Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
2
Department of Reclamation of Arid and Mountainous Regions, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran.
3
Department of Natural Resources Policy, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran.
4
Center of Rural Development Studies, Natural Disasters Research Institute, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
The interaction and alignment of various organizational stakeholders through participatory management programs are essential in order to ensure comprehensive and coordinated resource planning as well as effective land governance. This study aims to evaluate land governance with a focus on the dynamics of organizational relationships and analyze organizational cohesion to assess the effectiveness of development plans in Gachsaran county, Iran. Initially, 22 organizational stakeholders related to the Rural Development and Improvement Plan were identified, and the network of information exchange and cooperation among these stakeholders was examined over two time steps of before and after the implementation of the project. To achieve this, network-level metrics such as density, reciprocity, transitivity, and average geodesic distance, as well as core-periphery indices at the meso-level of network, were measured using social network analysis methods. The results indicate a positive and increasing trend in the cohesion and stability of the organizational relationship network. Specifically, the density index increased by 14.3%, reciprocity by 8.2%, and transitivity by 11.9% compared to before the implementation of the project. Additionally, the core-periphery index results revealed an increase in core stakeholders due to the addition of organizations such as the Agriculture Jahad, Water Affairs, and Cultural Heritage and Tourism, reflecting flexibility and adaptation to new needs and conditions in the development process. The correlation analysis results further show that the plan has had a positive and significant impact on information exchange and collaboration among organizational stakeholders. Thus, it is recommended that the organizational network should be periodically re-evaluated to identify the sustainability of changes, particularly in the reciprocity index in order to enhance the land governance.
Keywords