An Analysis of Cultural Facility Distribution in the Cities of Qazvin Province

A balanced and coordinated development of regions is an extremely important prerequisite for achieving a sustainable and uniformed progress of the country. In fact, proper and optimum distribution of facilities among different regions is among the most important factors preventing inequalities and development gap and leads to proper spatial distribution of population across the country. Culture is considered one of the main elements of development, which can improve the quality of life by satisfying the spiritual and material needs of human beings. The main goal of this research was to analyze the development level of the cities in Qazvin province regarding cultural facilities. A descriptive-analytical approach was used in this research. In order to determine the level of development in the cities, the PROMETHEE, VIKOR, and TOPSIS techniques were utilized. In addition, based on their development level, the cities were classified into three homogenous groups using cluster analysis method. The data was analyzed by SPSS and Excel software and land use maps were drawn using ARC GIS10 software. The results indicated that Qazvin and Alborz were the most privileged and semi-privileged cities of the province regarding the distribution of cultural facilities, respectively, while all other cities fell under the disadvantaged group. Finally, dispersion coefficient index was used to analyze the unbalanced distribution of the selected cultural indicators. The obtained results showed that mosques, hussainias, and institutes for the intellectual development of children had the highest unequal distribution and newsstands and movie theaters had the lowest unequal distribution. The results also indicated that the farther the cities from the capital of the province, the more deprived they were.