Spatial Evaluation of Quality of Life Indicators in the Neighborhoods of Bam City after Earthquake by Using Multi-criteria Decision-making Models

The city, as the life bed of human has a great and main role in sensing satisfaction and, in fact, forms the life style of the human and is the determinant of its quality of life. But the increasing trend of urbanization and complexity of the nature of urban issues has forced the managers and planners to pay attention to the low level and tangible quality of life of citizens, so today the quality of life has become one of the main concerns for local governments and urban management. Since the results of the studies made on quality of life can help to assessing the policies, ranking the locations, codifying the management strategies and urban planning, in addition to facilitate the understanding and prioritizing of the social issues for urban programmers and managers to enhance the quality of citizen's life this article has been written to evaluate the quality of life and ranking the local areas in order to provide a clear presentation of the current situation of distribution of quality of life and, in addition to, find solutions to improve and enhance the city of Bam resident's quality of life.
The research method is descriptive-analytical and its type is practical-developmental. The research indicators are social, economical, physical and environmental. The methods of collecting information are documentary and field method (questionnaire). For reviewing the questionnaire superficial validity was used and for determining reliability Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used and the amount of 0.867 was obtained. The research sample consisted of all the resident in the districts of Bam city who were over 15 year old, based on census 2011, their population was equal to 92397. Sampling was conducted in two phases. Phase one through simple random sampling and by using Cochran formula, and 322 individuals were selected as the sample volume. Then Stratified sampling was made and regarding to the population of each district (totally 28 district) the questionnaires were distributed. Based on the indices considered in the research (economical, social, environmental and physical), some data were collected through field study method and questionnaire tool in the form of five-point Likert. Some other required data such as theoretical-conceptual framework of the research, documents and censuses were obtained by library method. Also Topsis and VIKOR models were used to calculate the ranking of the city local areas in terms of quality of life. At the same time, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method was used to weight the criteria.
Findings: Results of the analysis of indicators show an inequality and significant difference between the local areas of the city of Bam in the terms of quality of life indicators. In the combined indicator of quality of life which was calculated by using VIKOR model, in whole, the obtained results indicate that 32.14% of local areas have favorable and suitable condition, 21.4% have semi-favorable and medium condition and 46.4% are lower than the average. The favorable locals in terms of quality of life indicators are located in the second zone, in west and central part of city, and in the contrary. Unfavorable areas in terms of the quality of life indicators are mostly located in the first zone and eastern part, especially in the first zone of the city of Bam and around the historical monument of Arg-e-Bam. Increasing the amount and quality of urban facilities and services, stabilizing the social security in unfavorable areas, special consideration of the officials to resolve problems of unemployment in poor and unfavorable areas of the city, and presenting strategies to create sustainable jobs for residents of such areas through introducing the tourism potentials and attractions of the city of Bam can help to improve the quality of life in this city.
Today, urban areas are faced significant challenges in the field of environment, social privation, insecurity, unemployment, shortage of housing, and insufficient urban services which decrease the quality of life greatly. Given that Bam city is a reconstructed city due to the earthquake disaster and there is no historical differences between its districts from the point of view of oldness, it is expected that there is an equal, uniform and standard development in the local areas of the city and a balance is established between the districts from the view of the indices of quality of life. But through a deep look at the life of the residents of these districts it is revealed that there is a great inequalities in regard to the quality of life indices among the neighborhoods of this city. The findings of the present study indicate this fact that today this city has a twofold physical and economical-social feature that on one hand there are rich people and on the other hand the there are people with the minimums of life. The issues related to the employment, education and health, as the main problems, and issues of poor districts, losing the social investment and lack of its recovery after the earthquake is the main obstacle for the development and improvement of quality of life in these areas.