Ecological condition and natural potentials play an important role in sustainable development and the spatial patterns of rural settlements. Therefore, in order to reduce the adverse effects of environmental conditions and plan for the improvement of the residential status, it is important to know the sustainability of the villages. On the other hand, it can minimize the environmental hazards. This study is an applied in terms of the purpose and it is a descriptive-analytical study in terms of nature and method. Documentation and field observation were used to collect the data. To do this, the data were collected from books, documents, organizations and baseline maps from different organizations (GIS). To measure the environmental feasibility of the villages, measurements like altitude, slope, slope direction, fault distance, access to water resources (river), soil type and climate were used. The AHP hierarchical analysis model was used to obtain the relative weight of each variable and the Fuzzy Overall logic was used to integrate the layers.The results of the study show that 121 villages (68%) are in a stable and favorable environment in terms of environmental potentials and they have 62364 population (73.6); 49 villages (27.5%) with 20516 inhabitants (24.2%)have moderate sustainability; 8 villages (4.5%) are in poor and unstable condition and 1850 people (2.2%) live in unstable villages.Also, in terms of sustainability, the villages located in the center and west of Maragheh are in a better position than that of the east and southeast villages. There was a significant correlation between elevation, slope, distance from river and climate with the distribution of rural areas.

Sustained development is achieved an overlapping is created between ecological, economical and social classes. The purpose of this research is to determine and measure the sustainability criteria and indices. An ecological approach has used in order to assess sustainability in watershed of Zeidasht1 to maintain a balance between three economical, social and ecosystem categories. Selected variables were obtained using common assessment and their value. In order to assess sustainability, watershed and range management projects monitoring and evaluation monitoring provided by  president strategically supervising planning assistant and range and watershed management, forest organization(watershed management department, coordination and planning department) for Iran. As a whole, in rangeland ecological section, three criteria, nine indices and fourteen variables were evaluated. Final score for ecological one was 45 fall in to in moderate class and final score dedicated to social and economical issues about 32 that number of 2 is obtained in respect to 16 selective variables that also it categorized into moderate class. Eventually using matrices, score estimation and watershed validation table, watershed sustainability is determined. In respect to total Zeidasht watershed score, this watershed is categorized in too poor sustainability class.