Background and purpose: Nowadays, progress in industrial projects, in addition to meeting some of the human needs, has intentionally or unintentionally caused instabilities and lots of environmental problems for the environment of residents living near these industries, which has increased the need for assessing environmental impacts in geographical space. Simultaneously with the implementation of the policy of developing large industries in the Mobarakeh region, the economic, social, environmental, and physical structure of the ecosystem of rural settlements in this city has undergone instability, especially over the last 30 years. The present study follows the general purpose of identifying and evaluating the environmental impacts of the establishment and loading of industries on rural settlements in the Mobarakeh region.
Materials and methods: In recent decades, Mobarakeh region due to the presence of mother industries as well as upstream industries, an industrial town and an industrial zone, has become one of the country’s industrial hubs and with 419 active industrial units, it employs about 31000 people. In the present study, the collected data were processed and analyzed by using SPSS and Amos software, and descriptive statistics and structural equations were used to analyze them.
Results: With the role of industries in the environmental instability of the rural settlements of Mobarakeh region, 11 variables (items) were considered, which include: Relative increase in temperature and relative decrease in snowfall, lowering of groundwater and surface water levels, diversion of agricultural water for the benefit of industry, soil erosion and land subsidence, destruction of vegetation, air pollution, pollution of surface and groundwater, noise pollution, pollution of agricultural soil, prevalence of pulmonary and heart diseases such as MS and various cancers due to environmental pollution, increase in road congestion and traffic and its dangers and accidents, and reduction in the quality of agricultural and horticultural products. Among the 11 variables, the air pollution variable ranks highest with an average of 4.05. The negative effects of loading and establishing peripheral industries on the environmental sustainability of rural settlements in the region have been studied, and among them, its greatest impact is on the variables of vegetation destruction, soil erosion and land subsidence, pollution of surface and groundwater quality, lowering of groundwater and surface water levels, and transfer of agricultural water to the industrial sector and air pollution, with coefficients of 0.90, 0.81, 0.81, 0.78, and 0.74, respectively. The results of the factor loadings show that the factor loadings related to the variables of industrial establishment and loading on the environmental instability of rural settlements with a maximum coefficient of 0.90 indicate that the establishment and loading of industries in the Mobarakeh region have caused environmental instability of rural settlements.
Conclusion: Results of the aforementioned study showed that in the last 50 years, with the loading and establishment of peripheral industries in the Mobarakeh region, the ecosystem and environment of the studied area have undergone instability, such that from the perspective of household heads, the studied area has faced environmental instability such as weather fluctuations, environmental degradation, pollution, and dangers.