THE IMPACT OF DROUGHT ON POPULATION INSTABILITY IN RURAL SETTLEMENTS (CASE STUDY: VILLAGES OF KHOOSF COUNTY)

Abstract

Rural migration is a phenomenon that began in Iran with the industrialization of cities, the process of recruiting surplus youth, in the agricultural sector from villages to cities, in favor of industrial and service activities. Environmental degradation, drought, lack of employment opportunities in agriculture, degradation of water and soil resources and inequality of access to various opportunities are among the important factors that have led to the demographic displacement of rural areas and exacerbated the instability of rural settlements in Iran. Understanding the volatility of rural settlements and explaining them scientifically in the national space can guide planners in reducing ecological and social crisis, which in turn is a step towards utilizing the country's rural resources in the national economy. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the impact of drought on population instability in the villages of Khoosf district and to provide appropriate solutions to sustain and sustain the population. The research is applied in terms of purpose and nature and is descriptive-analytical, in terms of methodology. The population consisted of 41 villages over 100 populations with 4226 households and 13892 populations which according to geographical distribution, population categorization and population decline during 2006 and 2016, 20% of them (8 villages) with 796 households was selected as sample. A total of 259 questionnaires (based on Cochran formula) were distributed among the sample households based on simple random method. In this study, one sample t-test was used to analyze quantitative data and Friedman test was used to rank the effect of drought on population instability. Based on the results of the present study, it can be concluded that drought has the highest relationship with population instability in the studied settlements.