فصلنامه پژوهشهای روستایی
سال سیزدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 49، بهار 1401)

The purpose of this study is to identify the damage caused by the corona crisis on the ecotourism business, its aggravating contexts and suggestions for reducing the damage in rural areas of Mazandaran. This research has been done with a qualitative approach and with an interview tool. Purposeful sampling was performed. After 21 interviews, theoretical saturation was obtained. Interviews were conducted in rural areas of Mazandaran province. In the present study, selective believing was used as a validation method. Through direct and various citations, documented, the credibility of the research results was confirmed by the researchers. In this way, the text was reasoned with acceptable quotes. In the extraction and coding section, 57 basic concepts were obtained, which were divided into 5 main categories (economic injuries), 2 main categories (social injuries), and 3 main categories (psychological injuries).  The intensifying contexts of corona effects were divided into two main categories. Also, the reduction of income was the most important economic damage and the reduction of the indicators of guarantee and reliability of tourism services was the most important occupational damage. Finally, from the perspective of ecotourism homeowners, the most important context for exacerbating the effects of corona on ecotourism, inefficient executive management and lack of job skills, were identified.

Pro-poor tourism initiatives seek a direct link between tourism activities and poverty alleviation approaches with the aim of hearing the voices of the poor, paying particular attention to their needs and participating in the process of tourism development. Accordingly, the present study, through face-to-face qualitative interviews, seeks to explore the lived experiences of the poor in selected villages of eastern Semnan province to participate in nature-related activities. These three villages have become one of the most popular tourist areas in the country in recent years, but the statistics show that there are also many poor. The results of face-to-face interviews show that most participants face high growth in tourism in their villages in three ways: "trying to participate in formal jobs", "trying to participate in informal activities" and "trying to learn and enhance skills". They have sought to influence and participate in nature-related hiking activities in selected villages. But a number of them also have taken a passive approach to tourism growth, which has isolated them in their living environments.

The Iranian rural stratification system has undergone many changes in the last century. The very first signs of change in the rural socio-political texture can be observed by the advent of the Iranian modern government (1926). It seemed prior to that that villages tend to be untouched areas, away from macro policies and programming, and under the control of ‘Khans, and local authorities. In rare cases, however, they lived their own life as local self-sufficient communities. After the 1979 Revolution and the dawn of a religious government, villages experienced other policies. It seemed the new ruling body was after changing them into a new socio-cultural base for the purpose of its ideology and revolutionary ambitions. Such events as the Construction Jihad and crash plans in rural areas are said to be clear examples of the government’s tendency to appear strongly in them. Stratification does not necessarily mean individuals’ economic status in villages, yet there have been efforts to analyze these changes in terms of local power and social status. The overall results of the research indicate that in the heart of the villages a variety of forms of urban economy in governmental, commercial, and some cases, industrial sectors as opposed to the agricultural economy are developing.

Return migration is a process in which individuals experience migration and then return to their own country. The aim of this study is to investigate return migration to the rural areas. It is a functional study and its method is analysis and description. Its framework is a survey . The questionnaire is used for gathering data. The study is constructed at Ahar in the northeest of East Azarbaijan. Its statistical sample is return migration to the rural areas. Sampling is done using net and snowball methods. Its reliability and validity is more than %7Cronbach's alpha. Analysis of data is done by statistical description and analysis of main factors. Results show that there are different factors affecting return migration. Social cooperation, economic factor and development motivation are the most effective factors with 4.31, 3.77 special rates. Basic and structural factors had the least effect.

Conflicts over water among stakeholders are intensifying, as the water crisis in the watersheds escalates. Increased conflict in basins can be the result of various human and natural factors, including inappropriate governance and resource management and climate change. This study aims to investigate the natural and human factors affecting the severity of conflicts among different stakeholders in the Zayandehrood Basin, review the strategies proposed by managers and policymakers, and analyze the strategies implemented in recent years to reduce conflicts in the Zayandehrood Basin. The study used a qualitative methodology based on grounded theory. A sample of key experts and managers of relevant organizations were selected using the snowball sampling technique and the data were collected using semi-structured interviews. The results showed that the experts and managers perceived human elements, such as socio-cultural factors, increased demand for water, inter-basin water transfer policies, and governance factors, to have the greatest impact on conflict management. Moreover, environmental factors such as climate change have intensified the conflict in the basin by rainfall and water resources decline. On the other hand, human factors such as governance and policies in the water crisis and the resulting conflict have had much more impact than natural factors. Some strategies, such as strategic management, inter-basin water transfer, and increased monitoring have been used to manage the conflict caused by the water crisis in the basin. On the other hand, some managers and policymakers believe that some of the implemented strategies have not only been unable to help the stakeholders reduce conflict in the basin, but have also increased tensions in the basin.

Several studies have been conducted on the formation of "spatial quality” in recent decades. But a tangible thing so far is the lack of attention to its holistic approach in the field of urban planning. The idea of "spatial quality" in rural areas, has raised a new thematic field. Therefore, despite the importance of spatial quality, in the literature on this issue at the level of public spaces, an efficient framework of factors has not been developed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify criteria affecting it in order to evaluate the spatial quality in rural public spaces. This research has a mixed method (quantitative-qualitative) which is expeditionary in terms of the nature of the study and in terms of data collection is descriptive-survey. The study population is 48 experts who non-randomly filled a questionnaire obtained from the analysis of documentary content and the Delphi survey. The three dominant mental patterns for specialists are physical (aesthetic), functional and semantic, respectively. The highest percentage of variances is related to physical (aesthetic) mental pattern with 12.76%, which indicates the importance of this factor. The extracted factors of Delphi stages were analyzed using SPSS software through Q factor analysis and calculation of weighted mean and standard deviation. The results showed that criteria of spatial quality for experts in order of priority are: criteria of visual proportions (4.36), the highest weighted average and the most effective one is the integrated spatial quality of the public spaces of the village in the views of the experts.

Poverty, unemployment and migration are the main features of the rural areas in developing countries and rural industrialization is and has been one of the ways to deal with such problems. In this regard, in recent decades, the policy of moving towards rural development through industrialization and the expansion of industrial zones in the vicinity of rural areas has been pursued. However, the impact of the industrial zones on rural areas and development remains unclear. The present study has aimed to identify and analyze the various (economic, socio-physical and environmental) dimensions of the impact of the Alavijeh industrial zone on neighboring rural areas. Alavijeh is located in Najafabad county in Isfahan province. The statistical population of this study was rural households located around the Alavijeh industrial zone, which according to the latest official statistics (2016) were 7183 households, of which 210 households were selected for the study using the Cochran's formula. The sampling method was stratified proportional sampling. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS and LISREL software. Descriptive and inferential methods such as frequency, mean, coefficient of variation and confirmatory factor analysis were used for analysis. According to the findings of this study, Alavijeh has both positive and negative effects of which economic, socio-physical and environmental effects are the most important effects with path coefficients of 0.96, 0.92 and 0.83, respectively. The negative aspects of this construction have been more in the environmental and socio-physical dimensions.

Investigating the impact of infrastructure activities on rural environments has been one of the important issues for rural planners. Among these activities, the consequences of thermal power plants on rural environments have been of great importance. In this regard, this study evaluates the consequences of the Shahid Mofateh power plant in Hamedan on the surrounding villages (villages less than 20 km away from the power plant). The research method is descriptive-analytical using a questionnaire. The sample size of 366 households from 11  villages around the power plant has been determined. The validity of the research was confirmed based on the opinion of geographers and the reliability of the research was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient with a mean of 0.74. Findings from field observations and satellite imagery indicate drought around the plant. The surrounding villages are facing increasing migration due to the overuse of water resources by the power plant. In all economic, social, environmental and physical dimensions, the effects have been mostly negative. Also, there is no significant difference between the components of the research in terms of effectiveness. Also, there is a significant relationship between the distance and the impact of the power plant on the villages at the level of 0.05  and positively, which shows that with increasing the distance, the economic situation of the villages has improved, which indicates the adverse effect of the power plant on the rural economy. Finally, using confirmatory factor analysis, it was found that the conceptual model presented at the beginning of the research is approved.

The agricultural sector is one of the main pillars of the economy, the development of which will lead to the development of the economy. However, factors such as the fragmentation of agricultural lands reduce the productivity of agricultural products and labor. Therefore, the present study with a developmental-applied nature and descriptive-analytical method was performed using remote sensing data, field study and available statistics to investigate the distribution of agricultural lands in Taj Amir village and the effect of this distribution on agricultural land productivity of this village. In this study, using satellite imagery (Sentinel 2 and IRS_P5), a land use map was extracted with an object-oriented technique and agricultural land plots were modified in the AutoCAD map software environment. The field study of agricultural land ownership was determined in 2015, and based on this, the ownership of the 1940s was determined and generalized to the agricultural land map. Then, using land metrics, the amount of change and using LCPA, the type of land dispersion and evolution were obtained. The results showed that the area of agricultural lands has decreased and the type of changes in the class of agricultural lands is also descriptive. The results of field studies also showed that the factor of land reform had no effect on land dispersion but the factor of inheritance was effective. Thus, 1735 plots of land with 62 owners in the 40s have reached 2180 plots with 257 owners in 2015. A review of statistics also showed that the amount of productivity has decreased.

This research was conducted to explain the environmental attitudes of rural women in Zagros forests. The statistical population of this research included all rural women over 15 years old living in the margins of Zagros forests in Lorestan province, whose livelihood was, directly and indirectly, dependent on Zagros forests (N = 231000). Sample size was determined using Kerjci and Morgan table. The sampling method was multi-stage cluster sampling with proportional assignment (based on forest area in each city). The main research instrument was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.698-0.880). Data analysis was performed by SPSS software. The results of correlation analysis showed that education, forest dependence, social norms, sense of belonging, social responsibility, social participation, social environmentalism, self-efficacy and environmental knowledge and information have a positive and significant relationship with rural women's attitudes toward forest protection. In addition, the regression results showed that among all the known factors, four factors of self-efficacy, social responsibility, social environmentalism and forest dependence were the most influential factors on the attitude of rural women so that these four factors are able to explain 60.3% of the total variance of the factors. In general, it can be said that due to the high importance of the self-efficacy variable in explaining the protective attitude of rural women, it is necessary to strengthen their professional skills by properly teaching forest protection methods among rural women.