University of Guilan Caspian Journal of Environmental Sciences 1735-3033 24 2 2026 04 01 Analysis of the physical changes of rural settlements and its impact on the sense of belonging to the local residents (Case study: Mountain rural district in the south of Guilan Province, Northwest Iran) 475 484 8656 10.22124/cjes.2025.8656 EN Marjan Kaffash Majidi Department of Geography, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran. Teimour Amar Department of Geography, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran Eisa Poorramzan Department of Geography, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran Journal Article 2025 04 10 The current research seeks to find an answer to the question of why the sense of belonging to a place has faded in rural settlements. The research method combines descriptive-analytical methods, field observations, and a questionnaire that also uses remote sensing techniques. For this purpose, 374 questionnaires in the studied area were distributed among the residents of the mountain villages of Rudbar, Siahkal, and Amlesh. Also, to back up the amount of physical changes that occurred in the studied period, the algorithm of Support Vector Machine (SVM) and several times of surveying to record sample and educational cases by GPS. In the following, the land use map in 5 classes was extracted from Landsat satellite images in 2000 and 2022. The results indicate visible changes, especially for the use of man-made structures, which is the result of the change of physical and architectural elements and, as a result, the reduction of place belonging among the residents of the studied villages. This is although the sense of physical belonging to the place of traditional settlements is more compared than new settlements. Finally, the lack of necessary infrastructure in moutainous villages and livelihood problems have caused events such as the sale of land, the migration of villagers, and the loss of the sense of belonging to a place https://cjes.guilan.ac.ir/article_8656_8bf04c9cf3d6e84c1ef504d4e9bff8fa.pdf