Analysis of the limits to achieve the desirable quality of life in border villages in Sistan area

Subject Areas : Regional Planning

Morteza Pasban ¹ , Sadegh Asghari Lafmejani ²

1 - MA in Geography & Rural Planning, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran.
2 - Associate Professor of Geography & Rural Planning, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran

Received: 2019-05-07 Accepted : 2019-10-18 Published : 2020-04-20

Keywords: Quality of life, rural household, border areas, Sistan area,

Abstract :

Quality of life is a multi-dimensional concept that shows the general social, economic, and environmental features of regions. In rural regions, this concept expresses the conditions that indicate the degrees of individual and social -utilization, access, well-being, and welfare. The present research studied factors preventing the achievement of a desirable quality of life in border villages in Sistan, Iran, using a combination of field and descriptive-analytic methods. In this research, first, according to the number of villages in the study area, 43 villages were selected as sample villages using the Cochran formula. Then, based on the number of households in the area and re-use of the Cochran formula, 362 households were selected as sample families to complete the questionnaire. Research questionnaires were designed at two levels of household and village. Their content validity has been confirmed by the opinion of professors and experts, and the reliability of the questionnaires has been confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.86. Also, in analyzing the data, the limitations of achieving the optimal quality of life were investigated using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), spatial and statistical analyzes Expert Choice, SPSS and ArcGIS software. Based on the results of one-way ANOVA with repeated measures, there is a significant difference between the level of constraints in different dimensions of quality of life in the households, and the severity of the economic and environmental constraints of achieving the optimal quality of life, with a coefficient of 0.337 and 0.153, respectively, is more than the physical-skeletal and social constraints. In fact, the quality of life of the studied households depends on the border exchanges on the one hand and on the other on agriculture and its subdivisions, the former with the creation of the border wall and the closure of the border, and the other by a sharp decrease or stop continuously in the flow of water from Afghanistan, the drying up of the Hamoon wetland and the increase of the effects of sandy soils has reached a deadlock.
Extended Abstract
Introduction:
Quality of life is a multi-dimensional concept that shows the general social, economic, and environmental features of regions. In rural regions, this concept expresses the conditions that indicate the degrees of individual and social -utilization, access, well-being, and welfare (Ahmadi & Mahdavi, 2014: 831). There is no doubt that human beings, as inherently inclined to improve the well-being of their lives, are always in pursuit of this goal in their planning, and The achievement of this goal as development goal depends on knowing more and more the factors that affect the quality of human life (Badri et al., 2013: 53). In this regard, it is important to conduct studies on the quality of life in border villages (Shahrokhi Sardo & Nooripour, 2015: 20). Because of poor geographical conditions, type of livelihood and less ability to resist accidents, low density of rural settlements, decline in employment and income in agriculture (Rezvani & Mansourian, 2008: 2-3), lack of health centers, inadequate nutrition and unstable housing (Ghalibaf et al., 2009: 164), limited access to transportation, lack of income sources, lack of facilities and services, lack of suitable job opportunities, are important challenges for quality of life in border villages (Kolodinsky et al, 2013: 113). Accordingly, the present research studied factors preventing the achievement of a desirable quality of life in border villages in Sistan.
Methodology:
The present research is a combination of field and descriptive-analytic methods. In this research, at first, the study area in ArcGIS with Buffer for Iran-Afghanistan border was determined and its villages were determined and according to the number of villages in the study area, 43 villages were selected as sample villages using the Cochran formula. Then, based on the number of households in the area and re-use of the Cochran formula, 362 households were selected as sample families to complete the questionnaire. In this regard, a variety of indicators have been studied to investigate the barriers and limitations to achieving optimal quality of life in the border villages of Sistan and finally, 35 key indicators including 11 indicators in the economic dimension, 10 indicators in the social dimension, 9 indicators in the environmental dimension and 7 indicators in the skeletal-physical dimension were selected. Research questionnaires were designed at two levels of household and village. Their content validity has been confirmed by the opinion of professors and experts, and the reliability of the questionnaires has been confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.86. Also, in analyzing the data, the limitations of achieving the optimal quality of life were investigated using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), spatial and statistical analyzes Expert Choice, SPSS and ArcGIS software.
Results and discussion:
       The results of the study of the average monthly income of households (excluding cash subsidies) show that the highest frequency belongs to the income group of less than 250,000 tomans, which accounts for 52.9% of households, and in only 2.3% of the studied households, the monthly income is one million tomans or more. On the other hand, based on the results of one-way ANOVA with repeated measures, there is a significant difference between the level of constraints in different dimensions of quality of life in the households, and the severity of the economic and environmental constraints of achieving the optimal quality of life, with a coefficient of 0.337 and 0.153, respectively, is more than the physical-skeletal and social constraints. In fact, the quality of life of the studied households depends on the border exchanges on the one hand and on the other on agriculture and its subdivisions, the former with the creation of the border wall and the closure of the border, and the other by a sharp decrease or stop continuously in the flow of water from Afghanistan, the drying up of the Hamoon wetland and the increase of the effects of sandy soils has reached a deadlock.
According to the results of the research, the limitations of achieving the optimum quality of life in the villages in the study area are affected by various factors that make it distinct from the other limitations in other villages in the country. Minor annual rainfall in the study area and complete dependence of the villages on the incoming water of the Hirmand River, creation of a physical wall at the border and its limitations on rural border trade, the intensification of hydrological droughts, resulting in the drying up of Hamoon wetlands and the intensification of the movement of sand flowing through 120-day winds (mainly due to the dry bed of the Hamoon wetland) have all contributed to the intensification of restrictions on achieving optimal quality of life in the villages studied.
Conclusion:
        Given that having jobs and incomes is a necessity for improving the quality of life of the villagers and most of the villagers lack jobs and proper incomes, measures should be taken to identify the economic needs of rural people in order to provide various job opportunities and improve the living standards of the rural population to reduce the employment problems of rural households.

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