Journal of Research and Rural Planning
Volume:8 Issue: 4, Autumn 2019

In addition to preservation of and getting religious and legal rights of the government and people, one of the most important goals of ownership and consolidation of national and government domains is to keep and develop renewable natural resources and to allocate them for development of agricultural and productive activities. The ultimate goal of the legislator, has been movement towards comprehensive agricultural self-sufficiency, deprivation reduction, and development in villages. The present study aims at investigating the effect of national land resource allocation on rural sustainable development. As a result, the rural districts of Northern and Southern Bar’an, as a part of the central province of Isfahan, were selected.

The present study is applied in terms of aims, descriptive-analytical in terms of research method, and survey study in terms of data collection. Data collection was performed through library and field studies. The population of the research consisted of farmers of five villages of the Northern Bar’an rural district and five villages of the Southern Bar’an rural district and 30 experts. A sample 260 farmers were selected using Cochran formula.

The results indicated that the effectiveness of the allocation of national and government lands on the dimensions of rural sustainable development is at a moderate level. It shows poor efficiency of allocation of national and public land resources.

Problems like farmers' reluctance to cooperate and questionnaire distribution were among the challenges faced in this research.
Originality/value: Given the importance of the studied region in production and agricultural, the findings of the present study can be regarded a big step in exploiting the potentiality of this region to determine strategies for sustainable rural development.

The irrigated wheat farms of Doroudzan District in Marvdasht County, Fars Province face agricultural water deficit challenges due to mis-management of water resources. This research aims at investigating water conflict strategies among the irrigated wheat farms of Doroudzan Dam Network.

The study was descriptive regarding its nature and used survey research procedure. The statistical population included 803 wheat farmer households residing in Ramjerd 2 and Abarj Dehestans in Doroudzan District. According to Krejcie and Morgan's (1970) sample size table, the samples were 260wheat farmers selected based on simple random sampling technique. Systematic questionnaires were used to collect data by means of face-to-face interviews. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts, and a pilot study was also done to assess the reliability of the questionnaire. The estimated Cronbach's alpha coefficients were between the accepted range (i.e. 0.50 - 0.75) for the different measures used in this study.

revealed that the most prevalent conflicts were intra-group conflicts among the counterparts. Verbal conflicts were the current form of water conflicts regarding the conflict intensity in the region. Physical attacks and third party (police) controls were placed in the second and third position. The results of cluster analysis indicated three clusters of farmers; “educated aggressors”, “low-literate aggressors” and “peace-oriented farmers”. All the clusters were statistically different regarding their demographic characteristics (age and education level), farming-system portfolio (area under cultivation, annual income and cost) and water conflict in response to water shortages. According to the contingency table, collaboration strategy was the prominent conflict management strategy among the three groups followed by compromising strategy.  

The lack of institutional support to get information on conflict attacks among the rural residents and the time-consuming nature of the survey study are the most important challenges in this study.Practical implications-According to the findings, it is of prominent importance to provide the context of problem solving with counterparts. As a result, it needs more attempts to share all the stakeholders’ interests to reach a common decision. It seems that reaching a satisfactory solution needs drawing out different parties’ expectations to help them get organized through collaboration.

Numerous studies have been carried out on water deficiencies. However, this study is the first in the context of rural settlement and valued based on the analysis of the conflict management strategies among famer groups that has not been addressed in previous studies.

Rural women are the carriers of traditional culture and art of Iranian ethnicities inherited naturally and mainly through generations. Iranian rich and native culture can creatively be presented and protected; this can lead the unemployment to be erased, especially in rural areas, while at the same time rural businesses can thrive by promoting the potential of rural entrepreneurial women.

This was a descriptive-analytic study aiming to describe the primary and secondary factors involved in the marketing mix of Iranian local art businesses using a consent-based Likert scale questionnaire developed by Mobaraki et al. (2016). A total of 28 local art entrepreneurs responded to the questionnaire in Tehran and across Iran. The five primary components called 5C including the "networking and communications", "content of local artwork", "creativity", "cultural value" and "artwork creator" and 32 related items were evaluated.

The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed with the Cronbach's alpha of 0.94. Data were analyzed by comparing the means of variables using the Friedman test. The most influential subset in the marketing mix of local art businesses was related to the category of the artwork content, composition and harmony. And the impact of other elements was also determined by considering their impact factors through mean comparison using the Friedman test.

There were plenty of shortcomings observed in the theoretical foundations of marketing the artworks and traditional arts, while the number of women active in manufacturing marketing traditional arts and participating in the relevant research processes was very limited.

Relying on the findings of this research and the model presented for the entrepreneurial marketing mix of traditional rural women's arts as well as training, we can expand business establishments active in marketing and also enhance the selling artworks and traditional arts.

The results of this research can be applied in marketing the traditional artworks of Iranian rural women.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the causes and factors affecting the improvement of rural housing quality (case study: Oraman District, Sarvabad County).

The present study is an applied research in terms of purpose and has a descriptive-analytical nature. Also, in terms of data collection method, it is a documentary-survey research. In the present study, the quality of rural housing was assessed to evaluate the effective factors in improving the quality of rural housing using the relevant indicators. The statistical population of the study was the Oraman District with 2468 households. The samples of the study were selected by simple random method, and the sample size of 345 households was obtained using the Cochran sampling formula.

The results showed that the economic, physical, social and management factors (P <0.000) are effective in improving the quality of housing in Oraman villages. Also, according to the rating level of the indices, the physical dimension with the mean rating of (3.91) has the highest effect and the management dimension with the mean rating of (1.00) has the lowest effect.

Due to the low cooperation of local people and the cultural, ethnic and political sensitivities in the region, this study encountered numerous limitations and difficulties during the distribution of the questionnaire which challenged the research work.

The earthquake happened in Western Iran destroyed many homes and killed many people, emphasizing the importance and quality of housing. Given that there has been no research on housing, especially its quality in this area, therefore, investigating the factors contributing to the improvement of housing quality in the future can reduce many of the human and financial losses.

To identify and prioritize factors influencing the creation of rural entrepreneurship opportunities in Iran

A deductive approach was adopted. In this applied research, a mixed method was employed, which consisted of a descriptive-analytical method and a survey. The main data gathering tool was questionnaire. The research population comprised of university professors specialized in the field of rural entrepreneurship, rural entrepreneurs, rural managers and rural experts (n=30). In the first step, based on a review of literature, indicators influencing the creation of entrepreneurial opportunities were identified, and then the ANP-DEMATEL was used for evaluation and prioritization of the indicators.

Based on cause-effect chart, the economic and infrastructural factors were assigned to the category of causes and individual, socio-cultural and political factors to the category of effects. On the other hand, the economic and political factors had the highest and lowest interaction with other factors, respectively. The results of the integrated analytical network process (ANP) and DEMATEL method showed that the economic factor had the greatest effect followed by infrastructural, sociocultural and individual components (with slight weight difference). The political component with the value of 0.1253 not only had the lowest importance, but was significantly different from other factors in terms of weight values.

Measuring the effects of factors influencing the creation of entrepreneurial opportunities along with their interrelation and mutual impact using a system approach or ISM technique.

Given the myriad of problems affecting rural areas, such as unemployment, migration of rural labor to urban areas and diminished sense of belonging, among other things, it is essential to pay greater attention to entrepreneurship and its implementation to achieve sustainable rural development. Besides, by identifying the root causes and factors influencing rural entrepreneurship, it is possible to offer solutions for organizing entrepreneurship. If policy makers, planners, and rural managers adopt these strategies, sustainable rural development could be reinforced.

Providing the most important indicators influencing the creation of rural entrepreneurship opportunities, prioritizing and measuring the impact of those factors on each other using ANP-DEMATEL method. In particular, the results of this research can benefit managers and decision makers in the field of rural entrepreneurship. The results can also be beneficial to universities, higher education institutions and students.

Land subsidence is caused by natural factors and human activities around the world. Fars Province, located in the south of Iran, is subject to land subsidence due to the uncontrolled exploitation of groundwater, causing damages to the population and human settlements and also environmental, social and economic areas.

The present research is descriptive in terms of describing land subsidence in the case study region, whereas it is also analytical as time series analysis techniques based on Radar Interferometry (InSAR) is applied to monitor temporal changes in subsidence in Darab and Fasa Plains, including 470 rural points. Using 8 ENVISAT ASAR images spanning between 2005 and 2010, nine Interferograms were processed. In the study area. Geographic Information System (GIS) is then used to study groundwater level decline at the well locations in a 24-year period (from 1991 to 2015).

The results of the research confirm that there is a significant correlation between groundwater water level decline and land surface subsidence. Time series analysis of the processed Interferograms indicate the mean displacement velocity map, demonstrating the maximum subsidence rate of 25 cm/yr. The InSAR analysis reveal within the study area subsidence rate of 25 cm/year in 24 years period and locally exceeding 30 cm/yr in the last decade. This area of significant subsidence is limited in its spatial extent to the agricultural land and is partly influenced by the large-scale over-exploitation of groundwater resources in the region study. The temporal and areal relationships of subsidence and groundwater level data suggest that a significant part of the observed subsidence in the Darab region is caused by intense groundwater extraction which has led to widespread compaction within the upper parts of the up to 300m. Socioeconomic analysis and the subsidence hazard map show that 105523 people are generally at risk of subsidence, of 65068 who are at high risk. In addition, there are 2679 socioeconomic infrastructures such as public service at risk of damage by land subsidence.

Limitation in In SAR data access, especially for long-term data was one of the main limitations in land subsidence research and also in this research.
Practical implications- Integrated water resource management and the observed extraction of groundwater could influence the subsidence rate in the regions exposed to land subsidence.
Originality/value- This research will be important to provide vulnerability in regions with groundwater overexploitation.

Examination and recognition of the processes and mechanisms governing the physical environment of villages and the factors of rural landscape structure have its specific and unique characteristics. These valuable features are applicable in the research process, planning, and plans approaches, as well as in spatial planning to pay for the open environment and rural landscape development. Therefore, the main objective of the research is recognition of the landscape identity components in the tourism villages with valuable texture. These components can be used in the plans and texture restoration of the villages to have a sustainable landscape.

The research is a descriptive-analytic study with the quantitative method by applying a questionnaire that completed by university’s professors and authorities of organs that are related to valuable textures with this important question: what are the landscape identity components and which one of them is so important? By identifying the components, extracting the items and operating the components, collecting and analyzing the data through the SPSS software, performing the ANOVA test and Tukey's test, the components of landscape was identified. These components are readability, vitality, beauty, security and safety, diversity and variety, belonging, accessibility, cultural history, semantics, visual proportions, and physical quality, social, economic, and environmental. Finally, their significance has been determined relative to each other.

The main hypothesis was the importance of the economic (functional-activity) and perceptual components that are based on the findings of the research which ultimately have been ranked in the Tukey’s test table based on the importance of ranking. The ten components in the second column of the components are the most important and the three components in the first column are less important components and two common components are in the first and second columns. The results showed that the economic component (performance-activity) was the most important of all with an average value of 2.61. Within the perceptual components; the historical-cultural component with an average value of 2.55 ranked after the economic component (first rank) and social component (second) as the third important component and the average value of social component was obtained 2.55, so it can be said that the hypothesis was confirmed. According to the results, to have a sustainable perspective for the future, all these components should be considered more prominently in the plans and projects than in the past. While the same research has already not been done on landscape identity in villages, then this research can be the beginning of development and applied research in rural regions.

The present study aims to examine the challenges and opportunities for local stakeholders' empowerment related to rural planning in Iran. In general, the current approach of planning process from making decision to implementation and monitoring is based on instrumental rationalism approach, irrespective of the villagers’ viewpoints. Urban – Rural divided planning has created some challenges for sustainable rural development and opportunities for improving environmental-ecological and socio-economic indicators, which have been ignored.

Less attention has been paid to local stakeholders' empowerment in planning methods and procedures, which is regarded as an obstacle for the promotion of the indicators related to sustainable rural development. The present study was based on a descriptive – analytical method. Correlation test and multivariate regression were used to provide a meaningful framework. Library and field studies were used for data collection. Library method was used to understand the impact of policy implementation and planning approach on the socio-economic empowerment of local stakeholders for their socio-economic participation in sustainable rural development and the study of previous research experiences and other countries on appropriate planning. The statistical population of the study is 124 villages in south and southeast of Tehran. Random sample size for completing the questionnaire of local authorities at village level, using Cochran formula and its adjustment formula for small statistical population, with 95% confidence level and probability of 0.05 and prediction of variance S2 0.25 = sample size of 54 villages was achieved. In these 54 villages, 450 questionnaires were completed according to size by specifying sample size in each village .The validity of the research questionnaire was conducted by experts in organizations. The reliability of the questionnaire through Cronbach's alpha was 0.801. 

The results indicated that local stakeholder's generative empowerment is important although unproductive empowerment is increasingly overcoming. In addition, the possible effects of this process have been identified. Thus, problem-oriented planning is necessary for formulating a community-based approach optimally and strengthening social capital, which is not based on current instrumental rationalism approach. Thus, for the best planning with a community-based approach and the reinforcement of social capital, the group to convene is needed in the process and problem-oriented planning is important. This is inconsistent with the techno centrism rationalism approach.