Document Type : scientific-research article

Authors

Abstract

The concept of “living standard” has recently been employed to mark the promotion of living conditions in human societies. The present study has attempted to compare the standards of living between villages—still having retained their rural physical texture— integrated into urban areas of Miandoab town during the last three decades and ten districts of the town itself, five of which of old urban structure and five others of modern structure. The purpose of the study, indeed, was to discover to what extent the living standards of the integrated villages had changed in terms of economical, social and environmental indexes as well as access to urban services and healthcare. The research has followed a descriptive-analytical approach in gathering data. The field study was conducted by means of questionnaires, randomly distributed across the districts under study. To analyze the data, the method of multiple criteria decision making (the TOPSIS model) was applied. The results indicated that, except for the social indexes, the integrated villages enjoyed a far lower living standard than the originally urban districts of the town.

Key words: living standard; villages integrated into urban areas; entropy models; the TOPSIS model.

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