Assessing the role of Economic and Social Empowerment of Rural Households in order to Reduce the Effects of Drought, Case Study: Sarpol-e Zahab Township (Kermanshah province)

Much of Iran, due to its location in the arid geographical belt and desert strip of the world, has special climatic conditions that are among the least rainy regions in the world. Therefore, drought is one of the most important natural hazards in Iran. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of empowerment of villagers in dealing with drought and reducing its effects in rural areas of Sarpol-e Zahab city in the west of Kermanshah province. The present research is an applied research and the method used is descriptive-analytical based on collecting the required data through a questionnaire. Due to the geographical extent of the region and the large number of rural settlements, among the villages located in the political area of ​​Sarpol-e Zahab city that had 100 families and more, considering the natural location, 10 rural points were selected as a sample. At the household analysis level, out of 1966 rural households based on census data (2011), 321 items were selected as a sample using the Cochran's formula and a questionnaire was distributed randomly. One-sample t-test, factor analysis and path were used to analyze the data. Findings showed that from the perspective of local residents, empowerment in economic (3.84) and social (3.60) dimensions has a positive effect on reducing the effects of the accident. The results of path analysis show that access to financial resources, improvement of space and business and local social capital with 0.49, 0.53 and 0.34, respectively, have the greatest impact on economic and social empowerment in order to reduce the effects of the drought disaster.