Optimal Locating of Educational spaces in Rural Settlements (Case study: Rural area in Khaf County)

Today, educational spaces are one of the most important uses in rural areas and dedicate a large part of rural spaces to itself. Given the nature of activities conducted in these spaces, and due to the sensitivity of such uses and their direct relationship with the families, finding an appropriate space for educational use is of more importance than other service uses. In this study, using GIS and given the factors involved in optimal site selection for educational uses, attempts have been made to examine the optimal distribution of educational spaces in the sample rural areas of Khaf County. To do so, the criteria associated with optimal site selection were considered which included lands with suitable uses such as wastelands, farmlands, ruins, proximity to educational, cultural and residential areas, access to road networks, the radius function of the of current educational use and the suitable area of the buildings. Then, for each of the above factors effective in site selection, data layers were created in GIS environment. For modeling, multi-criteria decision making analysis methods (MCDA) such as Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) were used to weight each data layer proportional to their importance in optimal site selection for educational spaces. Based on the results of data layers integration, ­the lands in each village were divided into four classes so that we can find the optimal spaces for educational uses. In addition, a comparative analysis of the optimal locations with those proposed in the Rural Guide plan revealed that current educational spaces are located in “highly appropriate” and “appropriate” areas.