Assessing and measuring the inequality situation in the cities of Kerman province with emphasis on information and communication technology indicators using multi-indicator decision making techniques

Information and communication technology as a new technology developed rapidly and by overcoming time and space limitations, it is mentioned as the axis and key of development. What may cause the ineffectiveness of this technology is its unequal distribution at the regional level, which researchers refer to as the "digital divide". The present study was conducted with the aim of evaluating and ranking the cities of Kerman province in terms of access to information and communication technology index.The research method is descriptive-analytical and applied. The statistical population of the research is 23 cities of Kerman province in 2020 and the indicators used are 19 indicators of the information and communication technology sector. Shannon's entropy method has been used in order to weight indices and VIKOR, TOPSIS, SAW, MORRIS methods have been used in order to rank the cities of Kerman province in terms of information and communication technology indicators. Data analysis was done using spss software. The findings of the research show that information and communication technology indicators in Kerman province are not distributed in a balanced way and there is an obvious difference between the cities of this province in terms of access to these indicators. The result of the final ranking using the average ranking method shows that in terms of access to information and communication technology indicators, Kerman city ranks first with a score of (0.616) and Orzoia ranks first with a score of (0.023). They are placed last. Also, the findings of the research show that information and communication technology indicators are not distributed according to the population in the province. Finally, for the balanced distribution of information and communication technology indicators, a prioritization among the cities of the province has been presented for planning and budget allocation.