Explaining the role of population settlement in sustainable development of border regions Case Study: West Azerbaijan Province

Regional inequalities between border and central regions of most third world countries is inevitable, that created Centralized system of planning structures in the historical process(Ebrahim-Zadeh et al., 2012: 214).This imbalance has negative effects on the development of those areas. On the one hand, makes it difficult the development in border areas, in a general sense, and it puts many obstacles in the way and on the other hand, growing public insecurity because of the position of the border regions and also due to the lack of development.
This mutual influences between development and security are related to each other as a chain, and to create action and reaction that affecting the essence of sustainable development in the border region (Andalib and Motawef, 2009: 73). The border regions due to away from the city center, geographical isolation and underdevelopment and ... has Significant differences in terms of welfare and development compared to other major population centers, that this difference leads to the disconnect the two regions and create exploitative relationship for benefit of Center (Andalib and Motawef, 2009: 73).
Today, Uncontrollable population growth due to poor security and maintain the population (population stabilization) in the border region, has created a complex horizon for the future of rural areas (Ghaderi Hajat et al., 2010: 122). Imbalance in the distribution of resources, services and capital and the lack of development of the border regions and marginal country, causing massive migration to the axis of development.West Azerbaijan province with 890 kilometer border with Iraq, Turkey and Azerbaijan and having a diversity of cultural, ethnic, is one of the most important border provinces of Iran.
According to the above issues with crises in Iraq, Azerbaijan and ethnic conflicts in Turkey caused insecurity in border area and in terms of development, puts it in last in the ranks of the region.
Accordingly, in this study, trying to investigate and analyze the role of population settlement as a way of achieving sustainable development in the border regions in West Azerbaijan province.
This is a practical study that was carried out with descriptive analysis approach. For data collection in order to achieve the research objectives are used of the Library research methods and related data and information to indicators of research from statistical yearbooks 2011 in West Azerbaijan and municipality statistics. To analyze the data in the research valuation index was used of entropy weighting method and VIKOR model(Ekhtiari, 2012: 168-166 and Fatah et al., 2013: 74-73 and Akman, 2014: 6 and Zhu et al, 2015: 4) and to determine the disparities between the cities was used of the scattering coefficient formula (Hekmatnia and Mousavi, 2013: 280,279).
To test the hypothesis and to measure the impact of independent variables on the function variables was used ofregression analysis method in SPSS 16.0 software (Mahdavi and Taherkhani, 2006: 190,177).Also, by using structural equation modeling software LISREL 8.50 Was attempting to design research model.
Discussion and Demographicanalysis of West Azerbaijan Province during 1976-2011 West Azerbaijan province’s population development investigated in border and non-border cities and with separation of urban and rural areas. According to the official statistics in country, the number of cities of this province in the years 1976, 1986, 1996, 2006 and 2011 respectively was 9, 9, 12, 14, 17 cities.
During the period of 1976 to 2011, the growth rate of population in rural and urban areashad downward trend. This process is applied to border cities and the urban and rural areas. Figure No. (2) Shows the average population growth and border and non-border cities.
Ranking West Azerbaijan districts ranking in terms of sustainable development indicators
According to performs calculations, by using the VIKOR Multi-criteria decision-making model to rank the cities of West Azerbaijan province in terms of economic, social, environmental and consolidated indicators in 2011, the amount of Q represents the ultimate rank of any city from Studied indices. This amount is determined between zero to one and whatever this number be closer to zero indicates the desirability of stability and whatever this number be close to one is sign of Weakness of sustainability. The calculated average for Q in social, economic, environmental indicators respectively is obtained 0.8585, 0.8907, and 0.6883, so the cities of West Azerbaijan province in terms of this indices has been lower than average.
With examining the compilation factors under study,the city of Urmia was most developed city and Showt city is in the last rank. The inequality in investigating the consolidated indices was also high also high and the average is 2.09. Calculated Average for Q in consolidated indices is obtained at 0.8392, so West Azerbaijan province in terms of consolidated index was also below the national average.
In this study, was investigated the role of population settlements in achieving sustainable development in the border areas of West Azerbaijan province.According to the official statistics in country, the number of cities of this province in the years 1976, 1986, 1996, 2006 and 2011 respectively was 9, 9, 12, 14, 17 cities.In 1976 the total population was 1,407,970 people of which, 445,364 people were living in urban areas and 962,606 people were living in rural areas. In this year, There was 6border city that 6 890 035 people lived in them.
The figure in 2011, which increased to 1,993,229 people that include about 64.7 percent of the population of the province. During the period of 1976 to 2011,the growth rate of population in rural and urban areashad downward trend. This process is applied to border cities and the urban and rural areas.
Among the West Azerbaijan province in 2011, in term of the consolidated indicators of sustainable development, 70 indicators constituted in the social, economic and environmental well;the most enjoyed city was Urmia and the most disadvantages was showt city. The application of the scattering coefficient model for all cities showed that among the different indices, the greatest inequalities were in economic indicators and the lowest inequality has been on environmental indicators.The results of structural modeling, demographic factors have the greatest impact on theeconomic dimension of sustainable development which has been positive and promotion.