The Role of Socio-Economic Factors in the Vulnerability of Rural Settlements (1996-2020)(Case: Takab County, West Azerbaijan)

Document Type : case study

Authors

Behzad Doosti Sabzi ¹

Abbas Saeedi ²

Bijan Rahmani ³

¹ PhD Candidate in Geography and Rural Planning, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

² Professor, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

³ Associate Professor, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/jgrd.2021.71858.1058

Abstract

Vulnerability of human settlements is affected by various factors. Damages of different origins have had different effects on human habitat, the extent which has been higher in rural areas. The aim of this study was to investigate the vulnerability of rural settlements in TakabCounty. The method used is qualitatively exploratory type. The statistical population of the present study was experts, all managers, and local people of rural settlements in TakabCounty. Sampling was performed using a purposivemethod. Theoretical saturation was used to determine the sample size, and interviews were continued until saturation was reached.Finally, 30 interviews were conducted. The method of analysis in this research is content analysis. The results of qualitative studies included 179 primary codes, 43 concepts, 16 sub-categories and 3 main categories. The results showed damages in form: environmental damages (water resources limitation, hazards, mining damages, fragmentation of agricultural lands and dispersal),economic damages (raw material sales, employment, product sales problems, low lack of services and infrastructure, mismanagement in the tourism sector and lack of support for carpet weavers) and social harms (migration, low participation of people in rural affairs, low level of literacy, especially women, unpopularity and damage caused bysocial networks).
 
 

Keywords

Vulnerability

Rural Settlements

Spatial Transformations

Content Analysis

Takab County

20.1001.1.20081391.1400.19.2.6.5

Subjects

• Planning in urban and rural areas

---

References

1.  

   1. سعیدی، ع. (1390). پویش ساختاری –کارکردی: رویکردی نظام‌وار در مطالعات مکانی–فضایی. جغرافیا (نشریه علمی – پژوهشی انجمن جغرافیایی ایران)، 9(29)، 7-16.
   2. شریفی، ز.، نوری پور، م.، و شریف زاده، م. (1396). تحلیل آسیب‌پذیری خانوارهای روستایی بخش مرکزی شهرستان دنا: کاربرد چارچوب معیشت پایدار. نشریه تحیل فضایی مخاطرات محیطی، 4(2)، 19-36.
   3. صفری، ف. (1396). تحلیل آسیب‌پذیری، ظرفیت سازگاری و تاب آوری زارعان در برابر بحران آب در شهرستان سلطانیه استان زنجان (پایان‌نامه منتشرنشده کارشناسی‌ارشد). دانشگاه زنجان، زنجان، ایران.
   4. Adger, W. N., Lorenzoni, I., & O'Brien, K. L. (Eds.). (2009). Adapting to climate change: Thresholds, values, governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
   5. Alam, G. M. M., Alam, K., Mushtaq, S., & Clarke, M. L. (2017). Vulnerability to climatic change in riparian char and river-bank households in Bangladesh: Implication for policy, livelihoods and social development. Ecological Indicators, 72, 23–32.
   6. Cannon, T. (2014). Vulnerability and disasters. The Companion to Development Studies, 351.
   7. Castañeda, A., Doan, D., Newhouse, D., Nguyen, M. C., Uematsu, H., & Azevedo, J. P. (2018). A new profile of the global poor. World Development, 101, 250–267.
   8. Constantin, V., Ştefănescu, L., & Kantor, C. M. (2015). Vulnerability assessment methodology: A tool for policy makers in drafting a sustainable development strategy of rural mining settlements in the Apuseni Mountains, Romania. Environmental Science and Policy, 52, 129–139.
   9. Das, A., Gupta, A. K., & Mazumder, T. N. (2012). Vulnerability assessment using hazard potency for regions generating industrial hazardous waste. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 209, 308–317.
   10. Gondwe, G. (2019). Reducing vulnerability of the rural poor through adaptation and mitigation written for the expert group meeting on eradicating rural poverty to implement the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, Addis Ababa. 1–12. Retrieved from https:// un.org/ development/ desa/ dspd/ wp-content/ uploads/ sites/ 22/ 2019/ 02/ Grace-Gondwe.pdf
   11. Huang, X., Huang, X., He, Y., & Yang, X. (2017). Assessment of livelihood vulnerability of land-lost farmers in urban fringes: A case study of Xi’an, China. Habitat International, 59, 1–9.
   12. Jamshed, A., Birkmann, J., Feldmeyer, D., & Rana, I. A. (2020). A conceptual framework to understand the dynamics of rural-urban linkages for rural flood vulnerability. Sustainability (Switzerland), 12(7), 1–25.
   13. Kelman, I., Gaillard, J. C., Lewis, J., & Mercer, J. (2016). Learning from the history of disaster vulnerability and resilience research and practice for climate change. Natural Hazards, 82(1), 129–143.
   14. Liu, Y., & Xu, Y. (2016). A geographic identification of multidimensional poverty in rural China under the framework of sustainable livelihoods analysis. Applied Geography, 73, 62–76.
   15. Ogebe, O. F., Adejo, M. A., & Burbuwa, P. A. (2020). Factors affecting the rural poverty and its vulnerability. International Journal of Agricultural Science, 10(2), 71–79.
   16. Plummer, R., de Grosbois, D., Armitage, D., & de Loë, R. C. (2013). An integrative assessment of water vulnerability in First Nation communities in Southern Ontario, Canada. Global Environmental Change, 23(4), 749–763.
   17. Seara, T., Pollnac, R., & Jakubowski, K. (2020). Impacts of natural disasters on subjective vulnerability to climate change: a study of Puerto Rican fishers’ perceptions after Hurricanes Irma & Maria. Coastal Management, 48(5), 418–435.
   18. Shahbaz, B. (2008). Risk, vulnerability and sustainable livelihoods: Insights from Northwest Pakistan. Sustainable Development Policy Institute.