An Analysis of the Impact of Environmental Risks (Drought) on Rural Sustainability (Case Study: Villages of Qaenat County)

Data analysis was performed by using inferential tests (Friedman rank, t single-sample, Spearman correlation), and analysis and zoning tools analysis carried out in ArcGIS environment(Hot spots, self-correlation of moron, interpolation) showed that the persistence of droughts and the shortage of water caused by decreasing the amount of livelihoods (average financial resources; 2.08; natural: 2.25; human: 2.28; physical: 2.39; Social: 2.56); lack of transformational institutions; local and state inefficient governance and management; adopting negative strategies such as immigration and asset sales; lack of desirable resilience (2.29 average) for coping and compatibility, and finally, the creation of negative consequences such as: the spread of poverty and deprivation, livelihood vulnerability, and the formation of unsustainable and inadequate occupations and incomes, causing vulnerability and severe instability in the livelihoods of villagers in the region. Meanwhile, most of the area and number of villages have been reduced to a high level of livelihoods and very low levels of resilience and have been distributed randomly. Finally, the results of the correlation test indicated that the three variables, the population (correlation intensity: 0.392), the amount of income sources diversity (correlation intensity: 0.297), and the amount of government support (correlation intensity: 0.197) with a significant relationship of the positive and direct type were the most important factors in explaining the spatial difference and the instability of livelihoods of villagers due to the effect of drought risk.