Journal of Geography and Regional Development
Year:2014 | Volume:12 | Issue:22|Papers Count:12

Objectives: Ahawzas one of the metropolises of Iran in classified among lowland plains with low slope in terms of topography. In this city, unsystematic construction and immediate rainfalls and showers are the mainsources of flooded street.Method: The present study has a descriptive-analytical approach and is based on causality method. using geographic information system software (GIS) and River tools techniques, this study seeks to identify and manage of surface waters and urban floods in District 1 of Ahwaz during rainfalls and then the maps of slope, their direction and areas with flooding potentials are prepared.Findings/ Results: given the low slope of the area, the gravity drainage and pumping of water to Karoon River is impossible due tohighcosts. However, using GIS analysis, the natural routes are determined for water drainage and finally, the map of proposed surface water disposal system in the study area is presented.Conclusion and Suggestion: In District 1 of Ahwaz, the tree orhierarchical surface water collection network has been predicted based on urban streets and alleys. The collected wateris directed to the channels and then transferred to Karoon River.

Objectives: This research seeks to assay and analyze the correlation between environmental quality of walkable streets and the level of social capital of the users of Garah-khan walkable street in Mashhad.Method: This case study was conducted through a qualitative method on Garahkhan walkable street in Mashhad. For this purpose, the environmental quality of this walkable street was evaluated using six indicators (accessibility, uses and activities, safety and security, comfort, facilities and services and outlook of space) and the level of social capital was evaluated by three factors (social network, social/civic participation and social trust) in form of a survey research by distributing 371 questionnaires amongst people who had been selected randomly from the statistical population.Findings/ Results: The results of the questionnaire show that the environmental quality of Garah-Khan walkable street in the eye of the users, with an average score of 3.29 on a five-point Likert scale, is relatively satisfactory and the level of social capital of individuals, with an average score of 1.96 on a five-point Likert scale, is fairly unfavorable.Conclusion: The analysis of the correlation between two variables using Spearman-correlation test in SPSS, with a significance level of 0.02 and correlation coefficient of 0.22, proves that there is a significant positive relation between these two variables, though it is not very strong.

Objectives: The present article, based on the database of research papers in the field of Geography at the national level, seeks to review and categorize topics of rural geography.Method: Statistical populations consisted of 2388 articles from 19 Geographic Journal published in Iran during 1948-2008. The subjects of articles were determined based on the curriculums of geography coursesand data entry and their processing were conducted in Dot.net database by Asp.net programming language.Also, Sql Server was used to enable article searching.Findings/ Results: The results show that 45.5% of geographical articles were written in the years 2003 to 2008 with 57% focusing on human geography out of which 30% were about various topics of rural geography.Conclusion and Suggestion: According to 88 professors of Geography, the most important factor for increased number of articles in recent years has been “its effect on academic upgrading of professors”.

Objectives: This research tends to study the changes of Khorasan's urban network in the period between 1956 and 2011 Census, explaining explains the factors affecting these changes. Also, it seeks to study the correlation between the results obtained from common indicators in Khorasan’s urban network.Method: The current research adopts a descriptive – analytical approach and document analysis and library methods have been used for gathering data. In this research, 11 indicators in form of three groups of primate city, concentration and equivalent indices as well as Crictaller's central place theory and the diffusion pattern of urban settlements (the nearest neighborhood technique) have been used for data analysis.Findings and conclusion: The results show that urban network of Khorasan region was nonequivalent in all censuses in the period between1956 and 2011. Land reform, the rise of revenues gained by selling oil in 1970s, investment in urban areas, development in Afghanistan, existence of facilities and job opportunities in Mashhad and so on are among factors contributing to nonequivalence in the Khorasan region. These indicators however, show that the trend of changes in recent years is moving toward equivalence. According to the results, indicators derived from urban network of Khorasan region are Inconsistent.

Objectives: Spatial balance in health is one of the underlying principles of social justice. In this regard, spatial cognition of health inequalities at provincial level helps planners make decisions with the aim of bridging the health gap between different regions. Therefore, this article with the aim of explaining the spatial inequality in health care, seeks to assess and analyze the health of citizens in of Khorasan Razavi province.Method: This research adopts a descriptive and analytical method. To analyze the health situation in the province and ranking of townships Electre method was used.The weight of criteria was determined with Analytic Network Process model and Super Decision Software based on the opinions of 13 experts in this field. Data collection was carried out using library method, statistical data derived from Census of Population and Housing and Statistical Yearbooks in 2005 to 2008.Findings/Results: Results show that there is a high spatial gap with respect to health care at the provincial level, so that nineteen townships of province are classified in eleven categories. Sabzevar and Kashmar with the first rank and Mashhad with the second rank have favorable health status whereas Khalilabad and Mahvalat with the eleventh rank have the lowest health level.Conclusion: Spatial inequalities in health care amongst townships indicate that policies and plans of health care have not been in line with social justice.Therefore, equitable allocation and distribution of resources and health care services to citizens should be considered more seriously.

Objectives: In the contemporary capitalist system, cities are the haven of life. The influence of capitalist culture on developing countries such as Iran has led to heterogeneous urban concentration and rapid population growth which have brought about environmental problems. This paper seeks to investigate the impact of urban expansion on the environmental quality of Babolsar City.Method: The methodology of the present research is based on descriptive and analytical approaches which broadly draw on statistical models to measure the impact of physical development on the quality of urban environment. Amongst these models wereShannon entropy and Heldern, as well as tests such as Kendal, and Gama.Findings/Results: Theresults confirmed the significant relationship between physical expansion and quality of three other factors (socialwelfare, commercial and recreational services), demonstrating that Districts 3, 2, and 4 were distinctive in terms of environmental quality and which was directly related to socio-economic and cultural base of these Districts.Conclusion: It seems that the control of city physical expansion should be one of the main policies of local authorities, as it is clear that the protection of fertile lands in the outskirts of cities will contribute to the sustainability of environment.

Objectives: Given its low precipitations and its inappropriate spatial-temporal distribution, Iran is regarded as an arid to semi-arid country. Under these circumstances, water resources are the main development obstacles. The quantitative sustainability criterion for water resources is to keep annual consumptions of renewable water. Renewable water is defined as the amount of water that a basin (or any geographical region) can regain through a yearly hydrological cycle. Therefore, sustainable development planning needs an accurate (or even conservative) estimate of renewable water resources.Methods: This study investigates the concept of renewable water, attempting to estimate its quantity based on water budget in Kashaf-Ruod sub-basins. To establish the balance of basins, a methodology based on trial and errors was employed to find optimal values for budget parameter, with the aim of minimizing water balance (toward zero). Given the lack of sufficient and reliable data on water budget, "experts’ opinions" were an important source of information. The components of the water budget were estimated in both wet and dry years to obtain average renewable water.Findings: In this research, experts’ opinions on the reliability of the information, physical relationships governing basins, and comparison of basins in terms of different geographic and regionally conditions were sought.Results: Accordingly, the average natural and actual renewable water at basin were 884 and 988 million m3 respectively, with the maximum and minimum of basin renewable water being 1222 and 545 million m3 in both wet and dry years.

Objectives: The main goal of this study is to identify sources of formation and characteristics of pressure patterns, and meteorological quantities that affect heavy rainfalls in spring in the West Azerbaijan province.Method: According to maps and meteorological data in different levels of atmosphere, weather patterns leading to heavy precipitations in spring were investigated in six years (2003-2008) in West Azerbaijan province. For this purpose, meteorological data, weather charts at standard pressure levels, total precipitation and gridded sea level pressure (SLP), 500-hPa geopotential height fields and their anomalies data were used. In addition, relative vorticity and its advection were computed at 500-hPa level for rainfall episodes.Findings/Results: The results indicate that all types of events are controlled by the strong cut of low-pressure systems that are located in east of Mediterranean Sea and remain stagnant for 3-7 days in this area.Conclusion: In all studied cases,, relative vorticity and its advection on midtroposphere ( 500-hPa) level reveal a significant increase in the days before the heavy rainfall period with the maximum vorticity reaching 4×10-5s-1 to 6×10-5s-1 and maximum advection reaching 6×10-9s-2 to 12×10-9s-2). One day before the start of heavy rainfalls, vorticity and its advection reached their maximum values.As such, it can be used as a predictor of intense rainfall episodes in spring.

Objectives: Archeological sites are the remains of the ancient settlements that were positioned on foothills of the mountains and slopes that were not suitable for settlement, burial and other uses. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between environmental factors (geomorphology, topography and water resources) and the formation of archaeological sites.Method: The research method is descriptive - analytical and tools such as topographic, geological, geomorphological maps and Arc GIS software have been used to carry out the study.Findings/Results: There results show differences between sites and natural factors so that of 25 sites with a height of greater than 1602 m, 21 sites belonged to the historical period. Also, each of the environmental factors had acted differently during the formation of three different sites.Conclusion: The results indicate that the formation of archaeological sites in three historical periods in Silakhor plain have been facilitated by flat topography and availability of water resources. Given the availability of adequate water resources, fertile soil and low altitude and slope, alluvial plains have the greatest density of archeological sites whereas highland regions due to natural limitations have the lowest density of these sites.

Objectives: The concept of quality of life is one of the most fundamental concepts in today’s world. It evaluates the public welfare of both individuals and societies. However, it is not a new concept and covers a wide spectrum of fields including international development, health and politics. The objective of the present study is to investigate quality of life in rural areas.Methodology: The study was conducted in rural areas of Awraman region.The population comprised of 23356 households from which a sample size of 358 individuals was selected by Cochran’s formula. Then, using cluster random sampling and appropriate assignment, 42 villages were selected as the study staple. The research instrument was a questionnaire the validity of which had been confirmed by a group of experts. To determine the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used.Finally, the data were analyzed by SPSS software.Findings/ Results: The results showed that rural areas of Ravansar Township had the highest mean in terms of the quality of life whereas Salas va Babajani township had the lowest mean, with Paveh and Javanrod townships having the normal average.Conclusion: The findings indicated that the level of life quality was low in the area, and there was a meaningful difference in terms of factors affecting the quality of life.