Economy

Sustainable development is actually a process towards sustainability. It can be conceptually classified within other concepts such as social reorganization, transition to a better future, conserving the quality of the environment, people empowerment, creating new capacities, and respecting indigenous knowledge and information. All these concepts are considered to be the main axis of sustainable development by contributing to the elimination of the need of new generation, regarding the need of future generations.

Hence, sustainable rural development is a multidimensional process that can come off through the bottom-up approach and ongoing, shared use of local supply and resources. "Social capital" is one of the most important social components and a basic aspect of local sustainable development. Social and economic capitals can strongly affect the trends of community-based management of villages. By amplifying the capitals and their optimization, their effect on rural development will be promoted.

In this research, regarding the fact that social capital plays a key role in the realization of rural development, we have used social network analysis method before and after the implementation of a community-based project of rural management to investigated different aspects of bonding and bridging social capital of rural micro-credit fund in Bstaq village of Srayan county, South Khorasan. In this village, mobilizing financial resources has been already done by the establishment of micro-credit funds. It is obvious that the physical sustainability of economic structure of the Fund requires the sustainability of social capital in local network of its beneficiaries. Therefore, social capital needs to get evaluated over time among members of rural micro-credit fund.

Social analysis and assessment of relations between members of rural micro-credit fund of Bastag, in the form of various subgroups, were done using the approach of social network analysis. Efficiency and impact of RFLDL project has been already evaluated for all the indicators and studied cases in two times, one before the implementation of the project in 1390 and one after that in 1394. We have first identified members of microcredit fund in Bastag using survey research and the study of documents in RFLDL project. Then, a network analysis questionnaire was developed and completed doing direct observations and interviews with different individuals. Rural micro-credit fund of Bastag consists of 13 groups. These include Aba-Abdellah, Azahra, Imam Reza, Amir-al- momenin, Sar-Allah, Javad-al-Aeme, Abolfazl, Sahbalzman, Kosar, Musa ibn Ja'far alMahdi, vali-e-asr, and Yas-e-nabi groups. The number of people who completed the questionnaires are 190 people among the group members and 13 heads of the funds. The head of the groups are determined by members in a local election. Data analysis has been done by analyzing and investigating the bonding relations between the group members or bridging communications between leaders in the form of rural micro-credit funds. Network analysis used in this research is a method of full network in which all network members are examined. Finally, collected data were analyzed in UCINET 6.507 software and then the intended indicators were analyzed as well.

Discussion and conclusion
The most significant ides contributing to the establishment of micro-credit fund is to achieve development goals to decrease poverty, mobilize financial resources of rural communities and organize local societies in aligned groups. In this research, we have examined trust-partnership bonds and evaluated various indicators of density, reciprocity links, transition and average geodesic distance using social network analysis method to assess bonding and bridging social capital between members or heads of the groups or between leaders of micro-credit funds of Bastag located in Sarayan and studied in RFLDL project.
Results show that the average density of trust-partnership bonds between members of rural micro-credit funds is high. In the next step of doing RFLDL project, the same indicator increased compared to before. In this village, two groups named Kosar and Azahra have been reported with moderate downwards density of trust- partnership bonds. In other groups this indicator is at its moderate upwards level. In Bastag, mutual trust is high and mutual partnership is up to the middle. The sustainability of communication networks and the institutionalization of various links in the village is assessed as moderate upward. This indicator is also high between the head groups of the village. After project reviews by accomplishing participating activities for rural sustainable development show more density between members of micro-credit fund comparing to before. However, respiratory was noticeably high between the head of the groups.
The velocity of Trust and Participation is high between the members of the Fund in the village of Bastaq. The amount has even increased more after the implementation of the project. The velocity of trust and partnership between the heads of micro-credit fund has respectively increased from 1 to 1.18 and 1.08 to 1.25. Furthermore, people linked together in the shortest possible time and at highest speed. Thanks to the great social :union: and solidarity among people, mobilization of social and financial resources will be possible at a higher speed. Considering the results of social capital assessment before and after the project, it can be said that RFLDL project acted successfully in building trust and creating good chances to strengthen the spirit of partnership and cooperation between members of the fund in Bastag.

Introduction
 Empowering the villagers - as a new approach to development - is very effective in increasing the income and development of rural settlements. In other words, Rural development is not possible without empowering the villagers. Because the change and development of knowledge, skills and attitudes of the villagers from the empowerment process is the basis of sustainable rural development, and as the villagers welcome new ideas and methods, their thoughts change followed by it. As a result, a new attitude is created in them towards agricultural and other economic activities in rural areas and by promoting their cognitive capacities (awareness and knowledge), they provide the conditions for sustainable rural development.
The purpose of this study was to rank rural settlements in terms of factors affecting the empowerment of villagers in the Chandar district in Savojbolagh county.

Methodology
This research is applied in terms of purpose and quantitative (survey) in terms of research approach. The statistical population includes the residents of 10 densely populated villages of Chandar district of Savojbolagh county with a population of 12764 people and the sample size was obtained using Cochran's formula of 384 people and based on the population of each village, the sample ratio of each village was determined. To compare and rank the villages, based on library studies, six combined indicators (components) including interest and motivation, education, participation of villagers, tourism, relief committee services and geographical capacities have been used as factors affecting empowerment. The data collection tool is a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed using the opinions of five experts and its reliability was obtained using Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.82 for a total of six indicators. The villagers' answers to the questions were entered into SPSS₂₁ software and the average of each index in the villages was calculated. Then Dematel method was used to weight the indicators. Vikor technique was used to rank the villages in terms of empowerment indicators.
Savojbolagh county with an area of about 2785 square kilometers is located in the west of Alborz province. It consists of three districts called Markazi, Chandar and Chaharbagh, nine townships named Saeedabad, Hugh, Chandar, Baraghan, Ramjin and Chahardangeh and fore cities named Hashtgerd, Hashtgerd new city, Taleghan and Chaharbagh. According to the 2016 census, the population of Chandar district is equal to 28841 people. Among the villages in this section, 10 villages with a larger population were selected for this study.

Discussion and Conclusion
Given that a quarter of the country's population lives in rural areas and still faces deprivation and underdevelopment in many areas, many urban problems, such as marginalization and urban poverty, are rooted in unresolved issues in rural areas; Therefore, rural development is a priority in planning. In this direction, one of the important approaches for rural development is the empowerment of local and rural communities. Empowering villagers will alleviate poverty and reduce deprivation, increase rural entrepreneurship, and promote rural justice. The empowerment of the villagers themselves is influenced by factors. In fact, empowerment needs stimulants and reinforcers. In this study, six factors of interest and motivation, education, participation of villagers, tourism, relief committee services and geographical capacities were selected as effective factors on empowerment of villagers in Chandar section of Savojbolagh county.
According to the ranking of Vikor index from the lowest score to the highest score, Kordan village is ranked first, followed by Ghezel Darreh Farm, Fashand, Hassanabad Farm, Aznagh, Sebistan, Harjab, Kooshk Zar, Imamzadeh Shah Hossein and BanuSahra are located respectively. Among the indicators affecting empowerment, the indicators of participation, interest and motivation, respectively, had the most role, followed by the geographical capacity, training and services of the Relief Committee in the next ranks. The tourism index is in the last place with a difference. With this study, in addition to ranking the villages in terms of the level of empowerment, the importance of indicators to influence the empowerment variable was also determined and the indicators of participation, interest and motivation, environmental capacity and education can be emphasized more. On the other hand, villages that are in the lower ranks in terms of capability, such as BanoSahra, Shahzadeh Imam Hussein, Koushk Zar, Harjab, Sebistan and Aznagh should also be given priority in the programs.
Thus, by studying the status and level of empowerment indicators in other villages, it is possible to understand the spatial and content priorities of planning for empowerment measures in rural communities. It is obvious that for this purpose, several indicators in individual, institutional and environmental dimensions must be used.
 

Introduction
The first step in spatial planning is the recognition of the environment and its latent capabilities. However, planning for development, especially rural development, should be based on a real understanding of the potential and talents of rural areas. Evidently, a major factor implicated in the failure of rural development planning is the negligence of the environment; indeed, any geographical space has its own potential, capabilities, and facilities for development. Human communities cannot survive apart from economic, social, and physical factors and depend on nature, especially the environment, to meet their basic needs.

Methodology
The research was an applied, non-experimental, library, and document based study with a quantitative paradigm. The statistical population was composed of rural areas in Isfahan Province of Iran. The study was conducted at the county level so that 24 counties in Isfahan Province were investigated in terms of rural economic development. The research had two sets of variables.  a dependent variable, i.e., rural economic development, and independent variables including human resources development, access to infrastructural factors, and environmental capability, which were all quantitative. The data were both quantitative and imagery, collected by the library and document method. The ecological capability section was analyzed by Dr. Makhtoum’s multi-factor evaluation method. The criteria of the ecological capability were assigned with weights using the pairwise comparison technique of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Then, the criteria were integrated using the weighted linear combination method. Ultimately, the final fuzzy map was classified based on the mean and standard deviation (SD) of the value of its pixels in the ENVI5.1 software package. The aggregated index calculation method was employed to estimate other parameters including rural economic development, human resources development, and access to infrastructural factors. Eventually, the multivariate regression method was applied to explore the effect of independent variables on rural economic development. The software packages used in the research included SPSS and MS-excel for statistical analyses and the calculation of aggregated indices, Super Decisions for assigning weights to the environmental capability criteria by the pairwise comparison technique, ENVI5.1 for standardizing information layers of the criteria and categorizing land-uses based on the mean and SD of the pixel values, ArgGIS 10.1 for aggregating and preparing information layers, estimating the areas of each section, and producing the output maps, and SHAZAM for performing the regression analysis and testing the estimator hypotheses of ordinary least squares (OLS).

Discussion and Conclusion
According to the results, Isfahan County had the highest and Semirom County had the lowest rate of economic development in their rural areas. Naeen and Dehaqn Counties showed the highest and lowest levels of human resources development, respectively. The highest and lowest access to the infrastructural factors were related to the counties of Khomeynishahr and Semirom, respectively and Chadegan and Khour-va-Biabanak Counties had the highest and lowest ecological capabilities, respectively. A closer look at the results revealed that although some counties such as Chadegan, Bueen Miyandasht, and Semirom had high ecological potential; however, they were at the lowest level of the economic development of rural areas. In contrast, counties like Isfahan, Ardestan, Aran-va-Bidgol, and Naeen with weaker ecological capabilities were at higher levels of economic development in their rural areas.
Based on the analysis of the effect of variables on economic development with multivariate regression, the coefficient of determination (R²) was estimated at 0.806 for the model. The statistic shows that 80.6% of the variance in rural economic development is accounted for by three variables of ecological capability, human resources development, and infrastructural factors and 19.4% is related to other factors not included in the model. The results of the regression analysis show that the relative importance or effectiveness of the ecological capability is 0.23 whereas the relative importance of the access to infrastructural factors is 0.65 and the relative importance of the human resources development is 0.35. According to the results, rural economic development in Isfahan province is mainly affected by the variable of access to infrastructural factors and least affected by ecological capability. This is an unexpected result because the rural economy is based on ecological resources and capability since most of the people in the rural areas are employed in agriculture and related activities. Also, the results showed that the variances in the three independent variables are not consistent, reflecting the fact that the policies adopted by development planners have not distributed infrastructure endowments in accordance with environmental potential. If they were distributed proportionally, regions with higher environmental capability should have had more infrastructural facilities. Therefore, infrastructure development and credit distribution are influenced by factors other than environmental potential.
In general, if capabilities and facilities are considered for rural economic development, it will be possible to realize economic development in villages and achieve an optimal level of economic development in these areas. It is, therefore, necessary to adopt policies and strategies for rural development that are consistent with environmental potential.