An Analysis of Regional Inequalities in West Azerbaijan with Emphasis on Socio-Cultural Factors

Abstract

Reducing the imbalances, logical and rational utilization of the environmental power, optimal distribution of resources and population, systemic view of the towns and villages, and recognition of the inequalities between settlements are among the most important tasks of regional planning. Hence in this study we are going to investigate socio-cultural factors in the towns of West Azerbaijan through Factor and Cluster Analysis technique and also utilizing 21 Indices. The research is Applied- Developmental and to study the data, descriptive analytical method is used. Applying factor analysis led to divide the towns into four levels, advantaged, relatively advantaged, deprived and highly deprived. The findings indicated that Khoy town got the first place with a score of 3.47 and Chaldoran town got the 17th place with a score of -3.25 among 17 towns of West Azerbaijan in which 23.52 % of the towns were in advantaged level, 35.29 % were in relatively advantaged level, 23.52 % were in deprived level, and 17.64 % were in relatively deprived level. Finally, using cluster analysis and diagrams of Dendrogram, the towns were classified into homogeneous groups. Overall, the findings showed the differences and inequalities in the enjoyment of the towns’ socio-cultural factors. Thus, considering local and regional planning in order to eliminate inequalities and equitable distribution of resources, services, population, is essential to the development of the province.