Analyzing the impacts and consequences of the annexation of the village to the city (A Case study of Amol city)

The physical expansion of cities and villages leads to the merging of a smaller settlement into a larger settlement. In this regard, adjacent villages to the city are a part of the city based on their formation, economic and social institutions, population growth, even being in the center of social and economic exchanges and interactions in a geographical context. It is possible that the village is fully integrated into the city and turns into an urban settlement, or it may continue to live while preserving the rural nature on the outskirts or inside the city. The northern areas of Iran are experiencing urban growth due to the physical and functional changes of city and village borders, which is evident in Amol city with a growth rate of 4.04 of the population between 2006 to 2016 and the growth rate of its area (4.47). Therefore, the main question of this research is posed as follows:1. What are the consequences of annexing rural settlements to Amol city?Is there a significant difference between the consequences of annexing villages to the city in terms of economic, socio-cultural and environmental-physical dimensions? 

The methodology of the research is descriptive-analytical. The data were collected from documents and completion of the questionnaires.  The statistical population of this study is the residents of three villages of Ghoroq, Klaksar and Shadmahl of Amol city using the latest official statistics of the country (2016). The questionnaire was prepared with 37 questions about the various consequences of the annexation of rural settlements to the city of Amol emphesizing the economic, socio-cultural and environmental-physical dimensions. the reliability of the questionnaire was calculated to be 0.866 using Cronbach's alpha. SPSS software was used for the measurement of the effects of indicators in the study areas. A one-sample (T) test was used and the means of the items were compared with each other. ANOVA test was used to differentiate the effects and consequences between the studied areas and Scheffé's method was used to determine the differences between the areas.

The results of analyzing the opinions of the respondents using t-test showed that the value of the average scores of the respondents in the social and cultural dimension are 2.66, 2.68 and 2.85 for the three villages of Ghoroq, Klaksar village and Shadmahl village, respectively. It has the lowest score and the average of all three villages is less than the average (3), which indicates the unfavorable situation of this component in these three villages. In terms of the economic consequences the scores are 3.02 3.12 3.08. for the villages.in terms of the environmental and physical dimensions the lowest score is 2.88 for Ghoroq. In Klaksar village (3.17) and Shadmahl village (3.17), this is higher than the average and has a good condition. Overally, two indicators of economic (3.1) and physical environment (3.13) with a significant level (0.000) are above average and its condition is appropriate. However, in the index of social and cultural dimension (2.74), the score is lower than the average and is in an unfavorable situation.

The annexation of rural to urban settlements is generally a multifaceted issue that has both negative and positive consequences. In general, the integration of rural to urban areas in Iran improves the economic situation and increases the income and new job opportunities in the service sector. In terms of social dimension, however the contrast between the culture of urban and rural life causes negative effects.  The widespread change of land use from agriculture to residential and commercial, reducing agricultural and livestock production can be examplified as the negative effects of this process. In terms of socio-economic dimensions, it has positive consequences due to the increase of accesses and facilities such as educational improvement and medical accesses. The level of satisfaction for the three given village was high.  Improving access to public services and infrastructure, improving the physical quality of the village, increasing jobs in the service sector have been some of the positive aspects of the annexation of the village to the city.