The Effects of Sprawl on the Sense of Physical Security in Rural Settlements (A case study of Binaloud County)

The physical environment form of a settlement is an effective factor in formation the security sense for its residents. The current study was aimed to investigate the effects of sprawl on the sense of physical security in rural settlements of Binaloud county based on CPTED approach. Based on aim, the present study is an applicable, and based on methodology it is a descriptive-analytical research. Statistical sample includes 190 rural households selected from all 5766 households resided in 8 villages of Binaloud county. The sample was selected by stratified random method. The results showed that road quality index with a mean of 3.05 had the least effect on creating the sense of security among the villagers. In contrast, the indices of vegetation (with a mean of 3.35), grading and density (with a mean of 3.26) and natural or informal monitoring (with a mean of 3.24), had a greater impact on promoting the sense of security among the residents. According to Pearson correlation results, there is a significant and indirect relationship between the sprawl and the sense of physical security with a coefficient of -0.2. The results of the path analysis indicated that spatial-physical index with the coefficient of influence of -0.354 had the greatest direct impact on sense of physical security. Subsequently, we calculated the indirect coefficients of the independent variables on the main dependent variable in the four stages of path analysis and investigated the total direct and indirect effects. As a result, the spatial-temporal index with the coefficient of influence of 0.354, and then the social index with the coefficient of influence of 0.142 and the environmental index with the coefficient of influence of -0.129 had the greatest effects on developing the sense of physical security respectively.