The Impact of Reinforcement Policy on Rural Housing Sustainability, Case Study: Saveh County (Iran)

During the last two decades, rural housing reinforcement and rehabilitation policy has been implemented to improve its quality throughout the country. The purpose of this study is to investigate the changes that have occurred as a result of the use of housing reinforcement credits on the economic, social, physical and environmental dimensions of the houses. Nessassary data were collected through both library and field methods within a quantitative approach and using a researcher-made questionnaire. The statistical population of the present study is 528 households whome received the credits in 23 villages of Taraznahid and Kouhpaye sub-districts of Saveh County during 2005-2016. Sample size was 196 households –based on Cochran formula. Data analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (one-sample T-test). Weighting of the components of the housing sustainability and leveling the villages were performed using the Shannon Entropy and Vikor Techniques. The results showed that rural housing rehabilitation policy has the most impact on physical aspect of housing (with 2.91 Mean) and then on environmental (with 2.65 Mean) and social (with 2.53 Mean) aspects. The least impact of this policy has been on the economic aspects (with 2.24 Mean). The results obtained by using Vicor Techniqe show that 11 villages are in sustainable category (level), 7 villages in relative sustainable, 2 villages in low sustainable and 3 villages in unsustainable category. Moreover, the impact of this policy on the villages was not the same, but it had more impact on the larger and the nearer ones to the cities.