Introduction
Smart growth is one of the regional planning strategies that aims to create regional balance and prevent degradation in line with the goals of sustainable development, which seeks to create and promote social equality, a sense of spatial and social belonging and preservation of natural resources alongside cultural resources. It also has significant benefits for rural communities through preserving their history and identity, making rural settlements more pleasant and livable, sustainable economic development, creating diverse and more affordable housing options and preserving ecological sustainability. It can be argued that the challenges a rural area is facing even if sometimes similar, can never be the same in different countries. Rural areas or villages need a specific growth that improves people's lives. This is because rural development is essential to accelerate the overall development of any country. However, the unplanned growth of the rural population, unplanned physical development of rural settlements and the improper use of the rural environment have created a situation which calls for the special need for planning in rural areas. A review of the statistics of involuntary rural migration and the problems that migrants create in destinations show the consequences of neglecting the villages, which are the main challenges facing managers and planners. Therefore, paying attention to rural development and sustainability requires more serious and systematic research. One of the proposed strategies in the field of rural sustainability is the smart growth strategy, which is in the form of sustainable development theory. Therefore, it seems that the smart growth approach can provide a way out of instability and achieve sustainable development in rural areas. in addition to identifying the indicators of smart growth and determining the effect and relationships between them, the purpose of this study is the spatial analysis of factors affecting the formation of smart growth in rural settlements of Jiroft.
Methodology
This research is an applied and descriptive-analytical study. we used documentary and library methods for theoretical framework and to investigate the factors affecting the formation of smart growth in rural settlements, field study and the questionnaire were used. The statistical population of the present study consists of two groups. According to the assumption that smart growth infrastructure is probable in large villages, we selected over 1000 people villages as the experimental group villages. Also, in this study, cluster sampling method (multi-stage) was used. For this purpose, in the first stage, among 4 districts of Jiroft County and 14 rural districts of this county, according to the 2016 census, 11 rural districts were selected as a cluster sample. According to the 2016 census, this city has 30 villages with a population of more than 1000 people (Jabal Barez 2 villages, Markazi 21 villages, Ismaili 7 villages). To determine the sample size of villages, Cochran's formula was applied. In this formula, to take advantage of 95% confidence level, accuracy coefficient of 0.05 and variance = 0.15 d2, the sample size of 18 villages has been determined. Among rural households, according to Cochran's formula, 261 households were selected as a sample and were randomly interviewed.
Discussion and conclusion
The extent smart growth and sustainable development affect all members of society from the lowest to the highest level. Therefore, improving the status of smart growth indicators can provide the basis for sustainable rural development. We examined different sources as well as the characteristics of the study area and ended up with seven components of local economy stability, environmental quality improvement, density and intensive development, housing quality improvement, transportation and communication, local community stability, and physical texture improvement. From the perspective of rural respondents, the indicators of rural smart growth, transportation and communication and physical texture improvement, respectively, were the most important indicators of rural smart growth. From the experts point of view, based on a pairwise comparison of components, the components of local economy stability, transportation and communications, housing quality improvement, environmental quality improvement with weights of 0.303, 0.204, 0.132 and 0.126, respectively, were the most important factors affecting smart growth. Also, the components of density and intensive development, improvement of physical texture and stability of the local community with weights of 0.065, 0.081 and 0.089, respectively, are the less important factors. Finally, for spatial analysis of smart growth indices, the combined weighting method of AHP and COCOSO were used. Narjo and Sogdar have the lowest rank in terms of intelligent growth indicators. The research findings are in line with the results of other researchers. For instance, Tregear & Cooper 2016 believes that smart growth can help by making rural settlements more livable, sustainable economic development, creating diverse and affordable housing options, and maintaining ecological, social, economic, and physical sustainability, resulting in significant benefits for rural communities.
Type of Study:
Research |
Subject:
Special Received: 2022/06/18 | Accepted: 2022/05/31