Investigating the Adaptability of Rural Physical Features to the Feeling of Security among the Residents of Toos Rural Area in Mashhad County

Abstract

Purpose- The present study aims at examining the adaptability of physical features to feeling of security among the residents of the rural area of Toos. The achievements are supposed to be used in quality improvement of rural guidance plans in line with increasing security potentials of rural areas. Design/methodology/approach- The methodology of this study is correlative, and data collection was performed through library and field studies. The extracted physical indices were obtained from the studies and rural guidance maps, while feeling of security index was obtained through 386 researcher-made questionnaires filled by the residents of 13 villages in the countryside of Mashhad in Toos rural area. The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed through an expert board and their reliability in the security feeling variable was confirmed by Cronbach alpha 0.8. SPSS software was used for data analysis. Finding- The findings of the study indicated a significant negative correlation between many of the form and morphology indices of feeling of security. The correlation between the size of the village and feeling of security is significant and equals to -0.804. Moreover, a significant inverse correlation was found between population density and feeling of security which was equal to 0.592. Among the functional status indices, we can refer to an inverse moderate correlation between the distribution of services and the scale of land uses. Accessibility index indicates a strong inverse relationship of impenetrability (with correlation coefficient of 0.670) and the design of dead-end and narrow streets with feeling of security. Research limitations/implications- The limitation of this study includes the bureaucracy of the administrative network, lack of official data and the time-consuming data collection. Practical implications- Generally, the confirmation of the strong relationship among most of the variables indicates that it is required to develop principles of secured places and to give more consideration to the physical security in rural guidance plans, which are the most important related documents in the country. Originality/value- The relationship between them has been ignored in rural areas in spite of the extended volume of rural guidance plans based on their physical context, as well as insecurity of the rural areas at the urban fringe.