The Role of Producing Rose and Rosewater on Kashan Human Settlement Development

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of specific activity - producing rose (and herbs), rosewater (and other herbal extracts) in traditional way – on the economic, social and physical- ecological development of settlements of Kashan. Producing rose, rosewater and distillation of other traditional medicinal herbs for the preparation of herbal medicines, veterinary medicine, food condiments and spices, perfumery, health & beauty products in the small indigenous and local industries especially agroindustry and processing, is important in terms of treatment and prevention of diseases, marketing and economic development, job creation and utilization of comparative advantages, rehabilitation and development of indigenous knowledge, contribute to sustainable development of settlements, ecotourism and farm tourism development, employment diversification, indigenous knowledge and industry. This applied research has been done in descriptive-analytical method; two types of questionnaires were used for field study; for flower-cultivators and owners of traditional rosewater workshops. 231 people from 28 settlements in Kashan County with more than 50% of the acreage of the agricultural sector and practitioners in the field were selected as sample. For determining settlement development Vikor were used. The results showed that there is a significant, direct and relatively strong relationship between the job components of rose-growing, producing rosewater, with settlement development, and economic, social and physical-ecological functions of rose-growing and producing rosewater has a significant impact on development of settlements.