Spatial Analysis of Rural Housing Development Indicators, emphasizing inter-regional inequalities (Case Study: Western Azerbaijan Province)

Housing, as a basic need as well as a symbol of human being function is considered as a geographical phenomenon which plays an important role in development of human societies. The main aim of the present study is measuring and spatial analysis of housing development indicators in rural Western Azarbaijan Province, Iran. The present study is an applied research which methodologically is a combination of descriptive-analytical methods. To get the target, 36 indicators were considered. The indicators are grouped into four categories namely: infrastructure and welfare, strength and structure, sanitary, and facilities. Data collection was based on documentary method. Expert’s opinions are used for selecting the indicators and weighting them. For data analysis and ranking the indicators three models of multi-criteria decision making are applied: TOPSIS, VIKOR and Human Development Index (HDI). To gain a vigorous result, an integrating technique including Mean of weights, Borda and Kaplan methods was applied. Findings of the study indicate that villages of two counties namely: Makou and Chaldoran, according to all models are enjoying the highest level of development. In contrast, villages of Naghadeh and MiandoAb are at the lowest level of rural housing development. Based on integration model, the results show that enough attention should be paid to spatial justice in rural housing development. Such a spatial justice can be used by planners for enhancing the levels of development, reduction of inequality, rural resident’s satisfaction of their housing conditions and finally ending at the local development.