Economic viability analysis of rural settlements in Sowme Sara county

The concept of livability is one of the new and emerging concepts in the literature of geography and rural planning that focuses on the ability of place. Currently, the poor living conditions in the rural areas of our country have caused the villages to face many challenges in the economic, social and environmental fields. Consequently, it is necessary to pay attention to the viability of rural settlements. The statistical population of this research is the villages of Sowme Sara county. The aim of this study is to analyze the economic viability of rural settlements in Sowme Sara county by descriptive-analytical method. To achieve this goal, library resources and field studies based on the distribution of questionnaires and interviews with 377 heads of households living in sample villages (20 villages selected by stratified random sampling method) have been used. In order to assess economic viability, five components of employment and income, household expenditure, agricultural status, land and housing value, and tourism status were identified. In this study, one sample t-test analysis, multiple regression and path analysis were used in SPSS software. The results showed that the economic viability is lower than the expected average. Also, the amount of livability is directly affected by the employment and income index (0.422) and tourism index (0.269).