Although the most extensive immigration flows among urban and rural settlements have so far been economic migrations, climate change has recently become a decisive factor for migration in many parts of the world with ecological migration becoming the dominant model in these demographic movements. Khuzestan province with a strategic position in southwest of Iran and with a 30% share of rural population is one of the provinces that has been affected by widespread climate change over the past two decades, experiencing massive population movements, especially in the rural areas. Studies have shown that the increasing trend of temperature and the decreasing trend of precipitation are the most important and most obvious outcomes of climate change that has provided a platform for population displacement in rural areas of Khuzestan. This enormous flow in the rural parts of the province has become a multi-level (local, regional, national and even international) challenge. The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze the effects of climate change on demographic movements in the rural settlements of Khuzestan province. The study is descriptive-analytic and the information is extracted from the database of the Statistics Center of Iran. Statistical analysis has shown that the decline in the rates of rural population growth from −02 in 1986 to −4.6 in 2017 and the evacuation of more than 2,398 villages over 1986−2017 have been directly and indirectly related to the diverse effects of climate change.

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Climate change is an increasing concern for national and local governments around the world. The severity of the natural disasters affected by these changes has led to negative impacts on various economic, social and environmental dimensions in cities. One of the important global strategies in responding to the adverse effects of climate change is the adaptation strategy. The aim of this study is to identification and structural modeling of driving forces for adaptation to climate change according to the special geography of Ahvaz city as a strategic city in southwest of Iran. After identifying the factors and indicators through the study of records and a survey of the elite group, analysis and stratification was done using the combined ISM-DEMATEL model and finally the main driving forces of adapting to climate change in Ahvaz were identified by Mic-Mac Structural Model. The research findings have shown: among the five economic, social, institutional, physical and technological factors, the economy has known as the most effective factor in adapting to climate change in Ahvaz. Also, among the 44 selected indicators, 10 important driving forces were selected that 6 driving forces, have the economic and social background. Based on cross-impact analysis by Mic-Mac; the financial support for vulnerable groups, business improvement, alleviation poverty measures, diversification of economic activities, social cohesion and social trust to government were recognized as the main drivers of Ahvaz city's adaptation to climate change.