Assessment Pattern of Rural Environmental Sustainability Case: Shervineh Village in Javanrud County

Introduction In recent years, increase in demand as a result of world population and industrialization lead to demand for the use of natural resources. This issue causes environmental problems and challenges. Therefore, sustainable development is considered by different researchers. Sustainable development has various dimensions such as economic, social, cultural, political and environmental ones. Regarding modern trend in sustainable development, all dimensions are considered in relation to the issue of environmental dimension of development and the environment protection and its resources issue is one of the important dimensions in sustainable development. Other developmental dimensions have direct or indirect relation to this dimension. Considering this, rural regions have high degree of dependency to these natural resources to supply their basic needs. Therefore, to achieve national development objectives, environmental sustainability in these regions is of great importance to prevent desertification, confront with dangers caused by drought, prevent soil erosion and degradation, maintain natural resources and also microclimates. However, in many villages of the country, the environment is facing severe threats such as desertification, deforestation and destruction of meadows, agricultural land-use change, groundwater decline, and landslide and so on. So, regarding to existing problems in the villages of the country and environmental challenges, the necessity and importance of the environmental status assessment in rural regions is obvious before any planning. Accordingly, this study has been done to present a pattern for assessment of rural environmental sustainability in Shervineh village. Methodology This study is a descriptive correlational survey. All Shervineh residents took part in this study (N=840), in which 264 people were chosen randomly according to Bartlett Table as the statistical samples. For data collection, questionnaires had been used in this study. On the whole, 185 questionnaires had been collected and analyzed. The validity of questionnaire has been determined by many specialists in the fields like rural development and environmental field and the content validity of the questionnaire has been confirmed. To determine the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alfa test has been used in which the reliability coefficient of 90% is achieved. Data analysis has been done by the use of SPSS 16 and LISREL 8.8 and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Discussion and Conclusion The results of factor analysis shows that six factors (implementation of environmental plans in the village, participation of all villagers, contribution of people and local institutions and also national organization supporting the environmental issues, environmental beliefs, training necessary reactions in the case of destructive activities against environment, having prior experiences and indigenous knowledge of the rural environment) are effective in environmental sustainability assessment. Each of these factors is discussed according to their importance in environmental sustainability. Participation of all villagers is a necessary and an important factor to achieve rural environmental sustainability. In this regard, findings by Golshiri and Saraee (2010), Ahmadvand and Nooripour (2010) and Masika & Joekes (1997) showed that promoting public participation in the process of development, protection, restoration and sustainable utilization of natural and environmental resources are important to achieve a sustainable environmental development. One of the indicators in assessment of environmental sustainability is indigenousknowledge and prior experiences of rural environment which are confirmed by factor analysis. In fact, indigenous knowledge is suitable for environment management and this is because of knowledge coming out of the natural environment of the region. Another factor is environmental beliefs and values (ethics) of villagers which provides a base to development of environmental sustainability. In this regard, findings by Menatizadeh and Zamani (2012), and Ogunkan (2010) showed that ethical norms are the factors which have the most impressions on the formation process of environmental sustainability attitude. Contribution of groups, local institutions and national organizations supporting environmental issues is a factor which provides a base to environmental sustainability. This findings are confirmed by Hosseini (2002) and Sadough Vanini et al (2008) studies. According to these researchers' findings, to achieve environmental sustainability, local institution's activities are needed. Factor analysis results showed that implementation of environmental plans in the village is necessary for the environmental sustainability assessment. Various studies (Mozafar et.al (2008); Safaeeyan et.al (2002); Motiee Langeroudi and Yari (2010)) showed that implementation of development plans caused negative environmental impacts. This is the case, because the codification and implementation of these plans should be the result of studies by various specialists meanwhile plan makers and plan executors act according to available information and superficial observations. One of the indicators in environmental sustainability assessment is holding educational workshops to disscuss consequences of destructive activities against environment. In this case, we should know that one of the best strategies to overcome environmental challenges is training and educating human force with desired environmental attitude and corresponded to sustainability. In this field, Lichtenberg & Zimmerman (1999) and Abbaspour et.al (2003) believed that getting knowledge and information from different sources is effective on environmental behavior.