A Survey of the Socio-Economic Impacts of Public Participation in Hableh Roud Project (Case Study: Tehran Province)

The economic and social impact of public participation in Hableh Roud Project has been assessed in the current study. This is a Practical-operational research implemented as based upon descriptive method. The study population included 187 individual residents in 8 villages within the Hableh Roud catchment basin in Tehran Province. Random sampling was utilized and the recommendations of experts from the Natural Resource Advancement Team and as well, of the experts and managers of the Watershed, and Rangelands Forests Organization were incorporated in the development of the questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was verified through Coronbakh's Alpha Coefficient in which a value of 89 percent was obtained. The data was gathered through field visits and filling in of the questionnaires. The results were analyzed through SPSS software. The Spearman Correlation Coefficient results indicate that there is a meaningful and positive correlation between the public participation variable in various stages of the Hableh Roud Project and the other such parameters as: socio-economic improvements as a result of the project implementation, better public awareness of the project's objectives, the level of project acceptance, the establishment of social groups, increase in accountability, increase in household income, production increase, access to new credits, increase in the possibility of water extraction, protection of natural resources, and as well the prevention of floods and reduction of soil erosion. However, no meaningful correlation was observed between the public participation variable in various stages of the Hableh Roud Project with other such variables as: reduction in rural migration to the cities, improvement of welfare facilities, social harmony, access to new data and information, more job opportunities, and increase in the area of cultivated lands. The cumulative impact of the independent variables on the improvement of rural economic conditions as a dependent variable through the utilization of multi-variable regression indicated that some variables including the intellectual and financial participation as well as involvement in the training workshops of the Hableh Roud Project have rendered positive effects on the improvement of the rural economic conditions. Moreover, the intellectual participation of the rural residents in the implementation of the Hableh Roud Project had a positive impact on their social status. The result of cumulative effects of independent variables (intellectual and financial participations as well as Hableh training-workshops' attendance as indicators of public participation in the Project) on one of the dependent variables (Economic Conditions) based on step by step multi-variable....