Impact Assessment of Second Homes on the Social and Economic Sustainability of Coastal Cities in Mazandaran Province: Nur, Chalus and Babolsar

Living closer to nature has emerged as a lifestyle for people who intend to move away from populated and compact urban areas. Residents of populated cities are interested in spending some of their time in second homes in areas with limited noise disturbance and beautiful natural landscapes to escape the urban pollution and unrest, as well as to find places for recreation. The purpose of this study is to identify the impacts of second homes on the social and economic sustainability of the cities in the coastal area of Mazandaran province, including Babolsar, Chalus and Nur. The diverse natural capacities of the northern region in terms of existence of sea, forest, mountains, having a variety of leisure facilities such as water recreation, forestry, mountain climbing, and, the accessibility of northern cities from different part of the country through scenic drives, make these cities more attractive for owning a second home. Following this increasing demand, the abundant constructions of second homes led to significant impacts on spatial and socio-economic dimensions of these cities, including urban sprawl, rising property prices, housing shortages for local people, emerging vacant houses for most of the year, visual degradation of residential patterns as a result of prevailing non-local types of architecture, rapid conversion of agricultural land use to non-productive uses, socio-economic inequalities, and cultural conflicts between local and non-local inhabitants. These were part of the problems which address a specific research question in this article: What is the impact of second homes on the social and economic sustainability of the coastal cities of Mazandaran? Social sustainability refers to the protection and improvement of the well-being of the future and present generations and includes principles such as justice, social inclusion and interactions, security, democracy, social cohesion and communication, and quality of life. Economic sustainability means strengthening the foundations of the economy and achieving economic security in terms of access to sustainable livelihoods, stable conditions of occupations, employment as well as reliable financial resources, and finally, appropriate and environmentally friendly technology with the use of human resources. In this article, the impact of second homes on social sustainability was studied by measuring the variables of "participation", "security" and "quality of life". To measure these impacts on economic sustainability, "economic welfare" and "economic growth" were evaluated. In addition to documentary studies, secondary data analysis and observation, data was mainly collected via systematic questionnaires completed by 381 samples drawn randomly from the population of the selected cities. The findings shows that with the emergence of second homes in these cities, the level of social sustainability decreased significantly; however, economic sustainability was improved in terms of "economic growth" and decreased considering "economic welfare". In conclusion, urban rules and regulations are required to organize the rise in demand for second homes in Mazandaran coastal areas to protect socio-economic sustainability.