Investigating and Analyzing the Development Level of Townships of Kermanshah Province in Iran Based on Housing Indexes

Housing, beside two factors of food and clothing are fundamental needs of human communities, which most planners emphasize the optimal access to its different dimensions. This issue is more representative in Iran because in Iranian constitution, it has been emphasized. Development in dimensions and indexes of housing can represent the development level of societies as well. The present study is a descriptive-analytical one conducted with the objective of investigating the level of development in the townships of Kermanshah Province in housing indexes. The data collection method is document analysis and field study. To obtain the main objective of the study, 21 indexes related to housing were used. Further, for weighting indexes of the research, the questionnaires distributed among 30 individuals of authorities and experts of Housing Foundation and Road Constructionand Urban Development Office as well as university professors experienced in housing field were used. To determine the development of the township of the Kermanshah Province, TOPSIS and AHP techniques, Cluster Analysis and GIS were used. The findings of the research indicated that among 14 townships of the province, three townships of Kangavar, Sahneh and Harsin respectively with priority coefficients 0.636, 0.554, and 0.521 enjoyed the highest level of development and three townships of Salas-e Babajani, Paveh and Dalahou respectively with priority coefficients of 0.116, 0.242 and 0.242 have the lowest level of development. In addition, about 29 percent of the townships of the province (22.77 percent of the area of the province) are at very high and high levels of development, 14 percent (31.1 percent of the area of the province) at the moderate level, and 57 percent of the townships (46.14 percent of the area of the province) are at deprived or very deprived levels. Finally, the development situation of eastern townships of the province is more favorable than the western half it in terms of housing indexes.