The Analysis and Prioritization of Social Sustainability of Rural Environments (Case Study: Ghal’eh Biaban District Darab Sub-Province)

Abstract
Rural sustainable development has different dimensions in which the dimension of social sustainability is of great importance. This dimension follows not only determining the minimum social requirements for long-term development but also recognizing the challenges ahead of the society performance for a long time. As a matter of fact, accessing social sustainability in rural areas requires the recognition and analysis of social sustainability of the villages. Therefore, regarding social sustainability, the present study aims at evaluating, analyzing and prioritizing rural area of Ghal’eh Biaban District (Darab City). The data are gathered through library method, (including books, articles, and statistics) and field method (the questionnaire in the frame of Likert range to evaluate and analyze social sustainability indices). The samples include the families of 7 villages with the population more than 20 families in which 10% of the population was chosen (185 people) as the sample families. Analysis of data was done using RALSPI model and statistical descriptive and inferential methods. Variance analysis was applied for explaining difference among villages in respect of social sustainability, and ranking cases was done through RALSPI method because of reducing substitution possibilities between indicators. This method requires weighting indicators, so the weight vector was calculated using entropy method whose results assumed as input of RALSPI method. The findings reveal that rural areas have higher than average social sustainability, although there are significant differences among the villages. Moreover, based on RALSPI method, it turns out that Fath Abad village has the highest rank of social sustainability while Bikh & Bongol the lowest rank of social sustainability.
Extended Abstract
1- Introduction
Rural sustainable development has different dimensions in which the dimension of social sustainability is of great importance; in recent years, this dimension has been considering as a basic component opening new subjects in discourse of sustainable societies. Social sustainability can be defined as a preservation and improvement of welfare of current and future generations. Based on related studies, this definition blends the equal accessibility to key services (such as hygiene, education, transportation, housing and recreation) and also inter-generation equality; this means that future generations will not be damaged by activities of current generation.
Hitherto, there has been introduced an extensive domain of concepts about social sustainability such as social capital, sustainable societies, social resilience, social development, social capacity, and social welfare and deprivation that is the outcome of changing attitudes toward the development in general and rural development in especial. Research has shown that several components have been regarded as the basis of recognition of social sustainability in rural and urban societies. In this way, Economic Cooperation and Development Organization has introduced key issues of sustainable development in social and cultural fields in two sections: A) Life quality and social welfare, such as accessibility to hygienic and educational services, housing, income and level of deprivation. B) Demographic, including components such as population density, change of population structure, migration patterns among village and city and cultural issues.
Social sustainability can be considered in three aspects; operational aspect which focuses on using related methods and indicators in the way of sustainability. Intended matters in this aspect are methods, issues and indicators such as empowering population, association, accessibility, welfare, employment, health, security and other indicators determinating life standards. The second aspect is related to sustainability of policies that evaluates suitability of principles and goals with sustainability. Third aspect of social sustainability is devoted to evaluating theories and approaches determining whether the theories and approaches are in compatible with principals of sustainability or not.
In the meantime, the notable matter is achieving social sustainability in the villages requiring assessment of sustainability rate and related affecting factors, in any society; this can guide planners and decision makers. The correct understanding of existent insufficiencies and challenges from social viewpoint provide a suitable base line to achieve rural sustainable development. Accordingly, regarding operational dimension of social sustainability, this paper aims at replying the following questions: A) what is the level of social sustainability in the studied rural areas? B) Is there any significant difference among the criteria of social sustainability? C) What are the differences among rural areas in respect of social sustainability? 
2- Materials and methods  
The present study is a kind of applied research using descriptive-analytic method. The data have been collected through library and field studies (questionnaire). Research area is Ghal’eh Biaban District located in Darab Sub-province. From all residential villages of the district, 7 villages, the research villages, include over 20 households and more which are as follows: Ghal’eh Biaban, Navayegan, Shohadaye Ashayer, Fath abad, Ghadire Navayegan, Bikh & Bongol, and Shekari. Moreover, the analysis unit is residential households including 1856 ones in which 10% was selected randomly as statistical sample. Based on library studies, 66 indicators have been selected for assessment of social sustainability of villages. Analysis of the data was done using RALSPI model and statistical descriptive and inferential methods. Variance analysis was applied to explain the differences among the villages in respect of social sustainability. Besides, ranking cases were done through RALSPI method because of reducing substitution possibilities between indicators. This method requires weighting indicators, so the weight vector was calculated using entropy method whose results assumed as input of RALSPI method.  
3- Results and discussion
. The findings show that sustainability level in the criteria like extraversion and interoperability, place attachment, participation, solidarity and social interaction, social trust, lack of fear from social abnormalities, responsibilness, lack of deprivation feeling and feel of luck is more than the average. Moreover, house satisfaction is also more than the average, although it is not significant. Sustainability in other four criteria is lower than the average being significant based on P-value. Furthermore, based on the findings of of RALSPI method Shahrake Ashayer gained highest rank in respect of criterion of social capital, while the villages Fath abad and Navayegan, located at second and third ranks, won the second and third rank respectively. The lowest score in this group belongs to Bikh & Bongol. According to the criterion of life satisfaction, villages of Fath abad, Navayegan and Ghal’eh Biaban won the second and third rank respectively compared with other villages. Unlike them, Bikh & Bongol have the least favorable situation. Moreover, the highest score of accessibility to services belongs to Fath abad, Navayegan and Ghal’eh Biaban, respectively.       
4- Conclusion
The present study aims at analyzing and prioritizing the social sustainability of Ghal’eh village. Along with spreading studies about explaining the concept of sustainable development and increasing attempt of societies in the way of operating guidelines of achieving this kind of development, social sustainability was introduced as one of main dimensions of sustainable development in recent years; consequently, some new concepts such as social capital, social sustainability etc. entered into science literature of development. Regarding the importance of this issue, especially in rural areas, social sustainability of rural areas of Ghal’eh Biaban district (located in Darab sub-province) was analyzed and prioritized. The findings reveal that overall level of social sustainability is upper medium in the studied villages, although there is significant difference among studied villages in respect of social sustainability. Investigation of differentiation among criteria of social sustainability, using statistical test of variance analysis, showed a significant difference among the acquired scores for each of criteria of social sustainability. Finally, the outcome of prioritization of studied villages, in respect of social sustainability situation in sorted ranks, is as follows: Fath abad, Navayegan, Shohadaye Ashayer, Ghal’eh Biaban, Ghadire Navayegan, Shekari, and Bikh & Bongol. Generally, empowering local societies, quantitative and qualitative improving of services, creation and diversification of employment opportunities and consequently increasing tendency of stability are suggested in rural areas to improve social sustainability.