The Impact of Climate Change on the Physical, Economic, and Social Structure of Villages. (Case Study: Anjirab Rural District, Gorgan County)

Document Type : Research

Authors

Fatemeh Manouchehri ¹

Bibi Kalan Pordeli ²

Masoud Safari Ali Akbari ¹

¹ Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran

² Advisor, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Art and Architecture, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/jgrd.2025.92697.1542

Abstract

Climate change can damage assets, livelihoods, labor productivity, access to housing and infrastructure, and social relations. Climate change is the most pervasive stressor facing rural people and communities. Climate change represents a long-term variation in climate patterns that requires appropriate measures to maintain life in rural settlements. Rural areas are known as sparsely populated areas with low housing density that are far from urban centers. They are chiefly undergoing change in factors such as changes in employment, socio-cultural situation, and concerns about the future of these areas. Together with climate change, they have posed complex and new challenges to rural settlements. The present study aims to investigate the impact of climate change on the physical, economic, and social structure of villages. This applied study uses a descriptive-analytical design. The statistical population consists of the heads of households in Anjirab rural district in Gorgan city. A sample size of n=363 was estimated by the Cochran formula to complete the questionnaires. The random stratified sampling was used for this purpose. In this study, data analysis was conducted using ISDM statistical tests and simple linear regression in the SPSS software. The findings showed that the local community had a strong perception of climate change. The results also suggested that climate change has a positive and significant effect on the physical (coefficient of 0.396), social (coefficient of 0.756), and economic structures (coefficient of 0.628). Among the above variables, climate change wielded the highest impact on the social structure of the village, with a coefficient of determination of 57.1%.
 
 
 

Keywords

Climate Change

Physical

Social

Economic Structure

Anjirab village

Gorgan

Subjects

• Planning in urban and rural areas

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