Journal of Geography and Regional Development
Year:2011 | Volume:- | Issue:14|Papers Count:9

The main purpose of this paper is to study urban management performance in public green spaces (parks) based on economical indexes, social indexes and environmental indexes. For this purposes, we use TOPSIS method that is one of the methods of multiple criteria decision making. The data was obtained through interview and also a questionnaire which was distributed among about 1000 families of Mashhad in 2007 and urban management performance was investigated whit respect to 23 indexes. The results of this study indicate that there is no significant and meaningful relationship between the size of public green spaces (parks) and urban management performance and that urban management has better qualification in regional and local parks than district and neighborhood parks; however, in some of the indexes, the urban management performance is suitable in neighborhood and district parks.

The meaning of development has been changed by the end of the modern era and beginning of the postmodern age. One of the meanings that are formed in present age is "Social Capital". Along with considering the meaning of Social Capital, the methods of planning have been also formed with en emphasis on people’s participation and stable development and importance of indexes such as measurement of Social Capital, stability, flexibility and participation so that every region has freedom of thought and action to administrate economical politics by considering relative advantages. One of development views that have been formed in the mentioned frame is "General Rural Development." therefore, three indexes proposed by Putnam namely confidence, participation and nets has been measured and used in relation to measurement of Social Capital. The results and 78.4% of the points obtained between 106 and 125 suggest that amount of Social Capital is average in rural areas of Poshte Aab of Zabol. Additionally, the highest variance among dimensions of Social Capital has been also related to net dimension and it suggests a high of net and social unions in the villages under investigation. Generally, it can be concluded that there is a significant relation between Social Capital and Rural Development and all parameters have an effective role. If average Social Capital of studied area is supported and optimized, it can play an important role to enhance the rural development of Poshte Aab of Zabol.

Iran is located in arid and semi-arid regions and has an average precipitation which is one third of the global average. The special character of this region is heavy precipitation. To examine the synoptic characters of heavy precipitation of arid regions, we did a case study on Kerman province. In this study, we use two separate data bases: synoptic station and upper atmosphere. In synoptic station, we use the data of heavy rain. In upper atmosphere, we use (SLP), (HGT), (SHUM), (AIR), (UWIND) and (VWIND). The results show that the heavy rain events are not created from certain source. Using statistical indicators Gamble type 1, 76 tokens of heavy rainfall event were identified in Kerman province. Then through cluster analysis of the geo-potential data level 500hp the synoptic patterns of precipitations were identified. The analysis of synoptic rainfall patterns shows that the most important factor shaping the heavy rainfall in Kerman province is East ward and East Mediterranean descent strengthen the middle troposphere, so when moving down polar vortex system is associated with heavy rainfall at province stations.

Various and complex human activities in geographical contexts need proper ground if at most efficiency is to be achieved. Land preparation regulates the relationship between human, space, and human activities. Land preparation has various dimensions related to value system, political, scientific, artistic, and defense-security aspects. One of the most important dimensions of land preparation is its defense-security aspect. Defensive-security considerations have not received due attention in preparation plans yet and presentation of plans and strategies for land defense and protection of military installations and vital, sensitive and significant centers and establishments against the military threats and attacks has been neglected. Observance of defensive and security considerations in preparation plans is affected by several variables that should be noticed in such plans. The most important of these variables are geographical location of the given area, type and level of the military and security threats in the region, civil defense strategies and plans appropriate for the particular types of the regional threats. Border provinces of Iran have specific locations, conditions and characteristics and differ politically and spatially from the central provinces; therefore in preparation plans for border provinces, defensive-security considerations proportionate to these features should be developed and implemented. The present paper attempts to explain the importance and position of defense-security considerations in preparation plans for Mashhad.

The aim of this paper is to examine and analyze the spatial distribution of population in cities of the Southern coastal Region of Iran by using common models and techniques in the field and to study the trends of evolution in a time period of 40 years (1345-1385).  Models used in the study can be classified into three main groups. The first group is THE PRIMATE CITY INDEXES (including Jefferson’s Model, Kinsberg’s Model of two and four cities, Mahta’s Model of four cities, and Mumao and  Alosabi’s Model), The second is CONCENTRATION INDEXES (including Hernfindals index of concentration, Handerson’s index and and Taghvaee’s index) and finally EQUILIBRIUM INDEXES (including Lorenz Trend, GINI Coefficient, Entropy Coefficient, Pareto Coefficient and Kernel Method). This case study is done in cities of the Southern coastal regions of IRAN (including Khouzestan, Boushehr, Hormozgan, and Sistan and Baluchestan Provinces) in a time period of 1345-1385. The results show that the Primate City indexes and concentration indexes were at the maximum level in 1355 in this time period while the equilibrium indexes are skewed. The Primate city indexes decrease in the time period of 1355-1375 while they increase in 1385. The concentration indexes are decreasing and so the equilibrium indexes in a time period of 1365-1375 is increasing while this trend is moving towards the concentration and disequilibration in 1385.

Due to increasing consumption of water, mismanagement of water resources, increase in the world’s population, expansion of urban life, and reduction of water resources in most of the regions of the world, experts believe that water and water resources will be considered as one of the basic challenges in human life in future. Iran is geographically located in the arid belt of the earth. However, due to its topographic features, the country loses some 8 billion cubic meters of its water annually due to the flow of several of its rivers towards Iraq. Therefore, we are required to utilize this great natural wealth that is going out of the country annually. However, we should remember that using these resources would be associated with hydro-political consequences, both internally and externally. The first and the most important consequence will affect the relationship between Iran and Iraq. Due to geopolitical issues, the relationship between these two countries has been turbulent during recent decades. Nevertheless, it seems that the Iran-Iraq relationship can be affected by the issue of water. Due to Turkey’s activities in the basin of Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, Iraq is currently faced with problems. Therefore, it is possible that Iraqis react to Iranian water transfer projects in basins of the Little Zab, Alvand, and Sirvan and resort to deterrent initiatives. At the same time, these basins are mostly located in Kurdish regions which are mostly populated by Sunnis and any activity in these basins can provoke Kurds in the region. Through taking advantage of descriptive-analytic methodology, the present research focuses on the hydro-political assessment of these basins and their political consequences. At the same time, the present research endeavors to present proper approaches for reducing political and social costs of the implementation of these projects.

The solar radiation received by earth surface is one of the most applicable parameter that is so important in hydrology, agriculture, Meteorology and climatological modeling. Because of very expensive instrument for measuring the radiation, researchers suggested many different experimental equations to estimate this parameter in different climate. Seven models which are calibrated for semi-arid climate of Mashhad were used to find the optimum model for this area. These models are Angstrom–Prescott suggested by FAO, calibrated model of Angstrom–Prescott by Khalili and Rezaei Sadr (1 and 2), calibrated model of Angstrom–Prescott by Alizadeh and Khalili, Linear Regression Model of Alizadeh and Khalili, Sabbagh model and Glover and McCuloch. Results show that in daily scale the calibrated model of Angstrom–Prescott by Khalili and Rezaei Sadr including atmospheric water vapor spectrum is the best model in Mashhad’s climate where R2=0.647, RMSE=4.50, MBE=-0.37 and t=0.80 Also in this scale, the calibrated model of Angstrom–Prescott by Khalili and Rezaei Sadr and Linear Regression Model of Alizadeh and Khalili are in the second and third order respectively. It is also found that in the monthly scale, the Glover and McCuloch model is the best one where R2=0.849, RMSE=2.70, MBE=0.08, and t=0.29.

This paper aims to assess the quality and accuracy ASTER DEMs and the ArcGIS alogorthms used for hydrologic analyses. To this end, first the plan of drainage networks in the region was extracted from aerial photographs and high resolution satellite images and was set as the real ground. In the next step, using the hydrology tool in ArcGIS software, raster networks of the region for the whole catchment area were determined in cell domains with 25 to 500 cells and then several geomorphologic units were extracted and the hydrographic features of the region were compared to the plans used as real ground. The results of the study show that the DEMs and the algorithms suffer from major imperfections. Although morphometric analysis of drainage networks are relatively compatible with the natural networks observed in raster format, there are still many large differences between the two; these differences were revealed using vector datasets for analyzing separate land features. The best threshold values for extraction of rivers from ASTER DEMs are 25 cells for head waters in the mountains, 50-100 cells for pediments, 100-250 cells in alluvial fans and 500 cells in plain domains.