Analysis of urban sprawl effects in instability of rural settlements (Case study: Rezvanshahr county)

Therefore, this research has been designed with the aim of analyzing the effects of urban sprawl on instability of rural settlements in the city of Rezvanshahr. This research is an applied and descriptive analytical method. In this research, the statistical population is rural settlements of Rezvanshahr. In this study, urban sprawl in rural settlements was analyzed by using remote sensing data. For data analysis, the support vector machine algorithm and GIS were used. The results showed that, firstly, agricultural land use in the period of 17 years in the city of Rezvanshah decreased, wise versa manmade land uses are increased. So that the amount of agricultural land use decreased from (10766ha) in 2000 to the (9832ha) in 2017. Also, the results of analysis of satellite images showed that till 2000 the city of Rezvanshahr did not have spatial development towards rural areas and since 2007, the physical development of the city has begun, and in 2017, two large villages of Kordjan and Punel are located on both sides of the city's spatial boundaries. This situation weakens the economy of the rural areas and expands the village to urban migration and, in the long run, causes instability of rural settlements. Therefore, given the current state of affairs, specialists and managers should focus their policies on land consolidation in the agricultural region.