A study on Development Degree Measuring in townships of Khuzestan province

Nowadays, to reinforce their socio-economic infrastructure, to set themselves free from dependence on other nations, to overcome regional imbalances and finally, to move towards sustainable regional development, countries need to first recognize their resources and facilities, and then take initiatives to change their distribution to maximize efficiency. Given that this is a multi-faceted and complex endeavor, it is crucial to first have some idea of the level of development prior to setting up and implementing due developmental policies. The chief objective of this study was to investigate and evaluate the level of development of the cities in Khuzestan province. Adopting both a theoretical and applied orientation, this study combined descriptive and analytic research methods. To this end, for each city, the statistical data needed for selected variables of the study were accessed using published library sources. TOPSIS model was used for data analysis in GIS & Excel packages. Major findings of the study include, first, cities in Khuzestan province enjoy differing degrees of development and of access to resources. Secondly, based on TOPSIS model applied to selected variables the following indexes were obtained for four sets of cities, namely; developed, semi-developed, semi-deprived, and under-developed cities: Ahvaz as the most developed city with an index of .926 in TOPSIS Model comprised the first category of cities. Semi-developed cities included Eizeh, Bandar Mahshar, Shoosh, Shooshtar, Andimeshk, Abadan, Shadegan, Dezfoul and Behbahan with an index of .176 in Topsis Model. The third category of cities, which include Dashte Azadegan, Baghmalek, Ramhormoz, Khoramshar, MasjedSoleyman and Omidieh, had an index of .092 in Topsis Model. Finally, the following cities went into the deprived category of cities with an index of .032 in TOPSIS Model: Lali, Gotvand, Andika, Hovizeh, Hendijan, Ramshir and Haftgel.