Understanding the sustainability of rural communities within a population density context: a case study of Shaqlawa, Kurdistan, Iraq

Population density exerts significant influence over socioeconomic characteristics and sustainability of rural communities. Despite such understanding, studies on the roles of population density on socioeconomic backgrounds and sustainability of communities in rural areas are often overlooked. Thus, the understanding of population density in rural areas has become an important issue to be studied. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of population density on the rural communities’ sustainability with a special focus on Shaqlawa, one of the major districts in Kurdistan, Iraq. This study aims to find the particular significance of population density as an important theme in understanding the sustainability degree of settled rural communities, where disparity and falling density here presents practical problems for rural planners. Data were gathered from mixed-method approach involving two data sources: interviews as well as governmental and non- governmental records. Statistical and content analysis were used to analyse the data and then triangulated to examine the causal relationships. The quantitative information was obtained mainly from available secondary data, while the qualitative data was the result of the responses to the structured and semi- structured interview questions that focused on community sustainability addressed to five stakeholders (District administrators) plus 24 key informative, Commninityleaders, four from each of the six participating villages. In discussing the outcomes, this study has established that rural population density is an important variable in describing and evaluating rural sustainabilities. In Shaqlawa, people from low density villages led lives of relatively lower sustainability whereas people from high density villages led lives of higher level of sustainability.