Investigating the Effects of Khatounabad Copper Smelter Factory on the Development of Surrounding Areas

Industrialization is a dynamic factor for development process, while industrializationprojects in addition to provideparts of human needs, cause different intended and unintended effects. Thus, the purpose of this research was to investigate Khatounabad Copper Smelter Factory's effects on the development of surrounding areas. A causal-comparative research method was used for this purpose. Targetpopulation included the residents of two regions of Shahre-Bbak County that about 150 ones of them were selected and studied using Bartlet Sampling Table and Random Sampling procedure. The face validity of the data gathering tool (questionnaire) was verified via specialists' reviews. The reliability of the supposed questionnaire was also verified calculating Cronbach's Alpha Internal Consistency Coefficient obtained from a pilot study (from 0.773 to 0.892) and SPSS software was used to analyze data. The results of comparing after and before factory establishment (current situation vs six years ago), showed that there were statistically significant differences between areas with and without factory in terms of social and environmental factors, but the differences were not statistically significant about economic factors. To ensure this conclusion, the covariance analysis was also used. This analysis also verified the supposed conclusion. Finally, the effect size analysis showed that Khatounabad Copper Smelter Factory had an increasing effect (= 0.3%) on economic factors, and decreasing effects including 6.4% on social and 13.8% on environmental factors.