Evaluating the Environmental Condition of the Cities Adjacent to Steel Industries using SWOT Model (Case Study: Ardakan City)

Growth and development of cities are usually along with industrial activities. This coexistence, on one hand, provides employment and economic growth for the citizens and on the other hand, it exposes them to different types of pollutions. Based on this fact, the existence of steel industries around the city of Ardakan has caused numerous problems for the area. In the current study, the polluting role of these industries and their negative effects on the adjacent cities have been studied using the SWOT model.
The method used in this research is a descriptive-analytic method. In order to collect required information and data, library studies, document review as well as field studies include interviews and questionnaires were used and according to the information obtained, study the overall situation of environmental in the region has been proceeded. In the next step, SWOT method is used to analyze the information and provide guidelines and strategies.
Results of this study demonstrated that the total weighted score of the table of internal factors matrix is 2.95 and for external factors matrix is 2.42. The obtained number was lower than average; in fact, the strengths and opportunities are not used properly to overcome weaknesses and threats and weaknesses outweigh the strengths and the threats are dominant to opportunities. In addition, the type of resulted strategy is the variety (contingency) strategy.
Due to the importance of industrial growth and at the same time, the role of the environment, the authorities in charge should provide proper grounds for right policies and planning in a way that advancing in industry becomes possible next to maintaining the environment.