Evaluate the Spatial Distribution of Social Capital in Urban Neighborhoods (A Case Study: Babolsar City)

Social capital, which is regarded as the social benefit and spirit, plays a major role in the development and dynamics of urban spaces. Bringing attention to urban neighborhoods and studying their existing capacities to revive and strengthen the main functions of the components of social capital can provide strong support for community- based development. The present study aimed at analyzing the spatial distribution of social capital in urban areas of Babolsar city, with the focus on assessing factors that affect its rates. The research had a descriptive-analytical method, along with a questionnaire to collect the required data. Statistical population comprised 310 households livening in 22 urban neighborhoods in the city of Babolsar. Vikor and TOPSIS models were utilized to rate and rank the degree to which the neighborhoods have met the social capital index. In regard to clustering the neighborhoods, a hierarchical cluster analysis model (the algorithm (ward)) was applied to scrutinize the research findings. The used models were weighted via Shannon entropy and the neighborhoods’ ranking maps were depicted using ARC GIS. The results revealed that there was a difference between Babolsar neighborhoods in terms of having social capital index. The neighborhood “University town” occupied the highest rank and the neighborhoods “Parkings, Bibi sar ruze, and Ketibon” enjoyed the lowest ranks in social capital index. 22 neighborhoods of Babolsar city were located in 4 homogeneous clusters, in which 15 neighborhoods were in the first and second clusters and 7 neighborhoods were in the second and third clusters.Moreover, Operability index with ratio of 163.0 showed the greatest amount of imbalance and normality index with the ratio of 063.0 demonstrated the lowest level of social capital among the neighborhoods.