Assessment of place attachment role on residents’ satisfaction in order to improve rural landscape (Case study: Masouleh)

The increasing development of industry and urbanization has led to the migration of residents in the rural area to cities and the loss of their satisfaction and attachment to their villages and settlements, which results in the gradual loss of identity values ​​and the originality of Iran's rural environment. Understanding the nature of the environment and landscape, its structure, as well as understanding how other factors affect the preservation of rural landscapes, are among the important goals of environmental planning and design. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the role of place attachment on residents' sense of satisfaction to improve the rural landscape. The research method of this study is quantitative-survey and the statistical population is 203 residents of Masouleh. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics to evaluate the effects between place attachment variables (physical, social, individual, and spatial), satisfaction (social, functional, and texture), and rural landscape (morphology, climatic elements, and human factors). Structural equation modeling method with partial least squares approach was used with the help of Smart PLS software. The results of data analysis showed that from the residents' point of view, attachment to the place leads to increased satisfaction and thus improves the rural landscape in Masouleh. In this regard, the greatest effect of place attachment on residents' satisfaction is due to the spatial dimension of attachment (β = 0.799), and the least effect is related to the physical dimension of attachment (β = 0.269). Regarding place attachment’s effect on the rural landscape, the most impact was due to the spatial dimension of attachment (β = 0.751), and the least effect is due to the social dimension of attachment (β = 0.280). Also, the greatest effect of satisfaction on the rural landscape was due to the functional dimension of satisfaction (β = 0.430) and the least effect was due to the social dimension of satisfaction (β = 0.206). The output of the current study presents a solution to enhance the value of rural landscapes by examining the psychological needs of residents.