Authors
Abstract
The millennium villages initiative could achieve more integrated sustainable settlements if sustainability aims such as those set out in the proposed evaluation framework (minimizing resource consumption; maximizing environmental capital; quality of life; social inclusion; community participation) were adopted as central objectives. The term "sustainability" was offered in 1987 by the United Nation's World Commission on Environment and Development in its report Our Common Future. According to that document, "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Ultimately, the goal of sustainability is to enhance people's well-being. Sustainability is a concept that allows a comfortable way of living by balancing the resource demands of technological, economical and social requirements with the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs. "Sustainable communities encourage people to work together to create healthy communities where natural and historic resources are preserved, jobs are available, sprawl is contained, neighborhoods are secure, education is lifelong, transportation and health care are accessible, and all people (in rural and urban regions) have opportunities to improve the quality of their lives. Sustainable development has three principal dimensions: economic growth, social equity and protection of the environment. Maximization of social well being and poverty alleviation through the optimal and efficient utilization of the natural resources is the economic dimension. The social aspects refer to the improving access to health and education services, fulfilling standards of security and respect for human rights. Because most of the urbanization problems are see only in the large cities and metropolises. Small and medium cities don’t have such problems or its severity is very low, because many studies have a positive evaluation about the role of small cities in regional and local development. Therefore due to relationship between urbanizations and quality of life, the conceptual model of present study have been based on the hypothesis which promoting villages to cities can be improved objective and subjective dimensions of quality of life.The issue of equity, i.e., the distribution of benefits and access to resources remains an essential component of both the economic and social dimensions of sustainable development. The environmental dimensions, on the other hand, are concerned with the conservation and enhancement of the physical and biological resource base and eco-systems. So sustainability indicators look at economic, social and environmental information in an integrated manner and are growing in importance with the advent and follow-up to Agenda 21. They are now challenging countries and the development community to: develop better information collection and reporting systems especially for natural resources (environmental) indicators; integrate environmental, social and economic indicators for greater sensitivity in planning and decision-making toward sustainable development; and report regularly and reliably on conditions and trends. This paper aims at explaining the role and importance measurement and ranking of social sustainability in rural regions with emphasis on Fuzzy TOPSIS by referring to example of objective indicators in Dehestan Homeh in Central District of Khodabandeh. So the focus of the paper is on consideration of how to use objective indicators to monitor social sustainability in a relevant and useful manner. A central question in this paper is whether the required decision making arrangements for measuring and ranking of social sustainability in rural regions, or whether Fuzzy TOPSIS is suitable method for ranking of rural settlements. Above all, we want to find out, how can measure social sustainability based on objective indicators and how can rank rural settlements with emphasis on Multi-Attribute Decision Making (MADM) methods. The paper is organized as follows: After presenting a framework for the analysis of sustainable development and social sustainability, we have explained some basic objectives indicators of social sustainability in rural settlements and decision making methods with emphasis on Fuzzy TOPSIS in order to ranking of rural settlements. This study proposed 17 objective indicators for social sustainability .These are pragmatic choice, to encapsulate in a convenient and practical way the main features or characteristics against which rural settlements could be appraised. They are: social participation, social interactions, introspection, social solidarity, social responsibility, social trust, satisfaction of organizations, fear of abnormal, sense of social exclusion, satisfaction of housing, satisfaction of income, job satisfaction, satisfaction of accessibility to services(quantity and quality), sense of place, expectancy to the future, sense of good luck. Then we have pointed out some essential arrangements which are necessary for gathering data and measuring indicators by questionnaire in 21 rural settlements and 306 rural households. Finally we showed that this model and objectives indicators are able to truly illustrate local circumstances.
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