Evaluation of social indicators of small cities with their demographic rank: a case study of the urban system of Ilam province

The aim of this study was to measure and evaluate the social sustainability of cities in Ilam province using 51 indicators of social sustainability, including 8 components: literacy status of urban residents, family durability and strength, having adequate housing, quality of population dynamics, access to health indicators, Access to educational indicators, equal access to cultural spaces and access to green and recreational space in 21 urban areas of Ilam province in order to improve the quality of life of the residents of these cities and achieve equality and intergenerational justice and achieve sustainable social development.

The main question of this research is what level of development are the cities of Ilam province in terms of social sustainability?

And is there a relationship between the size of urban populations and their degree of social sustainability?

Then, using Spearman correlation coefficient, the relationship between population rank and urban sustainability rank was analyzed. Spearman correlation test is a non-parametric synonym of Pearson correlation coefficient. This test is appropriate when examining the statistical relationship between a ranking note variable. The Spearman correlation coefficient shows how much the dependent variable changes as the independent variable increases or decreases. All steps of Spearman correlation coefficient can be performed by SPSS software.

In order to measure and rank the level of social stability in 21 urban areas of Ilam province based on 51 social indicators based on the 2011 census, ranking was done using TOPSIS technique, then using cluster analysis of values obtained from TOPSIS technique, social stability of cities The province was classified into four groups, the first level indicates stability, the second level indicates semi-stability, the third level indicates semi-instability

The results show; The only urban point of Tohid, in the first level or stable, 4 cities of Maymeh, Lomar, Sarab Bagh and Badreh in the second or semi-stable level, 10 urban points; Shahr and Zarneh are in the third or semi-unstable level, 6 urban points of Arkavaz Malekshahi, Abdanan, Mehran, Ilam, Ivan and Dehloran are in the fourth or unstable level.

To determine the relationship between urban population rank and their sustainability rank, first the population of cities was ranked and leveled, then the sustainability of urban population was leveled and ranked based on 51 social indicators, and then using Spearman correlation coefficient. They were calculated.

The study of the relationship between population size and the degree of stability of cities in Ilam province using Spearman coefficient shows a value of -0.782 indicates a strong and inverse relationship between the population rank of cities and their sustainability rank and shows that with increasing The population of cities decreases in terms of their stability, and smaller cities have more stability.

The results of this study using TOPSIS technique and cluster analysis to determine the level of social sustainability in 21 urban areas of Ilam province based on 2011 statistics using 51 indicators of social sustainability show; The only urban point of Tohid, in the first or stable level, 4 cities of Maymeh, Lomar, Sarab Bagh and Badreh in the second or semi-stable level, 10 urban points; Darrehshahr and Zarneh are in the third or semi-unstable level, 6 urban points of Arkavaz Malekshahi, Abdanan, Mehran, Ilam, Ivan and Dehloran are in the fourth or unstable level.

Also, the analysis of the population of the cities of the province using cluster analysis at four levels indicates that Ilam city as a middle city with 166760 people (in the first population level, four cities of Dehloran (30385 people), Ivan (29351 people), Abdanan (22420 people) and Darrehshahr (20371) in the second population level, three cities of Mehran (14309), Arkavaz Malekshahi (12333) and Sarableh (10869) in the third population level and thirteen urban points of Asemanabad (5886), Chavar (5753) ), Badreh (4215), Pahleh (4028), Mormori (3518), Zarneh (3113), Lomar (2655), Maymeh (2628), Sarab Bagh (2557), Musian (2480), Delgsha (2201), Saleh Abad (1707) and Tohid (1475) are in the fourth population level.

The results of this study using TOPSIS technique and cluster analysis to determine the level of social sustainability in 21 urban areas of Ilam province based on 2011 statistics using 51 indicators of social sustainability show; The only urban point of Tohid, in the first or stable level, 4 cities of Maymeh, Lomar, Sarab Bagh and Badreh in the second or semi-stable level, 10 urban points; Darrehshahr and Zarneh are in the third or semi-unstable level, 6 urban points of Arkavaz Malekshahi, Abdanan, Mehran, Ilam, Ivan and Dehloran are in the fourth or unstable level.

Also, the analysis of the population of the cities of the province using cluster analysis at four levels indicates that Ilam city as a middle city with 166760 people (in the first population level, four cities of Dehloran (30385 people), Ivan (29351 people), Abdanan (22420 people) and Darrehshahr (20371) in the second population level, three cities of Mehran (14309), Arkavaz Malekshahi (12333) and Sarableh (10869) in the third population level and thirteen urban points of Asemanabad (5886), Chavar (5753) ), Badreh (4215), Pahleh (4028), Mormori (3518), Zarneh (3113), Lomar (2655), Maymeh (2628), Sarab Bagh (2557), Musian (2480), Delgsha (2201), Saleh Abad (1707) and Tohid (1475) are in the fourth population level.

The results of calculations of Spearman correlation coefficient to examine the relationship between the size of population and the degree of sustainability of cities in Ilam province using Spearman coefficient, -0.782 shows a strong and inverse relationship between population rank of cities And this is the rank of their sustainability. This situation shows that as the population of cities increases, their level of stability decreases and smaller cities have more stability. In other words, cities with smaller (smaller) populations have higher social stability, which is a direct result of governments to create educational, health and other social services in these cities, and between the population of cities with higher populations and the index. Equality and proportionality are not observed. Therefore, any planning to improve the social sustainability indicators of the cities of Ilam province, must necessarily start from cities with higher populations such as Ilam, Dehloran, Abdanan, Mehran, Ivan and Arkavaz Malekshahi.