objective: during recent decades, rapid growth of second homes in mountainous regions has created significant changes in the physical, environmental and cultural structure of local communities. given the importance of knowledge and attitude of indigenous people towards these changes, the aim of the present study was to investigate the local community perceptions of second homes tourism environmental impacts in rural areas with emphasis on bala taleghan.
research method: the research is applied and in terms of method is descriptive - analytical. the data were collected through a questionnaire made by the researcher, whose face and content validity was confirmed by experts and its reliability was confirmed by cronbach 's alpha . the statistical population consisted of 300 residents of villages of bala taleghan that were selected by simple random sampling method. descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data.
findings: the findings indicate that the local community has a conscious but largely negative attitude toward environmental impacts of second homes. mean perception of sewage dimensions and air and air pollution was the most important environmental threats in the region . the results of regression showed that these two factors together with dimension of "visual pollution and landscape change" have more contribution in explaining the general perception of residents.
conclusion: combination of descriptive, inferential and background data shows clear path of policy making. in this regard, sewage and water should be at the top of interventions. demand management is also essential in the peak of travel. to protect the landscape and identity of the village , the local design guideline and control of density and height should be the condition of licensing. finally economic and legal tools such as seasonal environmental effects and the label of second home can encourage behavior change.