The historical experience of development process in developed countries revealed that rural development is a basic
requirement for national development and that it should be considered and given high priority. Accordingly in Iran,
the government also paid more attention to rural development in recent years. In this regard, different methods and
approaches were implemented due to social and economic development of rural regions. A large number of these
strategies and industrial projects focus on the development of rural areas. One of the main strategies for
development is industrialization and establishment of industry in rural regions. These industrial projects have been
initiated to alleviate poverty and unemployment, and to deal with the insufficient food supply. Although these
projects were assumed to be beneficial for rural people, they often had unintended negative impacts on the
environment and local communities. Evidence suggests that while sustainability is a crucial and independent
dimension of development, it has most often been neglected when planning these industrial projects. These projects
have been faced with numerous challenges such as a growing sense of rural households’ dissatisfaction, negative
attitudes, and conflicts with the industrial projects, un-sustainability and in many instances complete failure.
Therefore, in recent years, industrial rural development projects in Iran and in many developing countries have been
criticized for their detrimental effects on various aspects, and on sustainability at large. Therefore, there is a
widespread consensus about the importance of the assessment of the impact of industrial projects on rural areas.
Subsequently, in line with the triple bottom line approach for sustainable development, the impact assessment is of
particular importance in considering the sustainability of industrial rural development projects. In this regard, the
Kurdistan Iron Smelting Factory, as a great industry in Kurdestan province, was established in 2003 in a highpotential
agricultural region. Establishing the factory would potentially cause many social, economic and
environmental changes in surrounding rural areas. Measurement of the degree of these impacts would help policy
makers and project planners to better understand the projects’ impacts. Therefore, the objects of this study were:
• To display the impacts of Kurdistan Iron Smelting Factory on the development of surrounding rural areas;
• To determine the scope of the impacts of Kurdistan Iron Smelting Factory on the development of surrounding
rural areas; and
• To model the range and levels of the impacts of Kurdistan Iron Smelting Factory.