Spatial analysis of social indicators and regional inequality in West Azarbaijan province

Authors

• Mir Najaf Mousavi ¹
• Nima Bayramzadeh ²

¹ Professor, Department of Geography, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

² Research Assistant, Department of Geography, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

10.30495/jzpm.2024.32564.4277

Abstract

The main goal of this research is the spatial analysis of social indicators and regional inequality in West Azerbaijan province. The current research method is applied in terms of purpose and has a descriptive-analytical nature. The method of data collection in this research has been done in a library manner. The case of study in this research is the townships of West Azarbaijan province in 2021, which includes 19 townships. 24 indicators have been used to investigate the social sector. The analysis of research data has been carried out quantitatively and through SPSS, EXCEL, and GIS software. So, the CoCoSo model was used to rank the townships, the K-Means Cluster method was used for the clustering of the indicators, and the Spatial Autocorrelation (Global Moran's I) model was used for the spatial analysis of the townships. Then, the clustering results are shown as a map by the geographic information system. The weighting of indicators in this research is done through Shannon's entropy. Geographically weighted regression has also been used to find relationships between variables. The findings of this research show that according to the CoCoSo model, Urmia Township is ranked first and Barough Township is ranked 19th. Also, based on the clustering, one township is in the Developed level, six townships are in the Relatively developed level, seven townships are in the Semi-developed level, three townships are in the Less developed level, one is Underdeveloped and one township is in the very Underdeveloped level. The results of Global Moran's I analysis also indicate the existence of a random and multipolar pattern in West Azerbaijan Province. According to the results of the geographically weighted regression model, the influence of the independent variables of area and population on the dependent variable of having social indicators is greater in the north of the province than in the south of the province.

Keywords

• Sustainable Development
• Inequality Analysis
• CoCoSo
• West Azarbaijan

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