Journal of Research and Rural Planning
Volume:5 Issue: 2, 2016

In our country, rural women have a great role in agricultural activities in most of the regions. Today, in national and international development programs, a special place is given to half of society i.e. women. Training as key pillars of development of nations is considered as the key activity in the development of rural women (half of the population). In this context, if agricultural training programs are well anticipated, planned and executed, they could be effective in increasing quantity and quality of agricultural production and finally improving the incomes of rural households. Accordingly, it is important to investigate women participation in training courses in order to achieve sustainable rural development. Therefore, the main question of this study is what are the mechanisms affecting rural women's participation in extension and training courses in Isfahan?
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK : Participation is a process in which members are actively involved with knowledge, freedom and responsibility to achieve a common goal. Regarding the definition of participation, individual and socio-cultural characteristics are among factors affecting participation in activities. Of course participation in voluntary activities and educational and extension activities were also affected by the same factor. Even due to the specific characteristics of participation in such activities, individual and psychological characteristics, personality, and social and economic status of people is more important compared to participating in other activities. Generally, factors affecting participation include: 1) demographic factors such as age, marital status, number of children and age of children, 2) socio-economic status including income, education, social class determined by oneself or others, employment status, home ownership and other physical properties, 3) Physical Social Profile: Gender, ethnicity, physical health and physical abilities, 4) Personal characteristics and capacity, including extroversion, socialization, friendship and social self-esteem, survival, identity, psychological adjustment, satisfaction, happiness, dominance, independence, achievement motivation, effectiveness, flexibility, adaptability and willingness to change the mood.
This research uses descriptive survey method. The population of this research includes rural women (93593 = N). Cochran formula was used to make a sample of 195 people (P & Q= 0.5; d=0.7). The survey instrument was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by a panel of experts. To determine the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used (0.73). The data were analyzed using SPSS software.
The results showed that the mean age of women was 48.5 years; the youngest woman was 22 years old and the oldest woman was 71 years old. Furthermore, the results of the analysis also showed that the average education level of the respondent's education was 2 years and the level of their education ranged from 0 to 14. In addition, 16.4% of the subjects had low and very low participation, 47.9% had average and 35.7% had good and very good participation.
The findings from correlation analysis demonstrated that rural women's participation in training-promotional courses had significant relationship with age, level of education, husband's level of education, number of children, working with rural communities, attitude towards training courses, view of the villager's toward women's participation in educational programs, insights about the quality of previous training courses, relationship with urban communities and viewpoints about the usefulness of the previous training courses.
The results of multiple regression analysis showed that variables including husband's level of education, relationship with urban communities, view of the villager's toward women's participation in educational programs, viewpoints about the usefulness of the previous training courses and attitude towards training courses had a significant impact on the dependent variable of the research, yet the impact of other variables were not significant.
Due to the low level of education of rural women of Isfahan and its significant relationship with their participation in training -extension courses, it is necessary to plan in order to execute proper educational programs for adults. Therefore, it is suggested that certain measure be taken to increase rural women knowledge through training classes such as the Literacy Movement. As a result of such measures the participation of women will increase in such training- extension courses regarding agriculture and rural life.
Since villager's viewpoint toward women's participation in educational programs is the most important variable for women's participation in training courses, it is proposed that women's participation be established through the creation of proper local conditions. To achieve this goal, villager's viewpoint toward women's participation could be enhanced via the implementation of appropriate programs. In this context, the media such as radio and television, which have a lot of audiences in many villages, could be helpful.
Given the negative correlation between the number of children and women's participation in training courses, it is proposed that at least during the designing training programs, certain facilities be provided to take care of young children of these women, thus providing care for the children does not impinge on women's participation in training courses.

Tourism industry is known as one of the most thriving, attractive, job- creating and greatest industries in third millennium. The growth of this industry, despite its many positive economic advantages for hosting communities, has had some adverse consequences particularly on environmental aspects that have led to increased concerns among the experts and planners. As a consequent, various methods have been presented since the 1980s which aim to evaluate human activities on the environment. Ecological footprint analysis (EFA) is one of those important methods used for one decade in different fields. Hence, the purpose of the present research is to evaluate tourists’ activities on natural environment using ecological footprint index.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: The concept of ecological footprint was first proposed in 1996 by Reese and Wackernage in British Colombia University. This idea refers to the value of productive land required for meeting consumption needs of population and absorption of all their wastes. In fact, the results of the application of ecological footprint analysis indicate where human beings impose pressure on natural resources. Methods used based on the framework of ecological footprint include combined (deductive) and inductive calculations. Combined method is based on national consumption data; hence, it is suitable for national ecological footprint calculations. In inductive method, consumption categorization is performed based on components division and it is mainly applied in regional analyses. This method is known as a concentrated (top – down) approach meaning that at first the value of performed activity is determined based on the population and then these energies are converted to the main land use; afterwards, they are converted to the universal area unit in order to provide comparison with other sectors, organizations, and regions.
Generally, inductive approach provides a more perfect picture of conflicts related to material production and it shows significant relationship between primary productions (agricultural and mineral production) and secondary productions (industrial production).
The present study is an applied research and the methodology used for this purpose is descriptive- analytic. Statistical population of this study includes all tourists visited Veshnaveh village during 2012. According to statistics presented by village council and also touristic complexes, the number of tourists was estimated to be 100,000. Therefore, the size of sample (about 350 individuals) was calculated using Cochran formula. The method of footprint calculation is deductive (combined) including following stages: 1- Estimation of per capita consumption of main materials based on total data of the region under study and dividing the total value by the number of population;
2- Estimation of the land assigned to each individual for production of each item consumed through dividing the average annual consumption of each item on the average annual production or land yield.
3- Calculation of average of total ecological footprint for each individual through summing up all ecosystem regions assigned to each individual.
4- Calculation of ecological footprint for the population of each under planning region (N) is obtained through the average product of ecological footprint of each individual in population size (N x EF = Fp).
5- The data used for estimation of the land size required for providing each one include food, transportation, rubbish, water, electricity, and oil.
It must be noted that the main components investigated include electricity, water, transportation, food, and rubbish.
DISCUSSION & Many studies have been conducted concerning ecological footprint in urban and rural studies field; however, the present study is distinguished from prior studies in that it investigates the effects of tourism activities on the environment and that the selected model enables us to evaluate from local scale to global scale.
In this study, the effects of tourists’ activities on such sectors as transportation, rubbish, electricity, water, and food were investigated in Veshnaveh village. The results indicate that the rate of ecological footprint of tourism in this village is equal to 10751762 hectares that is 180 times more than the area of this village (60 hectare).
This situation compared to the environmental capacity of village that is 657 global hectares indicates high rate. These figures are calculated according to the standards presented by global footprint network (GFN) in 2008 by which the environmental capacity of each individual was calculated as 1.08 hectare.
The practical solutions concerning the modification of consumption pattern are the development of public transportation for village visitors, public training concerning consumption methods and observing environmental health, gas delivery to the villages instead of oil and gasoline that are more pollutant than natural gas.

1. Human as the main component of society and economy had a requirement that food security and healthy food nutrition was initially and major. Food insecurity and hungry can be affect on human health in the first stage, and social and psychological consequences in addition. Food security is a complex condition that its dimensions were availability, access, utilization and stability. The ability to access food rests on two pillars: economic and physical access. Economic access is determined by disposable income, food prices and the provision of and access to social support. Physical access is determined by the availability and quality of infrastructure. Ttherefore, monitoring food security and mitigating food insecurity in the any community was necessary. The purpose of study was to investigate food insecurity and its related factors in rural female headed households in the Islamabad Qarb county.
2. This study was a descriptive survey research and the statistical population of the study was rural women heads of household in the Islamabad Qarb county. 107 heads of household were selected by random sampling method. Data collection was accomplished by using questionnaires were filled out using interviews with the participants. The stundardaized questionnaire were used that the questionnaire was validated by a 5-member panel of experts and its reliability was confirmed through pre-test of data tool and Cronbach Alpha (α=0.92). To assess the level of food security, HFIAS index, regression and discriminate analysis were used for food security analyzing.
3. Results showed that 25.2 percent of households were in food secure level. Also results showed the other heads of household in low insecure level (51.4 percent), 21.5 percent in moderate level and 1.9 percent in severe food insecurity level. The results of HFIAS analysis showed the most of household food insecurity refers to food that family members do not like, because it was not possibility for providing proper foods. The results of the regression analysis were explained four factors including to: knowledge, supporting organization, the number of dependents and income that it explained 62% of the total variance of food insecurity. Also, the four levels of food insecurity were approved and appropriately fitted by discriminate analysis.
4. Final strategy is empowerment of rural women not is support and taking dependent to government. But in early stage, social protection and other measures that increase the incomes of poor families to buy food, they can have an even more positive effective and spur rural development, by creating employment opportunities, equitable opportunities for women in rural development.
Some of the most important factors in reducing the problems of rural women heads of household were: creating job opportunities, appropriate supportive mechanisms behalf of government, making of appropriate culture for families to support of training for mentioned families, and training of skills for home based business.
Ultimately, rural women's empowerment, political stability, effective governance, uninterrupted long-term commitments to mainstreaming food security and nutrition in policies and programmers are key to the reduction of rural women's hunger and malnutrition. So it can be expected that those factors which had high priority will contribute to related actors and organizations to apply food security of rural women heads of household strategies. It can be expected that those factors which had high priority will contribute to related actors and organizations to apply food security of rural women heads of household strategies.

1. Tourism is one of the most efficient processes used to encourage economic growth in countries that due to producing single product or limited energy sources have motionless and vulnerable economic system. In other words, tourism in modern terms is considered a phenomenon which is an inseparable part of today’s industrial society and is an important “ring” in the chain of recycling in the society. Therefore, entrepreneurial activities of religious tourism in rural settlements, fundamental acceptance of synthetic responsibilities against people (occupation, hygiene, education, human rights, benefits, continuity of financial and economical incomes as well as conservation of resources and environment) are considered as undeniable necessities for a good entrepreneurship by companies and organizations, and a great switch is being undertaken from maximization of value for stock-holders to maximization of value beneficiaries. The objective of the current research is to study the beneficial effects of religious tourism entrepreneurship in rural areas and their possible effects on economic growth along with rural development in the rural areas.
1- Does increasing tourism have a positive effect on entrepreneurship space in rural areas?
2- Does increasing tourism have a positive effect on occupation income and decreasing emigration from villages to cities in the case study rural area?
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: In terms of rural tourism, we can state that, on one hand, preparing new opportunities for most of villages brings livelihood, and that on the other hand, uncontrolled development of those areas leads to social and ecological damages in rural accommodation. The surveys reveal that the development of tourism in rural areas can have positive effects such as life quality, increasing rural population's cooperation, increasing mental health of the rural population and economic stability. One of the most important types of tourism that can have good effects in the development of rural areas is supposed to be religious tourism. The evidences left from great civilizations of the Middle East and ancient Egypt and etc., and also the evidences remained before history reveal that from very long time ago a lot of people set off for religious travels, in a way that huge mass of pilgrimages had accepted any kind of danger in order to do their religious duties and even had started very long travels in order to do so. In fact, religious wandering and tourism has a deep “root” in religious beliefs and credence’s of people. Hence, entrepreneurial activities of religious tourism in rural settlements, fundamentals acceptance of synthetic responsibilities against people (occupation, hygiene, education, human rights, benefits, continuity of financial and economical incomes, and also conservation of resources and environment) is considered as an undeniable necessity for a good entrepreneurship by companies and organizations, and a great switch is being undertaken from maximization of value for stock-holders to maximization of value beneficiaries.
3. This study is an applied research and in the present study explanation of religious tourism and its effects on rural development has been studied. This study is a practical one and the descriptive-analytical methodology has been used, the data were collected through field and library data collection methods (questionnaire, questioning and observation) and the descriptive statistic methodology (e.g., calculation of frequency, variance, and the mean value) and deductive methodology (e.g., the correlation coefficient, the single sample T parameter, the Tokay test and the Freedman test) were used to analyze the data.
4. The importance of this study lies in emergence of obstacles to the creation of entrepreneurial ideas in the field of religious tourism and investigation affecting factors on employment, income and migration in rural settlements.
5. The results of the present study indicate that religious tourism had not effect on the creation of entrepreneurial ideas; however, among different component of occupation, income and immigration, occupation was the only aspect influenced by religious however apparently non-native settlers and the households settled in vicinity of the holey shrine of Imamzde Hajiseirn were influenced more than the others.

1. Today a major part of the world's population lives in rural areas and to provide welfare and poverty alleviation in these communities, rural sustainability and maintenance is considered as one of the rural development goals in recent decades. Therefore, to achieve dynamicity and welfare in villages, new technologies should be addressed in the rural communities. At present, information and communication technology (ICT) is growing worldwide and the effects of applying this technology in various fields, especially small businesses has been revealed more than past. Furthermore, access and use of new technologies, especially information and communication technologies should be seriously considered for a better rural life. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of information and communication technologies in industrial units located in rural areas of Hamadan city.
2. The present study is an applied research which is done by a descriptive-surveying method. The most important independent variables in this study were industrial unit's access to ICT in rural areas, the rural business type, discipline, education, participation in training courses related to ICT, and the familiarity to the software. Meanwhile, the dependent variables were economic impacts, social impacts, training-skill effects, customer satisfaction, and marketing. The research population included all 205 active units located in rural areas of Hamadan city in 2014. Sample selection was done through Cochran's formula and a number of 125 samples were calculated. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by specialists. Its reliability was calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. In order to analyze the data, one sample t-test, F test, and Pearson correlation coefficient were used.
3. Results about the extent of ICT's impact on industrial units in rural areas showed that the highest rate of ICT impacts were related to the variables like optimum use from time, reducing administrative costs, reducing the human costs, better data processing and financial transactions. The results about barriers to ICT use showed that lack of manager's computer experience and knowledge, people and official's unfamiliarity with ICT functions, lack of manager's knowledge about modern technologies, lack of training courses about ICT issues for staff were the most important obstacles for using ICT in industrial units of rural areas. Findings revealed that the highest impacts of ICT in industrial units have been regarded as increasing revenue and marketing while the social and customer satisfaction impacts of ICT were relatively lower than other variables. The results showed a significant relationship between the ICT's knowledge of employees with and the amount of ICT usage in these units. The results also showed a significant relationship between both employee's education and their participation in training courses with use of ICT in industrial units, but there was no significant relationship between the use of ICT and some independent variables such as age, experience, and discipline.
4. The results show that the use of ICT has been effective in increasing income and reducing small businesse's costs. Therefore, it is recommended, to better produce and better compete in industrial units, more attention should be given and more measures should be developed for using the ICTs.
Based on the results of the present study, the use of ICT has been effective on customer satisfaction as well as small businesses marketing. It is therefore recommended that to make these units more active with each other and strengthen their interaction with customers, necessary financial support and facilities should be available to improve information and communication infrastructures. The results showed that people who participated in training courses used and addressed ICT more than other employees. Therefore, it is recommended that the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, as well as all other relevant institutes encourage more training courses related to information and communication technologies for both managers and employees in rural industrial units.
Despite the importance of the industrial units in the rural areas, the use of ICTs, how to use these technologies and their effects on the industrial units have not been considered and studied in Iran, yet. The originality of this research is to find answers to such questions as what effects the use of ICT have on reducing costs, increasing revenue, improving marketing, and purchasing industrial products. The results of this research may be used by authorities and policy-makers on rural development and ICT both in Iran and other nations that have similar situations.

1. Knowledge-based cultural industries are among new economic opportunities for all countries in the 21st century. Cultural industries are parts of economics of new knowledge. Governments promote measures that lead to the support and development of cultural industries. Creative industries have 13 subsets and handicraft is one of them. This article investigates the effective factors in the development of GIVE (KELASH), handicraft of Kordistan, as one of the country's handicrafts. Despite its unique qualities, it has not developed so much.
One of the features of GIVE (KELASH) is that although it is rather expensive, it has innumerable proponents in Kurdish areas. On the other hand, both tools and formation procedure are primitive that cause hardship and serious damage to producer. Model of this product has not changed during years, and if there has been no creativity, it couldn’t have attracted the attention of marketplace. In addition, the production process is hard and time-consuming, and the time spent is not economical in comparison with the production cost.
The studies show humane resource need creativity, skills and aptitude, entrepreneurship attitude, ingenuity and motivation. Handicraft producers should use business skills and technology in addition to having a perception of art. This should accompany material and spiritual support of creative individuals and creating a collective and comprehensive workplace so that producers use other's knowledge more and better. On the other hand, changing handicrafts to consumer goods and its entering to family consumption basket, eliminating tourism obstacles, government's support for presence in international markets, formation of cooperation institutes for initial materials, and using other's experiences are effective; indeed, preventing immethodical imports of foreign handicrafts for preventing crisis in this industry is also necessary. Factors such as plurality and distribution of handicrafts units, weak financial condition, and interference of profiteer brokers in providing materials and buying products, maker's ignorance of consumer's taste and new production methods, repetitive design, lack of a trustee and concentrated organization in this industry, competitors and factory products are among the obstacles. Moreover, lack of packing, insufficiency of number, weak advertisement, and bad quality of some goods are some of the weak points.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effective factors in development of KELASH handicrafts. This issue brings about prosperity of handicrafts and leads to gaining resources and producing occupations.
2. The method employed in this research is developmental in terms of objective, qualitative in terms of method, or in other words, case-study and action research using data-based theory, and survey study in terms of data collection method. Open interviews with key knowledgeable individuals in handicrafts area and producers of this industry as well as some active persons in providing facilities to domestic workshops, and active social entrepreneurs in equipment of countrymen were done. In the action research part of the study, data collection and analysis were done alternatively. Analysis was done with the first observation and continued with interview and next observation. The important point was the matter which was referred to in all groups, and that is the fact that conspicuous product should be updated. Manual production procedure, different characteristics of workshops and producers, and protection of cultural authenticity in these two methods were not concordant, and a solution for this consistency was needed to be found in next interviews. Hence, solutions and indications which were presented one by one in the next interviews were gathered in the codification procedure and a good solution for elimination of the problem was proposed.
3. DISCUSION : After investigation and analysis of data, it was concluded that aboriginal knowledge and academic knowledge should be integrated with a standard procedure. Seventy-three categorical phrases were extracted in codification stage. Five elements of model emerged in selective codification stage. There are five steps in selective codification that put five elements of model in a coherent way to formulate a theory.
The first step is determination of central category that shows the main concept of research. The central category or issue is that KELASH is not updated that is a ley factor in lack of improvement of the above mentioned industry. In the next step, the categories around central matter was specified.
4. In the present conditions that upper hand documents guide both people and authorities toward resistant economics and reliability on internal capacities and opportunities, development of cultural industries such as handicrafts in Iran, as a cultural and civilized country, is necessary. Therefore, firstly the government should resolutely improve the conditions of this market and develop the mentioned product by using interlopers like media, educational and financial constitutions and make conditions for updating this product. In this condition, determination of government and help of interlopers improve the macro-milieu by humane forces and cultural development.
Achieving the purpose is possible through formation of constitutions and centers such as bunches and rural service centers and other direct measures in internal and near milieu. In this condition, economic, social, cultural, and environmental accomplishments resulted from the development of mentioned industry will appear and it is a step toward permanent development. This research proves that even a small and local handicraft in Iran has the capacity of being a huge and national industry and plays an effective role in economics and culture of country.

1. So far, different strategies have been proposed for rural development in different periods of time. Based on international experiences and the current conditions in Iran, this country needs to use a new approach to rural development. In this regard, rural entrepreneurship development strategy can be pointed out. There is a growing consensus that entrepreneurship is the process through which new economic activities and organizations come into existence. Keeping this in mind opportunities are central to this process. The literature about entrepreneurial opportunities has grown rapidly since 2000. Considering the earliest stages of development of new economic activities in villages, this marks bring about redirection of entrepreneurship studies. However, theoretical and empirical issues have been limited to important aspects and dimensions of the role of opportunities and their interaction with actors. But, entrepreneurial opportunity emerges from the nexus of individual aspirations with economic and social conditions perceived as favourable to create a new product or service, either in an existing market or a new one. Entrepreneurs discover, evaluate, and exploit opportunities, and rural areas are full of opportunities for rural youths.
The main purpose of this study was to determine the effect of strategic thinking and social capital on recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities among rural youth. This study also aims to investigate the demographic characteristics of rural youth, identify the situation of recognition entrepreneurial opportunities and their components, identify social capital components condition, and identify situation of strategic thinking components.
2. In this study, a quantitative method of descriptive-correlation was used. Research area was Kangavar County where four villages (Qazvineh, Dehlor, Fash, and Godin) were selected. Data was gathered through a questionnaire distributed between the rural youths whose age ranged between 20 and 35 (N= 9207). The sample size was determined to be 225 using Bartlett Table. In this study, systematic random sampling was used. Research variables were social capital, strategic thinking and identifying entrepreneurial opportunities. Social capital components consisted of social solidarity, socio-cultural values, social participation, social security, social trust, valuing life, acceptance of differences and social communications. Strategic thinking components were systematic thinking, conceptual thinking, cleverly opportunism and futurity. Moreover, indicators of identifying entrepreneurial opportunities were environmental competitive scanning, seeking pioneer opportunities and innovative strategy of creating opportunity. To measure these variables a five-point Likert scale (1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree) was used. In this study, data were analyzed using AMOS and SPSS softwares. The validity of instrument was determined by investigating the views of faculty members of Razi University. And the reliability of the questionnaire has been confirmed using pilot test and Cronbach's coefficient alpha.
3. The findings showed that rural youths are weak in terms of identifying entrepreneurial opportunities. Results showed that the model fit is appropriate. The results showed that the social capital of rural youths and strategic thinking was moderate. Among the components of strategic thinking, futurism, and among the components of social capital, social participation had the highest priority among rural youths. Having used Amos software, Model fitting results revealed that, social capital and strategic thinking, respectively, predict and explain 54 and 49 percent of changes of entrepreneurial opportunities recognition. In the research, the final model showed that social capital variables and strategic thinking had positive impact on opportunity recognition. Accordingly, reinforcing components of social capital among rural youths can have a strong relationship with strategic thinking and increase this type of thinking. In general, considering that the characteristics of youth entrepreneurship, (including social capital and strategic thinking) will have an impact on youth entrepreneurship intentions, it is expected that rural youth entrepreneurship intentions and their entrepreneurial skills should be improved. Hence, promoting entrepreneurial characteristics of rural youths is very necessary for them to become entrepreneurs in the future and increase the possibility of influencing their productive employment. Based on the findings, it can be offered that different trainings, such as social skills, management skills, expressiveness skill, persuasion, and social adjustment should be available to the rural youths.
4. The researchers of the present study found that variables such as appreciating the lives of rural youth, futurism, conceptual thinking and opportunism of rural youth had a direct relationship with entrepreneurial opportunities recognition. Rural researchers and planners can use the findings of this study to boost entrepreneurial activities and ventures among the rural youth. These results must, however, be treated with caution because this study is restricted in terms of subject into entrepreneurial opportunities recognition among rural youths of Kangavar County.

1. Today, tourism compared with other economic sections has many advantages for local communities so that it has been discussed as an economic panacea that lifts viability in remote areas, stimulates revitalization of settlements, improves the living conditions of rural communities, and is the catalyst for economic and social reconstruction of rural areas. Cultural tourism is one of the models of tourism in rural areas. At present, most of rural areas of the country have cultural richness, historical background, and valuable historical and cultural monuments. Specific properties of rural communities such as local habits, customs related to food and clothing, architecture, historical monuments, music, art, and local languages etc. are considered as hidden cultural capacities in rural communities that can benefit them well in tourism. Unfortunately, despite cultural richness and diversity of rural areas of Binalood, this kind of tourism did not have appropriate development. However, Binalood has historical and natural link with Toos and Mashhad and regarding cultural and historical heritage, it is an inseparable part of the old civilization of Toos and Mashhad. Lack of attention sometimes leads to corrosion and decline of cultural properties (theft, use changing, destruction, etc.). In order to improve and develop cultural tourism in rural areas there is an increasing need to identify challenges of cultural tourism in respect to conditions and properties of the province. Thus, this study aims to address the following research question.
Q: What are the main development challenges of cultural tourism in rural areas?"
2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: Studies show that culture has a distinct role in tourism activities, especially, in rural areas. Customs, habits, and local identity are resources that tourists want to experience. In this kind of tourism, the traditional culture originating from the distant past attracts many tourists in rural areas that still have cultural authenticity. It means that some writers consider culture as the cornerstone of tourism development. In a report by Europe Travel Committee in 2005, two external and internal issues of cultural tourism have been spoken about; internal area includes the first element of cultural tourism and can be divided into two sectors, namely, historical monuments tourism, and art tourism. External area includes the secondary elements of cultural tourism and can be divided into two parts. Lifestyle and creative industries are generally studied in two axes; the first axis of tourism is related to cultural heritage of a place. In this view, the historical dimension of a community is important while in the second axis the present time and current culture of a community is the target.
3- This study is an applied developmental research with a descriptive-analytic method. Data collection is based on documentation and field study. Challenges facing tourism development in rural areas were identified and were prepared in form of questionnaires. They were given to 40 authorities and experts of Cultural Heritage, Handcraft, and Tourism Organization. They were also given to 30 local elites in potential villages to provide perspectives. Due to the high number of identified challenges and unknown relationships between them, in this study we used exploratory factor analysis test which is a mathematical method for data reduction.
4 - The aim of this study is to analyze the factors for detecting unobservable factors based on a set of observable variables. In this study, five main unobservable factors were identified from a linear combination of 18 observable variables. Management challenges are the most significant challenges identified in the field of cultural tourism in Binalood. This factor which was detected by 5 observable variables with high correlation coefficient, explains 36% of variance by itself. Marketing and advertising weakness in cultural tourism, concentrating on ecotourism and unimportant role of cultural tourism in tourism development plans, and threatening historical attractions by constructions, etc. are issues of a more fundamental factor called management challenges. Then, 10.9 percent of explained variance are planning challenges, 8.9 percent are regulatory challenges, 6.8 percent are ultra-structural challenges, and finally, 6.8 percent are legislation challenges of explained variance.
5- Today, visiting cultural resources is one of the largest and fastest growing parts of tourism industry. Studies show that the optimal model for tourism development in Iran is cultural tourism due to cultural background and high volume of cultural tourists in the world. The most significant challenges detected in this study are management challenges. In management challenges, weakness in marketing and advertising of cultural tourism and not introducing cultural tourism attractions with a correlation coefficient of 0.82 are two priorities. In planning challenges, the low arrivals of tourists for cultural attractions of the province and the small number of tourists with a correlation coefficient of 0.81, in regulatory challenges, the tendency to mass production of handcraft and not having the control of it by native people and developing by nonnative manufacturers with a correlation coefficient of 0.82, in ultra-structural challenges, inappropriate distribution of tourists during the year and tourist's focus on particular days of the year with a correlation coefficient of 0.81, and in legislation challenges, the weakness of laws and regulations in investment and unclear laws of attracting investment in cultural tourism with a correlation coefficient of 0.81 are the first priorities in each section. Given the detection of main challenges in tourism development, it is possible to make a plan in order to eliminate the existing challenges and pave the way for cultural tourism development. For this purpose, it is necessary to make a comprehensive long term plan of cultural tourism for Binaloud county.

1. One of the main pillars of analyzing rural issues is considering management structure in such communities. Assessing the performance of rural management units, as local organizations, which, on one hand, are in touch with the government through its representatives in the region (provincial and local governments) and, on the other hand, through councils, are in touch with people, and thus evaluating the degree of their effectiveness can be predictive of the success of rural management unit’s chair in performing his or her duties, which is the key to numerous rural management problems and issues and, more importantly, determines the degree of rural management unit’s chair’s influence on rural development. To this end, the present study, using basic, operational and emotional needs of village settlers, was conducted to evaluate the performance of rural management unit of Siah Estalkh village in the central district of Rash county and the degree of villagers’ satisfaction with it. Considering the importance of management in rural development and the relative ineffectiveness in this regard for many years and owing to the recent considerations concerning the assignment of rural management to rural management units, the present study aims to evaluate the performance of rural management units, from the perspective of villagers in Siah Estalkh village, in the central district of Rasht county.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: Rural management is, in fact, the process of organizing and guiding the community and rural environment through creation of organizations and institutions. These organizations and institutions are considered the means through which rural communities realize their goals. Achieving development and subsequently sustainable development is the goal of rural management. In sustainable rural development, management denotes adjusting human relationship with his environment, in which attention is paid to connecting social and economic systems with ecological supervision. The crucial role played by rural management units in rural management and development makes evaluation of their performance necessary and, in case it is done correctly, costs are reduced. Moreover, through identification of rural management units’ strengths and weaknesses, the way is paved for them to perform their duties with effectiveness and efficacy.
3. The present research is a pragmatic one, in terms of objective, and an analytical-descriptive study in terms of methodology. Research population entails the entire population of Siah Estalkh village, among whom 346 people were selected though random sampling. The study used Kano Model which was presented in terms of analyzing three types of basic, operational and emotional needs. Questionnaire’s validity was established through the opinions presented by experts and specialists in rural development planning and its reliability was established through Cronbach’s alpha, which was determined to be 0.994, indicating an acceptable reliability. Kano model was also used to create the Questionnaire. In the Questionnaire, a pair of questions was included for each feature, enabling villagers to select the appropriate answer for each question. The questions in the first group were operational and the ones in the second group were non-operational. In order to determine the degree of influence of rural management unit’s chair on performance Likert scale and for converting qualitative answers too quantitative one’s weighting were used. For assessing and identifying factors affecting quality of services from settler’s point of view there is a consensus and agreement and many models such as Hysteresis, Kano, SERVQUAL, QFD and etc. exit for evaluating the quality of services. For the purpose of this study, Kano model was used for evaluating villagers’ satisfaction.
4. In this study, for the purpose of assessing villagers’ basic needs, seven factors were investigated and surveyed. Development of green spaces and tree plantation with a satisfaction coefficient of 0.88 was the most important factor, followed by creation of creek water with 0.84, cleanness of the village’s environment and scenery with 0.81, lighting and security of passages at night with 0.65, collecting, burying or disposing of trash with 0.56, asphalting and curbing alleys with 0.53 and supervising rural settlement construction with a satisfaction coefficient of 0.45 respectively. In order to assess the operation needs of villagers six factors were analyzed, among which the factor for helping to attract state investment for creating new job opportunities, with a satisfaction coefficient of 0.78, was the most important one followed by providing information regarding rural management unit’s performance together with promoting collective and collaborative actions among villagers with 0.73, settling villagers differences and disputes with 0.58, supervising road construction in addition to widening of routes with 0.49, and finally participating villagers in matters concerning the village with 0.36, respectively. With regards to the emotional needs of the villagers under the study, the factor of guarding and protecting the village against natural disasters with 0.66 was the most important factor followed by helping to increase villagers’ accountability with 0.57, creating suitable cultural and arts facilities in the village (library) with 0.55, protecting cultural heritage with 0.51, and expansion and creation of sports facilities with 0.46, respectively. In terms of villagers’ satisfaction with the efforts made by the rural management units to meet their basic, operation and emotional needs, using the Kano model, considering the studied factors and quantitative analysis of the data, villagers had the highest degree of satisfaction with the fulfillment of their basic needs, with a satisfaction coefficient of 0.66, and the least degree of satisfaction belonged to the fulfillment of their emotional needs, with a dissatisfaction coefficient of 0.55. In other words, rural management units’ performance in meeting villagers’ basic needs was better in comparison with their other needs.
5. Considering the topic of the present study, it can be said that rural management unit’s chair, as the manager of the village, plays a crucial role in every aspects of a village and this is the very principle in which the settlers of the studied village believe. With respect to the gathered data and its analysis using the Kano model, in villager’ opinion, in comparison with other needs, their basic needs have been fulfilled relatively better, with a satisfaction coefficient of 0.66, followed by operational and emotional needs, with 0.61 and 0.55 respectively. Consequently, in planning for the village and increasing the degree of villagers’ satisfaction, more can be done to meet their emotional and operational needs and to increase their satisfaction with the present situations. Taking into account the studied factors and drawing on the experience of the village manager, along with other village authorities, villagers’ degree of satisfaction with life and subsistence within the village can be increased, instigating settlers to stay, preventing them from migrating to adjacent urban areas.

1. An advantageous development strategy for rural regions, known as rural sustainable development, contrast to the antecedent ones, is based on a systematic and holistic approach which involves fundamental aspects shaping a rural development system and a harmonized bonding between them. Given the definitions of sustainable development, its basic components are progressive economy, social welfare, environmental quality, and good governance. It means that there should be a healthy life that should be achieved by satisfying the basic needs for people, together with keeping the environmental quality up, and realizing a high standard of living. In general, a sustainable development is a process through which a comprehensive, forward-looking approach, and a persistent satisfaction are established via making a reasonable relation between humans and environment as well as within its components; a rational intervention in order to keep the relation sustained dynamically, an integration of advanced technology with indigenous knowledge and recognizing the right of individuals. To evaluate the rural sustainability in terms of condition of the area and the problem posed in this study, it is necessary to integrate the sustainable development indexes with social capital theory.
2. RESEARCH FOUNDATIONS : One of the important features in social sustainable development is the use of capital concept in its social dimension. Though the word capital has primarily been applied in economics since two past decades, it has progressively been adopted in social domains and is now considered as a significant concept in the development issues. Social capital has been added to three other categories of capital concept, which are commonly referred to as physical or manufacturing, natural, and human capitals in economic analyses. Typically, the economic growth and development are based on physical or manufacturing, natural, and human capitals which are recognized as the wealth of a nation. It is recently found that these three kinds of capital function merely in a part of economic growth process because they do not have any effect on the way in which the agents economically interact and adjust each other. Therefore, in order to find out the discrepancy in growth of different countries which have an identical situation based on these three kinds of capitals, it is need to look for a missing link, which is social capital.
The main concern of policy makers is why the difficult economic condition and the lives of people are getting worse while the government is injecting huge investment into both manufacturing and service sectors? Commonly, when we are talking about economic problems we highlight a scarcity of physical capital without considering the social capital. However, need of social capital in recession or inflation conditions that require trustworthiness is much more felt than other capitals and the social capital along with the other capitals can solve many problems in economy.
3. The method of this research is descriptive-analytical. The data was collected through both field and library sources using a researcher–designed questionnaire (according to findings of theoretical framework). The indexes and variables were operated by using suitable items and the questionnaire’s validity was measured by Chronbach alpha test. The population consisted of inhabitants of villages in western suburb (including 19 villages; 1324 households with a total population of 5717 individuals). The sample was selected through Cochran method (people above 15 years as criterion) in terms of geographically distributed population by random sampling method. The ultimate data was analyzed using SPSS software.
4. The findings of the study indicate that there exists a direct and strong correlation between social capital and rural sustainability, and that as the range of social capital expands, the villages become more sustainable. Given the findings, it can be said that the social capital has a capability to make a village socially and environmentally viable, dynamic, and sound. The results obtained based on this hypothesis show that all the social capital indicators can function to achieve to a sustainable development in the villages. The rural communities believe that the social capital is effective in promoting the quality of life and environment. In addition, the higher the tested social capital indicators are, the more improved and desirable village sustainability will be. It is due to the fact that the social confidence improves the interaction of villagers followed by increased collaborations. Therefore, social capital increases the confidence and participation among villagers contributing to a better and a more persistent village.

1. Land as habitat and place of having the highest importance in human life and the source of all human needs is. Any planning requires having information about the phenomena on the land, trappings and paraphernalia land. This information collected is an issue that eventually will lead to the management of land information in one system. Organization and operation of information and access to it will be a need for a comprehensive and integrated land information system known in the world, respectively. Arable Land in the world during the time of political powers and peasant revolution changes that lead to an increase in some of them the size of farm units and in some reduction in the distribution of lands and been, so do land reform in developing countries Caused by big owners of lands that culture group MyShdnd to farmers who lost Occupied and then taking possession of land to sell and transfer the action. This disseminate the agricultural lands of farmers in several parts of the village is.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK : Subject of studies Land use, how various phenomena and methods of exploitation of its land. Land use change is one of the drivers of environmental change at the global level for numerous and therefore sustainable development should be considered. The traditional analysis of land use and understand the process and the preferred approach, the decision notified to advanced civilian applications, probable and gives support to environmental objectives in the future. Agriculture, land identified on the basis of segmentation, Identification of agricultural territory, dry land and irrigated crops and pasture for The by responsible organizations such as the Organization of Agriculture and Water, the Real Estate Registration and Department of Natural Resources conducted in the province. Maps could be the comprehensive information provided on the property and the type of agricultural products that could be in economic planning and identification of resources Survey carried out revealed that the years-in (1990-1929) real estate registration law is established on 95% of the territory, which means it is an open list of the phosphating land in Macedonia FhrstHay plasticizers use is made of land use and the remaining 5% there is no recorded data.
3. In this research to develop cadastral maps years studied (1998-2011) Aerial Photographs of 1: 10,000 of the area and after the conversion and digitizing Aerial Photographs to map Ground operation in order to remove the attribute information related to cadastral maps were. Ground for the cadastral maps were finally in GIS data base (GIS) was created. And analysis of existing maps, in Medias, AUTO DESKMAP, ARC GIS, IDRISI, took place. For quantitative data analysis of Software Hay like EXCELL, SPSS and to assess any changes occur, such as changes in the statistical method of evaluation methods used Crosstab.
4. The analyzes conducted on cadastral maps of the study area show. The total number of piece parts from 1304 in 1998 to 1658 in 2011 increased by piece the highest number of land parcels in both periods was related to agriculture and the minimum number of pieces of land use is made. were related to agriculture from 18/79 percent to 47/61 percent of the land in 1998 that the change was in 2011, a downward trend during the period According to the view of the study carried out shows that another user had an increasing trend during this period. The increase Land Use made to other uses that the main reason for its higher-buying and selling of land by investors in the region with the purchase of high-cost rural lands increases the number of factories; industries have been in the area. Surveys showed that the decline in the study area mainly due to the conversion of agricultural Land Use users such as factories made clear the grass, pasta, flour, and livestock industry, etc. There is the main reason these changes are more raw materials to industries and high potential to produce like grapes, it is an agricultural land of the village that creates added value in the sale and export of raisins to other countries in the region is. Increase there in the number of components in the study area showed that the dam construction and water shortages Channeling agriculture among farmers and gardeners somewhat reduced and increased the price of land in the region and to that is why some farmers of their lands divided into smaller pieces and sold to another person.
5. According to the results of 1304 the total number of piece parts in 1998 to 1658, the highest number of land parcels segment in 2011 increased in both periods related to agriculture and the lowest number of pieces of land due moderate and severe asthma made Its main change is to reduce the problem of water shortage caused by farmers and gardeners and duct-concrete dam between agriculture and an increase in speculative land area respectively. Comparing the land use map by Cross tab in the region during the period (1998-2011) approximately 04.21% of the total land (614/216 hectares) during the period studied, repurposed with a 76/23% of the parts (394 pieces) contain the most variation Tremblay in the area of communication has occurred. The survey conducted showed that the highest use changes related to changes in agricultural Land Use vineyard lots that 9.9% of the total area Land (3/98 hectare) and 171 pieces of parts account that these changes primarily related to a decrease in dam construction and irrigation water shortages by land area and second by concrete and Water to be channeled Land area by concrete and this harvest and increase product processing industries in the region, respectively.

1. Human settlement in favorable living spaces, or Utopia, has long been a concern. However, in the real world, residence on the planet requires other regularities. The Good village or Healthy Village arises under the influence of Utopianism and ideal settlement ideas. On one hand, the uncontrolled development of cities, poor living conditions, degrading conditions of health and housing, dirty and stinking alleys and streets, inappropriate and unsanitary streets, general inability to solve these problems, and evacuation of villages, on the other hand, have attracted the attention of many people, thinkers and western scholars. These conditions led to many western scholars and expert's thinking about the social and economic characteristics and optimum size of settlements and other characteristics of them, or even to follow the implementation of these ideas. Accordingly, the present study aims to identify the criteria and indicators that have the greatest impact on a settlement as "Good Village" from the experts and manager's standpoints in the study area.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: The concept of "good" focuses more on values and ethics, and is related to the history of the community, individual and family characteristics and social awareness of the people. Normally, different people according too various biological, cultural, social and individual perceptions and features have various perceptions and reasons about the concept of good. Throughout the history of the world, Utopianism thinking has been the most important intellectual effort of thinkers in providing the best conditions for sustainable settlements to human. In this study, the "good village" means favorable settlements from the rural experts and managers standpoints; i.e., a village which is defined with words such as "developed" or "Advanced", and is the right environment for modern rural human settlement. Thus, the "Good Village" is such an area which is known as “Good” due to the vision, ideals, norms, standards, requirements, common demands and preferences of the majority of its inhabitants.
3. The methodology of this study in terms of its aim, is practical, in terms of the method is experimental, and part of it is analytical-descriptive. Part of the data was obtained through field studies and questionnaires and interviews, and the other part of required data, such as theoretical-conceptual framework, census, and documents, was obtained through library method. For evaluation of the opinion of experts in Bonab, Iran, regarding to assess the competence level of city’s villages as a “Good Village”, the viewpoints of 30 people (15 rural managers and 15 experts from the related offices and institutions) were used. These data were obtained through visiting the relevant organizations and institutions, and completion of questionnaires by the experts. After gathering data, in order to assess the opinions of experts and city officials of BONAB, in terms of testing villages of the city having the characteristics of a "Good Village", paired comparisons, product hierarchy, linear and inconsistencies were calculated using the Expert Choice software and an analytic hierarchy process. For comparative analysis between rural managers and experts from public and private organizations, two-sample t-test was conducted with the use of SPSS software.
4. In an overall assessment, it can be said that according to the experts and village managers, among the indices of “Good Village”, the economic dimension has the highest rating by a factor of 0.394, and environmental index by a factor of 0.076 is the lowest one. Hence, it can be said that for the village in the city as "Good Village" proposed, the most important measure is the economic criterion. In comparison with rural managers and the experts, no difference in opinions with regard to the priority of economic indicators was seen, and it can be said both groups have priority to economic conditions. After arriving to the conclusion indicating which dimensions the rural areas of the city are closest to the characteristics of a "Good Village", using t-test two-sample, the rural managers, and experts’ opinions were compared with each other. The result showed that, the differences were significant after controlling for pre-test scores of Leuven in the economic, cultural, and environmental management dimensions (first hypothesis = Sig 5. This study aimed to use the viewpoints of rural experts in a part of the country (Bonab) to investigate 36 indicators of identifying a “Good Village” in the form of six overall measures of economic, social, cultural, administrative, physical and environmental assessments. Based on data from surveys of experts and rural managers, among the criteria for identifying good village, the most important factor is economic indicator by 34.5%, and the lowest coefficient of importance is environmental indicator by 7.6%. Thus, the first hypothesis is confirmed. Using Two-sample t-test based on the analysis of variance, it was observed that of the six criteria, lack of equality of variances is confirmed in the economic, cultural, physical and environmental criteria meaning that there is a significant difference between experts and managers opinions in identifying the criteria for a settlement to be a “Good Village”; thus, the second hypothesis is confirmed.

1. The bond between urban and rural areas, the result of their mutual needs in a spatial system, is the basis of urban-rural continuity. One of such bonds is the transfer of agricultural goods from villages to urban market. The structure of production and the flow of agricultural products to urban market could be affected by factors such as access to natural resources, production capital and appropriate infrastructures, which altogether determine villagers benefit from the added value of this flow. Thus, the present research was performed with the goal of analyzing the structure of production and marketing of agricultural products in Dezful region. It aimed to understand whether or not this flow has established a bond and complementary relation between rural settlements and urban areas on a local and national level.
2. THEORETICAL In many of development theories, urban and rural areas are considered as two isolated entities. However, the balanced land development is fulfilled by urban-rural relationship. Accordingly, Douglas proposes regional network theory with emphasis on urban-rural relationships and refers to the necessity of a balanced spatial strategy and its substitution with a viewpoint isolating cities from villages. The investigation of the flow of agricultural products to urban market is also based on this viewpoint and with emphasis on urban-rural relationship.
3. The present research uses a descriptive method to analyze data derived from documentation and field study. The findings of the field study were obtained via interviews with relevant experts and individuals in crop production. These findings were also gained by a questionnaire about the attitudes of the subjects toward the research subject and variables, which was randomly distributed among the participants. The analysis of data was performed using SPSS software. Topsis model was used to prioritize the sample villages according to village – town capital flow. In order to increase the precision of investigating the flow in the mentioned region (Dezful central area), more than 25% of the total villages in this section consisting of 10 villages were determined as macro sample, and 363 households in the sample villages were chosen as micro sample by using Cochran formula and random sampling method.
The structure of production and flow of agricultural products in the region was investigated in the form of classified flows proposed by Douglas in his theory of regional networks including measures such as population flow, capital flow, product flow (transportation, marketing and their cost) and information flow.
4. The study of the structure of production and flow of crops in Dezfulshowed thata combination of different flows including the flow of people, capital, goods and information is producedat the heart of this structure and its flow. In order to supply the work force for agriculture, some have migrated from the city to the rural areas. However, the chi square (sig level) showed that there is a significant difference between the distance from city and local labor supply. The increase of distance leads to the overcoming of labor supply in rural areas. Capital flow is in two major forms: 1. receiving rent of farmlands by urban owners of the lands, 2. borrowing from urban investors to finance agricultural rural businesses. This causes the transfer of agricultural capital to cities. The correlation between the volume of agricultural production and the amount money borrowed from urban investors shows that the increase of production leads to their increase to provide capital. Water supply for agricultural lands and units causes the transfer of a part of the rural capital to city. The correlation coefficient (0.763) between these two majors and the volume of production shows the increase of capital transfer and the rise of production rate. Transportation companies focusing on market crops in the city of Dezful, which is monopolized by urban businessmen (market brokers), has caused the flow of another part of rural capital to the city. A significant level of 0.001 calculated from the Pearson test shows the existence of a significant relationship with an aaverage correlation coefficient between the volume of production and the commission received by the urban brokers. Unfortunately, information flow to get aware of market condition is only the result of interaction between rural farmers, on the one hand, and urban brokers (or farmers), on the other. Topsis model showed that regarding urban-rural relationship, Jateh was ranked the highest, and Ghale Tough was placed on the lowest level from among the sample villages and according to the measures of rural-urban capital transfer. This shows that the transfer of a major part of rural capital to the city happened from the first village in the above ranking.
5. The findings showed that the factors influencing the structure of agricultural product flow shape the bond between the settlements of the rural areas like Dezful and other cities on regional and national levels by using more urban areas in this process. Accordingly, commercializing crop production and linking them with foreign markets is an appropriate way to expand agricultural economy with the simultaneous goal of rural and urban development. On the one hand, creating a network of economic and information relationships among individual farmers, and on the other hand, the establishment of such relationships between individual famers and the major producers who are directly in touch with exportation market (to be in touch with global markets) could be a proper means in this regard. These relationships could unfold in the shape of establishing sale and marketing cooperatives; they could strengthen the positive bonds between rural and urban areas and finally they could develop regional development with the goal of modifying state policies, facilitating exportation networks and establishing required infrastructures.