Factors Affecting the Participation of Citizens and Tourists for Environment Protection (A Case Study of Mahmoudabad)

Participation is the main mechanism for sustainable development goals in the third millennium. When cities grow in size and population, it is important to pay attention to the coordination between their physical, social and environmental aspects. The sustainability of the city will depend on the harmony between these factors. The aim of the present study is to study the factors affecting the participation of citizens and tourists in order to protect the environment. The research was conducted in terms of developmental-applied purpose and in a mixed way. The statistical population of the study included members of the scientific board of the fields of environment, watershed management, agriculture, geography, tourism, Mahmoud Abad universities, managers of public organizations and private companies, employers and contractors. . Data collection tools continued from the first phase of the semi-structured face-to-face interview to the phase of theoretical saturation. Interviews with 29 people (23 men and 6 women) were identified in four dimensions and 21 items. The second part of the discussion was given to the members of Delphi Group (8 people) in two stages for designing the questionnaire. In the quantitative part, a researcher-made questionnaire on the five-value Likert scale was distributed online among the statistical sample (85 people). The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for education (0.754), management (0.861), planning (0.82), information (0.791), ownership (0.833), and social (0.741) were estimated. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS and PLS software. The findings showed that educational, social, planning, ownership, management and information factors affect the participation of citizens and tourists in environmental protection.