The rural guide plan is considered as the most significant development plan, implemented during the past two decades in Iran in order to provide necessary services and facilities of living in rural settlement of the country. Considering the constant process of preparation and implementation of the plan, analyzing and studying the strengths and weaknesses of the plan would affect the level of success. The dominant emphasis of the plan is on the improvement of the quality of physical structures, the social-economic structure of the rural fabric to set the grounds for the rural development. In these respect, the aim of this study is to determine the economic, social and environmental consequences of rural guide plan implementation.
The method of the research in the present study is descriptive-analytical and data is gathered based on a field and library studies, using the surveys and questionnaires. The population of the study consisted of inhabitants of 10 villages in the central part of Chehel Chay Rural District. Random sampling method was utilized such that five villages where the rural guide plan was implemented and five villages where the plan was not implemented. There is a relative similarity in terms of population and location. By using Cochrane method 246 households were determined as the sample size from total 3559 households under the study and they were randomly classified and selected, proportional to the number of households in each village. For the analysis of the data, first the average indices of the research were specified and rated for the villages where the plan was conducted. In the next step, using one sample t-test, the level of difference in the different economic, social, environmental and physical dimensions among villages with and without the rural guide plan has been evaluated and finally all indices under the study were analyzed comparatively in the two groups using Mann-Whitney Test.
The highest impact of implementation of guide plans in the scope of the study was related to the structural and physical dimensions that altogether led to reorganization and modification of the fabric in the rural settlements under the study as well as retrofitting of rural housing. Furthermore , the aforementioned developments transform the communication networks and as well as the quality of the rural pathways which have considerable effect on improving the access of rural inhabitants to other areas and enhance their economic and social conditions. The environmental and social developmental properties are in the second and third ranks. The Improvement of the sewage system of disposal and the waste disposal and development of green space are among the positive environmental effects in target villages. In relation with social dimension, the increased level of the villagers’ participation and the improved level of health could be highlighted. In general, these factors and some others set the ground for increasing the willingness of rural residents to keep on residing within the village influencing the level of migration from the village. The lowest impact of rural guide plan implementation was found within the economic dimension resulting to the increase in the price of land and housing.