Measuring the Sustainability Levels of Rural Development in Karaj County

  This research tries to determine sustainability levels of rural development in Karaj county of Iran to achieve a better understanding of the current situation in the county in 2011. For this purpose, 30 social, economic, environmental and infrastructural indicators are applied, using factor analysis and cluster analysis techniques for grading and evaluating the sustainability of 82 villages; thus, the concerned variables are reduced to four factors. According to the results of principal component analysis with rotation, some 65.32 percent of total variance is explained by these factors. In addition, the study results indicate an undesirable condition in the studied region, in which Farokhabad and Ghezel-Hesar villages are found to be the most sustainable while Moradabad and Ahmadabad are the most unsustainable villages, compared to the other settlements. Finally, a number of strategic policies are suggested in different dimensions to enhance and improve sustainability levels of rural development in the studied region.