Spatial measurement of the combined quality of life index in different provinces of Iran Using TOPSIS - AHP model

Introduction: Today, quality of life as a powerful tool for monitoring community development planners and expresses the general social, economic and environmental characteristics in the regions. Due to the special place of quality of life in sustainable development and social and economic development planning, non-governmental organizations and the government at the national and local levels are working on measuring and indexing it. Benefiting from a desirable quality of life among the provinces causes the progress and development of the whole country and on the other hand prevents population density in a specific geographical area. Method: The purpose of this study is to spatially measure the combined quality of life index in different provinces of Iran. Using the statistical data of 2016, this research has been completed. Economic, infrastructural, educational, social and health components are included in this research, analytical-descriptive method and hierarchical-TOPSIS method have been used. Findings: The results show that Tehran province with a weight of 0.351 is in the first place and Bushehr, Isfahan and Fars provinces with a weight of 0.097, 0.096 and 0.087 are in the second to fourth place in terms of quality of life, respectively. Kurdistan, North Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchestan and South Khorasan with the weights of 0.0365, 0.0319, 0.0304 and 0.0269 are in the last ranks in terms of quality of life. Discussion: Given that the quality of life in the provinces and cities is of particular importance, so far there are no specific factors to measure the quality of life. Therefore, addressing the various components for measuring it can provide appropriate and practical ways to achieve a comprehensive system for measuring quality of life. Expresses quality of life as a mental concept based on which he argues that a person's understanding of his life situation in terms of culture and value system in his life is related to his goals, expectations, standards and concerns.