Economy

Drought is a natural disaster resulting in many damages to human life and natural ecosystems which is different from other kinds of disasters such as flood, hurricanes and earthquakes. As a result of this phenomenon, the level of surface water and ground water decrease dramatically and it is followed by various negative impacts on all aspects of villagers' life especially on economic aspect and agriculture structure. Frequent droughts result in more and more vulnerability of rural societies for facing present droughts, in a way that in some societies the basic challenge for many vulnerable households regarding the drought is survival. The economy of studied villages in Sirvan and Chardavol counties is dependent on agriculture activity. In the past years and before the occurrence of drought, these two counties were considered as a focal point for rice cultivation in Ilam province. In recent years, agriculture section is affected severely and water lands turned to be arid during the year because of climate changes and following that the occurrence of drought and its impacts on water resources, such as drying of seasonal and permanent rivers (Chardavol River) or decrease in agriculture water in the studied counties. According to the agricultural statistics released by Agriculture Organization of Ilam province, proportion of area under irrigated cereals as the dominant cultivation in two counties, Sirvan and Chardavol, in 74-75 crop year was 1530 and 6124 hectare respectively which has been decreased to 35 and 830 hectare in 90-91 crop year. These changes result in many problems in social and economic structure of rural districts in these counties. These problems in the studied rural societies are increase in unemployment, decrease in agricultural productions, decrease in income level and saving of households, increase of fake jobs. So, according to the necessity and importance of the issue, this survey aims to study economic impacts of drought on rural districts which are dependent on agriculture activities in Sirvan and Chardavol in order to answer the question that "What are the impacts of drought on economy of rural districts which are dependent on agriculture activities in Sirvan and Chardavol?"

This survey is a descriptive- analytic one. The population includes all the farmers of Sirvan and Chardavol counties (N= 8099) and regarding the condition of the studied society, we used multistage hierarchical sampling method. Therefore, after determining the samples by using Cochran's Formula which was calculated 367 people, we determined the portion of each rural district and available village out of samples using multi-stage hierarchical sampling method and according to portion principle for each county's portion (103 people from Sirvan county and 264 people from Chardavol). Therefore, after determining the samples by using Cochran's Formula which was calculated 367 people, we determined the portion of each rural district and available villages out of samples using multi-stage hierarchical sampling method and according to portion principle for each county's portion (103 people from Sirvan county and 264 people from Chardavol). Questionnaires were the data collection tools in this survey. The questionnaires are divided to two parts: the first part includes questions about personal and social characteristics of the farmers such as age, sex, education, and their agriculture activities' experiences, water resources before and after drought, the amount and the type of owned land. Second part includes items in the case of drought impacts on economy of rural districts. Since the target villages are dependent on agriculture activities and farming, therefore, the resulted structural and functional impacts of drought on agriculture section such as areas under agriculture production, production, the process of planting and harvesting the crops, income and farming costs, investment and savings by farmers, employment in agriculture section and the number of employees are considered as indicators of drought impacts on economy of rural districts and these items have been questioned. The validity ofdata collection tool was confirmed by experts. Its stability has been achieved by performing pretest and calculation of Alfa Cronbach (0.797). To analysis the data, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics have been used including factor analysis. To assess suitability of the data by factor analysis, KMO and Bartlett test have been used. All the statistical calculations in this study have been done by SPSS version 20 for windows. Sirvan and Chardavol counties are located in Ilam province in the west of Iran. Chardavol County is divided to two districts; 5 rural districts and two cities; Sirvan County has one district, three rural districts and a city; according to 1390 census, Chardavol County’s population is 55225 and the rural population is 37981. Sirvan population is 16948 and its rural population is 13047. Economic structure of these counties is dependent on agriculture and their major water resources are Chardavol River and Simereh River which are almost dry because of recent drought and also the amount of water in Simireh River in two stations, Halilan and Sazbon, decreased up to 90 and 82 percent respectively in 2007-2008 water year.

Drought is one of the most persistent and most harmful natural disaster regarding the economy of the region which not only affect the agriculture quickly and directly but also it is followed by indirect and harmful impacts as a result of disorder in natural growth of agricultural productions. The results of factor analysis showed that the recent drought resulted in negative impacts on the economy of the rural districts in two counties, Sirvan and Chardavol. Drought impacts on rural districts in Sirvan County are four impacts including: decrease in production, increase in farmers' debts, poverty and change in approaches to agriculture. The results of factor analysis in Chardavol county shows that many changes happened in the economy of rural districts of this region too because of the occurrence of drought including economic crisis, poverty, change in approaches to agriculture and the debt crisis. According to the obtained results, in Sirvan County, the first and the most important impact of drought on economy of villages which are dependent on agriculture activity is decrease in production.

Tourism can be a tool for rural development; because it can be considered as a new financial resource, it can improve the economic status of local people and it can be considered as a resource that removes poverty and creates more jobs. Tourism and rural development are also two interrelated factors which have positive impacts on each other when tourism development or rural development take place. As a region that is one of the top fifty tourist attractions in Kermanshah Province, Ghoori-Ghale village is one of the most important destinations of tourists to the west of the country; annually, this region receives thousands of tourists from other parts of the country and from neighboring countries especially Iraqi tourists. Studies show that the number of tourists in this village increased considerably during the past years; so that the number of visitors has increased from 116000 people in 1381 to 418000 people in 1386 and more than 500000 people in 1391. More than natural attractions of the village and cultural values in Ghoori-Ghale, the most important tourist attraction in Ravansar County is Ghoori-Ghale Cave as a natural phenomenon and it is the second tourist attraction of the Oramanat region. Construction of more than 30 shops and stores and full-time employment of more than 30 individuals around the cave, is just one of the advantages of Ghoori-Ghale Cave for inhabitants of Ghoori-Ghale village. Base on this, some questions are raised including that "which indicators of rural development have been mostly effected by tourists' arrivals?", "at what level are the impacts of tourism on rural development of Ghoori-Ghale?" and "how many factors are defined as the impacts of tourism in rural development of Ghoori-Ghale village and what are the important ones?"

Methodology:
This study is practical one which used analytical-descriptive researches method. For data collection documentary method and field study are used. The study population includes all heads of householder in Ghoori-Ghale village (240 people). Because of limitation of population and their availability, the sample study was chosen by complete enumeration method. The basic research tool was self-constructed questionnaire in which, after necessary modification, its validity was confirmed by university professors and other tourism experts. To examine the reliability of the constructed questionnaire, a guide study was performed out of the studied region with 30 questionnaires. Cronbach's Alfa Coefficient was obtained by using SPSS, version 0.861 and it showed the high level of reliability in using of research tool. The five-point Likert scale has been the indicators' scale for this case (very little: point 1, little: point 2, average: point 3, great: point 4, very great: point 5) and for statistical analysis descriptive statistics (average, standard deviation and coefficient of variables) and one sample T-test have been used and also for recognizing the impacts of tourists' arrivals on inhabitants of Ghoori Ghale, regarding some limited and important factors, factor analysis technique has been applied.
Discussion and Conclusion:
Because of profitability and high level of job creation for host communities, today, rural tourism can be considered as one of the most important tools for developing and following that for sustainable development of rural inhabitants especially in regions with high potential in attracting tourist. This study findings showed that most of rural inhabitants in the studied area are completely satisfied with tourists' arrival and they are ready to attract more tourists. Moreover, the results showed that tourists' arrival to Ghoori Ghale village mostly have impact on many indicators including development of employment, increase of inhabitants' income, diversity of economic activities, constructing or developing local markets, infrastructure development, increase of land value and housing, increase of purchase power and improvement of living status, decrease of rural immigration and return of immigrants to the village, increase of the constructions and diversification of domestic products. The results of studying the overall level of the impacts of tourism showed that most respondents believe that tourism has considerable impacts (average of 3.4) on development of Ghoori Ghale village. The results showed that the impacts of tourism on inhabitants of Ghori Ghale village are summarized in six main factors which on the whole, determined 82.6% of total variance of impacts of tourism regarding the target village. The recognized factors in order of their importance are as follow: economic factor, infrastructurephysical factor, social-cultural factor, health-environmental factor, involvement factor and safety factor. Regarding the high potentiality of Ghoori Ghale village and other neighboring villages, by proper management and villagers' participation, it is possible to create a tourism hub in the region in which Ghoori Ghale village is the central part and consequently, this matter can be a good prospective for development of neighboring villages to Ghoori Ghale.