Digital Technology Impact on the Development of Suburban Settlements in The Metropolis of Mashhad

The present study was conducted to analyze the impact of digital technology on the development of suburban settlements in Mashhad. The research method in the present study is descriptive-analytical and its type is fundamental in terms of purpose and documentary and field methods have been used to collect information. The statistical population of the present study includes 8 villages around the metropolis of Mashhad, which have a rural ICT office, a population of over 1000 households and are located near the city of Mashhad. According to the number of total households in the sample community (N 20813 households) and with 0.07% error in Cochran's formula, the sample size was calculated as 194 households that were selected from the rural community by systematic random method. Spatial analysis of the main variables was performed using FGRA and MABAC models that the villages of Gorji Sofla, Hosseinabad Gharghi and Dehroud have the highest, and the villages of Kal Zarkesh and Chahar Borj have the lowest level of use of digital technology services (RICT) and rural development. According to the results, the economic dimension, taking into account the direct and indirect effects, with a coefficient of 0.363, has had a greater impact on the development of sample rural settlements than the two social and environmental-physical dimensions. Finally, the rural digital technology variable with a coefficient of 0.786, has had a great impact on the formation of the development of sample rural settlements. In general, according to the value of the coefficient of determination (R2) for the rural development variable (0.990), it was found that the impact of digital technology (RICT) on rural development is strong;