The Role of Local Management in Physical Development of Rural Settlements (Case Study: Rural Areas of Aran - Bidgool City)

The review of roles and functions of local management show that rural managers have played a significant role and been responsible on the physical development of villages over the time. Despite legal supports for playing a role in local management and any intervention for rural development and the physical expansion of rural settlements، such a role and its impacts on rural development at a micro level should be further assessed. This research intends to analyze various aspects of the physical development process in a number of rural areas at the Aran -Bidgool city. This research is an applied one and the method used is based on analytical and descriptive approaches for which the required data and information was gathered via documentary and field methods (questionnaires). For this study، 11 villages were selected; each has more than 50 households and has over at least 5 years passed of its physical plan implementation. The sample includes rural manager (Dehyar) and two members of the council of each village as well as a total of 192 households. In this study، 30 indicators in seven major criteria were selected via the content analysis of relevant documents. The Delphi method was used to evaluate the validity of collected data by 30 experts from related fields (such as geography، rural planning، management and sociology). In addition، the SPSS statistical software was used for data analysis both for descriptive and analytical statistics. The role of local management on the physical development of rural settlements was explained on the basis of seven criteria and data processed using the one-sample t test. Results showed that local management of rural settlements in all criteria associated with physical development has an important role. Apart the housing criterion، there was no statistically significant difference between the perspective of local residents and community managers on other criteria. In other words، in other six criteria، there were significant differences between the two samples’ perspective in relation to the role of local managers on the physical development of rural settlements. Legal aspects of local management in the model of rural Islamic Councils and rural managers has been granted an appropriate position to be involved in preparation and implementation of physical plans at rural areas. Because of Interaction and communication between local management and the executive officials and agencies in higher levels، the results showed that local management has been played effective role in process of physical development in studied area. Hence، the adoption of a participatory approach involving local leaders in the preparation and implementation of rural physical planning is undeniably required for the success of physical interventions in rural areas.