Journal of Research and Rural Planning
Volume:11 Issue: 4, Autumn 2022

 Social sustainability, especially in rural areas, is one of the most important goals of policymakers, planners and managers. However, social sustainability in local communities, such as villages, can be challenged through environmental instabilities. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to analyze the tensions and social dangers in rural areas of Neyshabur, one of the provinces of Iran.

Design/methodology/approach:

 In order to measure the relationship between the independent variable of drought and the dependent variable of social tension, 24 variables were identified in the context of drought, existing tensions and social damage caused by water scarcity in the study area. The required information was collected from documentary studies and also through interviews and questionnaires. One-sample t-test, Pearson correlation, single-variable regression, and VIKOR model were used to analyze the data.

 The results show that there is a relationship between water deficit deduced from drought and 22 social unsustainability variables. Based on the results of the regression test and the amount of obtained beta, respectively, the greatest effects of water shortages deduced from drought was on intensifying rural poverty (0.932), increasing living expenses (0.931), and the destruction of small crop and small cultivation (0.924). Also, the results of the VIKOR model showed that there is a difference between the studied villages in terms of the severity of social tensions.

Originality/value: 

This study has been promising to focus on the effects of drought and water scarcity as an environmental unsustainability in shaping and exacerbating tensions and social injuries. Therefore, the results of this study can be effective in recognizing the social impacts of environmental changes in geographical areas and countries facing environmental changes.

Purpose: 

The consequences of drought and the damages inflicted on the rural community, which are major challenges confronting rural communities to achieve sustainable development, mirror the poor resilience of farmers against this risk. Therefore, the main issue of the current research is to explore the factors affecting Pakdasht farmers' drought resilience.

Design/Method/Approach: This

 paper adopts a descriptive-analytical research method. The data collection is based on library study analysis and field surveys. The main data collection instrument is a questionnaire completed by the subjects (n=381 farmers). Data analysis was conducted using SPSS software as well as t-test, regression, analysis of variance, the COCOSO technique and the COPELAND technique.

The t-test was used to investigate the drought resilience status of villagers. The socio-cultural, psychological, and economic components, except for those related to the extent of damages, environmental factors and institutional performance, and the scale of civil and physical development in the region under study, were in a balanced and favorable condition, but the items of the institutional framework, institutional relations, and technological level and infrastructure were not desirable. The correlation between researches indices in the region is 0.747, meaning that mentioned indices can explain 74% of the variances. The result of the ANOVA test suggested that the villages of Pakdasht County were not significantly different in terms of the psychological index (Sig=0.085) of resilience. Informed by the findings of the COCOSO technique, the farmers of Filestan village are more drought-resistant than the farmers in other villages. Greater participation of people, diversity of economic activities, appropriate physical and civil development, technological advancement and more suitable infrastructure are some of the factors that contribute to the higher resilience of farmers in this village. According to Copeland’s method, the variables of education and awareness as well as the diversity of economic activities of the farmer's household ranked high in terms of importance.

Originality/value:

The results of this research can help organizations in charge of handling drought in the villages of Pakdasht to gain deeper insights into the existing conditions so that they can enhance the resilience of farmers during drought using the presented solutions. It also allows officials to diversify economic activities and promote complementary businesses as effectively as possible.

Purpose:

 Rural-Local Marketing is a significant knowledge that has been associated with agricultural marketing, so the purpose of this concept is to separate the marketing of agricultural products and its lexical depth with a concept beyond the value chain in agriculture. Therefore, the event of rural-local marketing is not involved in production and supply and seeks to discover the dominant spatial patterns on distribution of rural products.

Design/Method/Approach: 

According to this approach, 230 scientific sources (as a sample society) have been examined from the English language sources continuously and focusing on rural-local marketing. From the evaluation of the obtained research sources, a description of the literature in the field of rural-local marketing was presented, and then the communication between rural settlements among these societies with the suburbs and the center with the periphery was explored. Among the set of sources, 22 scientific concepts with the highest frequency were obtained, which were extracted and categorized by the statistical method of confirmatory factor analysis, including: rural marketing, local marketing, spatial model, network model, and integration. In the next steps, the content of all 230 scientific sources was measured with five factors, which tells the distribution learner of time periods and their spatial distribution.

Findings: 

In abstracting the extracted concepts from the research, the details of ten-year and annual time periods, their spatial distribution on the scale of continents and countries have been dealt with in detail and can be identified by drawing the indicator spectrum on the world map, then the mentioned concepts which extracted from scientific sources were criticized and interpreted. In this regard, the leading countries in the field of rural-local marketing include India, the United States, England, and China, and in the next stage, Iran. One of the emphasis of this common study was the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC).

 the present study was conducted with the aim of evaluating and measuring the realization of creative village indicators in Nair County, to provide grounds for creative class of rural community, audience and consumers of creative products outside the village environment by relying on ecological lifestyle processes.

Design/methodology/approach:

 the present theoretical study is conducted with applied purposes using the descriptive-analytical method. The statistical population of the study is 33 villages in Nair County with more than 50 households, having a total of 2937 households. The sample size was estimated to be 340 people based on Cochran's formula. Distribution of the number of samples in the villages is determined in ratio with their population. In order to examine the subject in six dimensions of flexibility, innovation, promotion, risk taking, leadership and participation, 43 indexers were used in a combined manner, based on the studies of other researchers. The face validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by the panel of experts and specialists in this field and the reliability coefficient was calculated for the questionnaire at 0.723. Also, the opinions of 30 experts and specialists were used to give weight to indicators and indexers of the creative village through Swara weighting technique during two stages. The results show that, the average indices of creative village are not in a favorable situation.

 the results of single sample t-test indicated that, the total average of the creative village indicator was 2.993 and rural creativity in the study area is at a weak level and is vulnerable. The results of CODAS technique from the leveling of 33 villages showed that, 2 villages are at the optimal level and 17 villages are at the weak level. Among them, the villages of Golestan and Saqqechi were in the highest level and the villages of Qare Tape and Meymand were in the lowest level of creativity.

Originality/value:

 In the present study, the rural creativity was examined from the viewpoints of both local community and experts using various techniques. And through several referring to experts and specialists, the importance of each index and their prioritization were checked and their accuracy was ensured. Also, most of the conducted studies have examined rural creativity in the field of tourism, while the present study has investigated rural creativity and its realization in general and in all fields.

 Ecotourism is a foundation of sustainable development of societies and a way for conserving natural landscapes and reservoirs. In this regard, rural tourism, especially rural ecotourism, is a sort of tourism that can be highly effective in the revival of villages considering the natural and cultural capacities of these areas. So, this research analyzes the infrastructure for the development of rural ecotourism in Ardabil province, Iran.

The research is an applied study in goal and an analytical study in nature. The research realm includes 311 villages with a population of over 500 people in Ardabil province. The research adopted the TOPSIS model. The criteria used to measure the ecotourism potential included healthcare, transportation infrastructure, business and services, information technology, energy, and cultural, sports, and religious infrastructure. Weights were assigned by experts to the criteria based on their importance.

 The results showed that the villages with the highest potential for the development of rural ecotourism in the counties of Ardabil, Bileh Savar, Parsabad, Khalkhal, Sareyn, Kowsar, Germi, Meshgin Shahr, Nir, and Namin included Somarin, Gug Tappeh, Shahrak-e Gharbi, Shal, Ardi Musa, Zarjabad, Qarah Aghaj-e Pain, Alni, Virseq, and Anbaran-e Olya. In this regard, the village of Anbaran-e Olya in Namin exhibits the best performance across the province with a CL score of 1. Out of all studied villages, 86 percent were placed in the moderate and low category, 2 percent in the very high category, 8 percent in the high category, and 4 percent in the very low category.

The main limitation of the research is the lack of access to up-to-date information.

Given the results, it is recommended to invest in villages that have the potential for ecotourism, thereby contributing to attracting tourists and converting them into rural tourism hubs.

Originality/value: 

The analysis of the potential of Ardabil province, which is a tourist destination, for the development of rural ecotourism can help identify touristy villages to focus on their prosperity.

Owramanat County in Kermanshah province with 14 tourism regions, is one of the best tourist destinations of Kermanshah province, in which the tourism activists have faced challenges during the period of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate and analyze the resilience of rural tourism and identify the key drivers affecting it in the face of Covid-19 pandemic in Owramanat County.

Design/methodology/approach:

 the present applied, quantitative study has been conducted with a combined approach (combination of descriptive-analytical and exploratory methods). The questionnaire method was used for data collection and its validity and reliability have been confirmed by observing scientific principles. In order to achieve the purposes of the study, the opinions of 150 people from the local community active in the field of tourism were used to evaluate the resilience, and the opinions of 30 experts were used to identify the primary factors affecting the resilience and also the views of 25 experts were taken into consideration in order to identify the key drivers affecting the resilience of rural tourism. The SPSS and MICMAC software were used to analyze the collected data.

The research findings showed that, the average of four variables including local government budget, environmental knowledge, community welfare, and social support system as the main components of the resilience of rural tourism were 1.757, 2.358, 1.808, and 2.295 respectively and have been significantly lower than the base average. The overall assessment results showed that the calculated average with a value of 2.014 has been significantly lower than the medium level. The results also showed that, among 17 factors affecting the resilience of tourism, 5 factors of government financial support, financial capital, sanitary equipment, infrastructural facilities and disease control are the most effective key drivers on resilience.

Originality/ value:

 Evaluation and analysis of the resilience of rural tourism in the face of Covid-19 pandemic with an approach of presenting the key indicators and variables in this field and also identification of key drivers affecting the resilience of rural tourism have received less attention from researchers and this proves the originality of the present study.