Sustainable materials and their role in achieving the goals of sustainable development in rural settlements (Case study: Noshar Abad, Rasht Region in the north of Iran)

The current research aimed at investigating sustainable materials and their place in achieving sustainable development goals in the rural settlements of Noshar Rural District in Rasht County.

The current study is applied in terms of purpose and analytical in terms of its method. It also uses quantitative research methods. Finally, SPSS software, FSORA + FKOPRAS models, and WASTPAS and FBMW models were used for data analysis.

The findings indicated that sustainable items are the item of the expected life of materials with a value of 3.00 (technical dimension), the items of reducing the cost of disposal with a value of 3.12, beauty with a value of 3.21 (social dimension), and the potential recycling and reuse with the value of 3.00 (environmental dimension), in the villages of Noshar Rural District. Also, the spatial analysis results showed that in terms of (technical, socio-economic and environmental) dimensions, Moridan Village has the highest use of sustainable materials. Also, the results of the Spearman correlation test showed a significant and positive relationship between sustainable materials and the sustainable development of rural settlements. Moreover, the results of fuzzy ARAS and fuzzy COPRAS) models indicated that sustainable materials affected the physical dimension of sustainable development more than other dimensions. Also, the FBMW model showed that the most affected items from sustainable materials included safety and security with a value of 71.15 (physical dimension), using durable materials with a value of 17.01 (economical dimension), change in behaviors to change the consumption pattern with a value of 17.90 (social dimension), production of materials with low environmental impact with a value of 18.91 (environmental dimension).

In conclusion, for sustainable development of rural settlements in Noshar Rural District of Rasht County, policymakers should pay attention to sustainable materials in relation to dimensions of sustainable development. To this end, rural development, sustainable development and materials experts must be used.