Introduction

Stagnation with regard to rural traditional economic activities based on natural resources including agriculture and mining during last decades demand new strategies regarding strength and variations in economic activities and bases. However, concentration upon one type of economic activity of Iran’s rural settlements may waste energy and production resources as well as out migration. It is argued that instability in the country’s villages is resulted from lack of variations in economic activities associated in rural settlements. This study aims to create variation in economic activities and achievement of economic sustainability in rural settlements of Khoramdareh in Zanjan.

Methodology

This study has applied nature. However, methodologically speaking is descriptiveanalytical. 28 measures were chosen in order to access the economic sustainability of rural settlements. Statistical society is composed of 1143 households out of which 287 were selected from 4 villages that are Rahmatabad, Baghdareh, Alvand and Sukahriz out of 17 villages. Cronbach’s alpha was applied for viability of the research. It turns out to be 0.765. VIKOR model was used for the analysis purpose.

Conclusion

This study suggests that those villages that possess job variation rank higher in terms of sustainability. According to classification of the villages based on number of jobs, Sukahriz with 32 jobs falls into the highest class with 2396 population. It follows by Rahmatabad with 22 jobs and 889 persons which fall into medium group. Alvand and Baghdareh with 14 and 11 jobs and 362 and 850 persons respectively fall into the lowest category. Based on application of VIKOR model regarding the assessment of studied villages from economic sustainability stand point, Sukahriz with 0.025 within range of 0.325 - 0.000 possesses higher sustainability.