mean statistic” function from the spatial analyst tool of ArcGIS and analyzed statistically by correlation and Chi-Square tests. Results revealed that there is a significant relationship between exoduses and natural factors of slope, land types, altitude and distance from wells respectively. While that was not true for aspect parameter. The influence knowhow of natural factors on rural exodus, helps the landuse planning projects to more consider them and ensure the more stability of rural settlements agains the more exodus in the future.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the situation in Qom and its regions in terms of the water poverty index, which identifies the zonal differences and the dimensions and strengths and weaknesses of each. The basis for determining the Water Poverty Index is the Sullivan method, which is a weight linear combination of components (resources, costs, environment, capacity, and access). The required data were collected through related organizations and analyzed in the framework of this method. There is a difference between the five sections of the county in terms of poverty. Weakness in resources is a common feature among zones which is sever in some zones and moderate in the others. Also, in terms of human capacity, almost all regions have a good status that can be regarded as a strength. Water consumption management as the most important option should be at the forefront of planning and considering the inability to expand water resources. Currently, more than twice as much of renewable water resources are being extracted. The best way to manage water poverty is to make optimal use of available resources and capacities and to focus on research principles, rather than focusing on the expansion of water resources in a variety of ways, which can increase the territorial imbalances, domestic disturbance, and lack of control on consumption and so on.

Currently, one of the most serious problems of agriculture in Iran is agricultural land use changes. This is a second fundamental issue after water shortage. Land use change is the main important example of human impact on the environment which induced many changes in social, economic and physical structure. So this investigation conducted to study the land use trend and their influence on sustainable development components. In this study Zayandehrood basin of Isfahan province was selected as the study area. In the present study in consistent with the nature of the research, Quantitative-qualitative methodology were used. According to the results the rate and speed of land use change process in studied area was intensely increased, as settlement lands during the study time increased from 14 thousand hectares to nearly 39 thousand hectares and their effects on sustainable development component could be divided in four elements (environmental, economic, social and agricultural).

Salinity stress is one of the most limiting factors in plant growth and physiological activities. To extend crop production in saline regions, application of plant promoting growth substances like Chitosan is necessary to modify the adverse effects of salinity. Milk thistle is an agro-medical plant that is familiar as a weed. However, Silymarin (which is produced by Milk thistle as a secondary metabolite) is one the most important material for treating such disease as; liver diseases, blood fat, diabetes, hepatitis, and cancer. Application of bio stimulants is one of the solutions for decreasing adverse effects of abiotic and biotic stresses on plants and increasing quality and quantity of plant yield production, so chitosan is a compound that induces defense mechanisms against stresses.
This experiment was conducted to evaluate the soil application of chitosan on vegetative, generative and physiological activities of Milk thistle in 2016. The experiment was conducted in Research Greenhouse of College of Agriculture the University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran. The experimental treatments were arranged as factorial based on a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The first factor comprised of four saline irrigation water levels of control (Urban water with 1.2 dS m-1), 4, 8 and 12 dS m-1 and the second factor was application of different levels of Chitosan consisting of control (without chitosan application), 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 percent of chitosan based on 1-kilogram dry soil weight in Rhizobags. Chitosan with high molecular weight was purchased from Sigma Aldrich. 12 seeds of Milk thistle were sown in each plastic pot (23×24 cm diameter and height) containing 8.0 kg of soil, at the depth of 2 cm. After 72 days planting, plants with a uniform growth were selected for experiments. At least three plants were randomly selected from each treatment. The plant root and shoot were cut at the base and weighed to determine the dry root and shoot weight. Samples were dried at 60οC for 48 hours, and their mean root and shoot dry weight were recorded for each treatment at each replicate. Also, Statistical calculations were done by SAS software, 9.1 version, and means were compared by Duncan multiple test with 5% probability.
The result showed salinity stress had significant effect on all of the growth, physiologic and ionic trait (p≤0.01). Mean comparisons in chitosan levels showed the maximum total biomass, leaf area meter, relative water content and membrane stability index were achieved with application of 0.05% nano chitosan. In 4 dS m-1 saline water, the highest total dry mass was obtained at 0.01% of chitosan by increasing of 21.6% compared to control (p≤0.01). In all of the salinity levels, chitosan application increased the leaf area index in compared to control (without chitosan application). The maximum leaf area index (4.264) was achieved in 0.05% chitosan concentration under non saline condition. Under 12 dS m-1 salinity, application 0.05% chitosan concentration decreased by 10.4% and 16.5% in sodium content and sodium potassium ration in shoot, respectively. The mechanism of action of chitosan on growth is not clear. It was also found that chitosan may induce a signal to synthesize plant hormones such as gibberellins and enhance growth and development by some signaling pathway related to auxin biosynthesis. Chitosan stimulates vital processes of plants on every level of biological organization, from single cells and tissues, through physiological and biochemical processes, to changes on the molecular level related to the expression of genes. The result of the experiment demonstrated the adverse effect of salinity on growth, physiological activity, and nutrient content in Milk thistle. Application of chitosan at 0.05% (v/v) in soil could modify the adverse effect of salinity on total biomass, leaf area index, relative water content, and membrane stability index; however, 0.01% chitosan concentration was more effective on photosystem II efficiency.
Based on the result of this experiment, salinity stress has negative effects on growth, physiology and mineral element contents of Milk thistle. Application of 0.01% of chitosan could modify the adverse effects of irrigation water salinity on Milk thistle. Generally, application of chitosan could decrease Na effects in the Milk thistle, so the rate of Na in the shoot and root was decreased under high levels of salinity. The present study demonstrated that chitosan can be used as an ecofriendly compound to protect milk thistle plants as well as to enhance growth and biochemical parameters under saline water.

The sweeping social, economic and cultural changes that have occurred in recent decades have brought about major difficulties for nomad communities in continuing their lives with past practices. Settelment is an approach to manage some of these challenges in view of both some practitioners and nomad community. But, the policy doesn’t reach to desired objectives and conducted sometimes to unfavorable consequences. This study has investigated the consequences of nomads settelment in Dasht-e-Roum region of BoyerAhmad Township, both in the guided settling sites (Hossein Abad, Mansour Abad and Talkhdan) and the spontaneous one (Tangari).Totally 219 household heads interviewed from the whole 280 household community to gather the needed data and the reliability of questionnaire assessed 0.89 using theCronbach’s alpha test. The main consequences, based on the factor analysis, were the promotion in the situations of dwelling, facilities accessibility, social relations, economical foundations, settling environment health, households’ income, collective collaborations, some social damages and landuse changes (environmental degradation). Most ofthecultivated lands had change from the rainfed system to irrigated and per capita livestock reduced after the settelment. So, despite the obvious change of livelihood style from husbandry to farming, the main consequences of settelment were the social changes, access to services and relative stability of dwelling followed by economical bases, occupation and income situation. Generally, the 15 precedent years policy of settelment hasn’t had a considerable impact on productivity and evolution in nomads economy and livelihood. The major consequece has been the change of economic structures from productive sectors to other occupations with some differences among the four studied settling sites.

Rural societies, which are meeting more than two-third of food supplies, play an important role in providing food security in Iran. But, there are evidences which indicate that the situation of food security is unsuitable in comparison with urban areas. This situation result from some reasons that have not been considered yet. Therefore, this research is aimed at measuring food security and delineating its future challenges in Iran rural areas. To do this, household House Holder in 24 rural settlements were selected in Badr District as a case study. In quantitative section, for measurement of food security, a standard an international questionnaire from United States agricultural ministry were used, which its validity and reliability had been confirmed in several studies. In this phase, 175 of household House Holder were estimated as statistical sample and their point of views were examined. In qualitative part, data, which were collected from interview with key and knowledgeable, were continued until reaching to theory saturation by using purposeful sampling and snowball method and collected data were analyzed using Ground Theory Method. The results of quantitative section showed that food security is in an unsuitable situation, around 6.3% of persons placed in food security situation, 9.7% of persons in food insecurity without hunger, 25.1% of persons in food insecurity with moderate hunger and 58.9% of persons in in food insecurity with severe hunger. So, based on these results, there isn’t any significant relationship among studied rural areas in terms of food security. The results of qualitative section in relation to food security challenges also showed that there are five main challenges about food security in study area, which have a continuum relationship with each other. These challenges are: weak of policy making, weak of economic situation, continuum, environmental hazards, cultural obstacles, social changes and agricultural unsustainability.

The aim of the present application which was carried out using descriptive analytical, is the Food Security Status and Measure food security implications on rural communities. The study sample was composed of the All heads of rural households Ravansar Township, using Cochran formula, Have been selected as a sample of 180 household heads. The main research tool is United States Department of Agriculture Questionnaire (USAD) and used to assess the implications food security questionnaire which confirmed its validity and reliability respectively, using the expert opinions and Pre-test, with a total of 30 questionnaires in a village outside the study area. Questionnaires were distributed according to geographical basis, in the 17 villages of the study area. The data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling (data is a combination of Independent variable food security six variables Quality of life, Destroying property, Pressure on water resources, Land use change, Principles of Sustainability and Degradation of pastures, forests and wildlife). Show results for food security situation in the study area have food security 25 percent of people and 75 percent in the group of food insecurity (Food insecurity without hunger 26.7 percent, Food insecure with moderate hunger 23.9 percent and Food insecure with severe hunger 24.4 percent). Show results for food security implications the fitted model on the rural residents Ravansar Township and have a food security greatest impact on destroying property, Pressure on water resources and degradation of pastures, forests and wildlife variables, respectively, with a total effect of 0.402, 0.304 and 0.262.

IntroductionSustainable management of scarce agricultural water resources is an unavoidable necessity for countries facing the incremental water demands and suffering from water deficiencies, such as Iran. In order to reserve the limited existent water resources, dam building can potentially help the more efficient use and allocation of them. Nevertheless, implementing the policy without true comprehensive assessment of its consequences, especially for target communities, can practically lead to destruction of surface water resources and deprivation of natural and human ecosystems from these essential resources. This study aimed to evaluate the attitudes of the villagers residing at the basin of Zhaveh dam in Sanandaj township of Kurdestan province towards the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the project under construction. Implementation of a dynamic and stable program for rural communities entails comprehensive environmental and socioeconomic studies on water resources management projects, such as construction of dams.
Theoretical FrameworkDamming projects are often believed as development attainment tools. The economic impacts of dams on neighboring communities and residents are usually improving the job and income opportunities and available water for agriculture. These positive economic impacts, assumed as the main objectives of dams, are obvious in short terms. Contrarily, negative impacts, which are imposing much more costs on the environment and society, are realized in longer terms. Due to the dominance of structural thinking in the opinion of policy makers, rivers have been the victims of aggressive human developments for enhancing regional economies, similar to the enclosed water bodies. Therefore, dams are built one after another to store water in reservoirs in order to support agricultural activities, increase power generation, and secure urban water supplies. Different experiences of serious ecosystem damages, water quality degradation, inundation of historic sites, land use changes, water seepage, and increased downstream development under the perception of increased water availability make the Iranian dam construction pride questionable. These problems are normally the products of the rapid investment and growth in one sector without considering the dynamic relationships of the growing sector (e.g., economy, agriculture, and infrastructure) with other sectors (e.g., water, environment, and ecosystem) in the absence of an integrated view of the complex human-natural system of systems. A paradigm of thought, which separates “development” from “environment” and implements such aggressive shortsighted regional development plans have resulted in unintended hydro-environmental problems whose long-term costs are significantly higher than their short-term benefits. As a result, growth in one sector has caused secondary negative impacts on other sectors (e.g., ecosystem losses) and a long-term negative feedback or impact on the original sector (e.g., forced migration due to increased water and air pollution). If timely regulatory actions are not taken in these cases, the unintended damages can become irreversible.
MethodologyThe case studied here is the Zhaveh dam in Kurdestan western province of Iran, which was under construction by the year of study, 2014. The statistical population was the villagers of Sirvan District of Sanandaj County, which have directly or indirectly been exposed to the project impacts. 250 household heads were selected as the sample determined by Cronbach test. The required data was gathered primarily and secondary via survey and field operations. To do this, a detailed questionnaire was designed and validated to interview the respondents of 13 selected villages of the region, containing attitudes towards the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of the project. The impacts were evaluated considering two phases: the construction period, since the project’s beginning by the time of the study and the time of the dam water supplying in the future, separately.
Results & DiscussionAccording to the results, some benefits, such as the relative increasing of cultivable lands around the dam, have occurred. Nevertheless, serious vulnerabilities such as loss of noticeable fertile lands, elimination of permanent surface water resources from the ecosystem, and changing other dam downstream land uses have been the considerable consequences of the project perceived and clarified by the residents. In this regard, attitudes towards the dam impacts after water supplying in the future, has been evaluated as more important by the residents, compared to the phase of its construction period. The economic and environmental damages of dam construction considered by the villagers were related to their livelihood instability, losing and inefficiency of their agricultural productive resources, and the undesired impacts on their social relations. However, the villagers’ sense of place and residency motivation remained invulnerable. Relating and assessing the respondents’ attitudes with the macro attributes of their villages revealed that the mentioned negative impacts are evaluated as more influential with regard to the increase in the villages’ population, arable lands, and the distance to the dam location. In fact, the construction of dam has been evaluated as a threat against the region’s dwelling capability and livelihood sustainability.
Conclusions & SuggestionsDam projects are usually implemented considering the national and regional macro objectives, and contrarily the least participation of local communities, in spite of vast environmental and socioeconomic consequences for them. Taking regional and national necessities into account and prioritizing them over the local and rural socioeconomic situations in planning and implementing of dam projects deviates their consequences from their initial objectives. Hydro-environmental and settlement threats are the most important damages, which emerge due to a consideration of the national and regional needs and the infrastructural advantages of dams and neglecting the sustainability requisites of the involved local communities. Unavoidable feedbacks of such processes are irreversible and irremediable for the whole system viability in the long-term.

Evaluation and perception of villagers from their rural life is influencing by several tangible and intangible factors, as well of the reality of their own living. This self-evaluation images the objective circumstances and subjective reflection on their life. By measuring this self-evaluation, it is possible to assess their settlement conditions and development level, and their attitudes toward rural life and its contingences, especially compared to urban life, as well. By defining and operationalizing a close comprehensive rural self-evaluation scale for measuring the quality of life, it can be evaluated both the living and thinking sphere of villagers, reflecting the physical and objective conditions of settling rural environments as well of their mentalities and attitudes towards rurality and ruralism especially compared to urbanization and urbanism.
The present study aims to assess the villagers’ self-evaluation quality of life and casually analyze its determinants in some rural areas of Isfahan and Kerman provinces of central Iran, based on a sample of 239 household heads size, stratified proportionally and selected randomly to primarily gather the needed data by field operations. Providing a conceptual framework for measuring the self-evaluation quality of life and scaling its comprehensive set of determinants has been a major part of the study. The scale has comprised two ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ dimensions, including sub-scales of “state of existential balance”, “realizing of life potential”, “fulfillment of needs” and “objective factors” measuring the ‘objective’ dimension and “well-being”, “satisfaction with life”, “happiness” and “meaning in life” measuring the ‘subjective’ one. Based on literature reviewed, the set of independent variables has also contained age, socioeconomic situation (SES), housing situation, environmental properties, facilities, social capital, recreational activities, relative deprivation and stressful factors. The analysis procedures performed using advanced statistical methods of structural equation modeling (SEM) and path analysis in order to evaluate and interpret the interrelationship and causality structure among the variables.
Exception of some neglects, description of the variables showed no difference in quality of life evaluation between the twin age, gender, marriage and geographic region groups of respondents. The complex and multiple interrelation of the variables and their direct and indirect effects on the quality of life evaluation has casually analyzed and interpreted using the advanced path analysis and structural equation modeling statistical procedures. In addition to the main structural model for analyzing the quality of life evaluation, five casual path models have also analyzed in detail for assessing the interrelations of independent variables, based on the identification and configuration of conceptual-analytic framework of the study. Referring to the total direct and indirect effects, the socio-economic status (SES), dwelling situation, recreational activities and facilities have respectively been the most positive and then, the sense of relative deprivation, stressful affaires and age the negative factors influenced the villagers’ evaluation of quality of life. Model fit indices and some future recommendations have represented finally.
Among the measured and studied determinant variables of rural quality of life, two non-significant variables of environmental situations and social capital are collective ones in nature, in contrary of others. This indicates and reveals that the self evaluation of rural peoples from quality of their lives do not correlates with their attitudes on collective affaires. Contrarily, the personal view points and their families’ situation have been the main determinants of this evaluation. Accordingly, the individual needs and problems are nowadays more important determinants and preferred apprehensions than collective affaires in view of villagers for their quality of life. This individualism is in the contradiction with the old and long lasting collectivist properties and determinants of rural communities in the past and seems be due to the deep and widespread technological evolutions and especially the information and communication revolution in recent century, apprised local communities the gap and inequalities between the urban societies and them.