Journal of Spatial Planning
Year:2012 | Volume:16 | Issue:2 (74)|Papers Count:7

In the context of newly emerging information age, which is known as Information/Communication Revolution, Electronic Government (EG) has become a necessary need for any society. Although, launching and utilization of EG services in rural areas of Iran is highly needed due to their spatial distinctiveness comparing with urban areas, but, it was not a matter of concern for decision makers, Furthermore, in spite of efforts to discuss around the issue, there is a consensus on indicators that hardens the evaluation and application of an EG in the country. This paper tries to provide such a model to evaluate the processes of launching an EG. The paper, characterizes such an EG model for rural areas of Iran. To this end, descriptive-analytical framework used as a main method of the study (literature review for determining indexes, indicators, and field study carried out to make them applied and weighted). To consider Realization of EG, two soft and hard dimensions distinguished. In the hard dimension, communication networks and equipments, and in the soft dimension, policies, regulations and some other indexes propounded. The results show more importance of connection network, equipments and culture rather than other indexes.

Local government is a plain fact. It has a strong “rasion d’etre” and is stable entity to govern the local public affairs. All of modern schools of political-philosophy have the local govermnent in their main attentions. The Islamic Councils are symbols of local govermnent in Iran. This research pursues to outline the origins of vulnerabilities of Islamic Councils in Iran’s Metropolises. To find the problem origin data and information collected through the questionnaire. Statistical research community formed of the members of Islamic Councils of Iran Metropolises (Tehran, Mashhad, Tabriz, Isfahan and Shiraz) in three functioning periods’ of councils, executives and academic experts consisting of 180 people. The research results have been obtained through “one-way ANOVA analyze” and “one-sample T test". The results show that the origins of Islamic Councils vulnerabilities result from political culture, political system, statute of Islamic Councils and its founders. The vulnerabilities of Islamic Councils of Metropolises have internal and external aspects which have caused their inefficiency.

Along with the increasing growth of urbanization during recent decades, “micro viewpoint” has substituted “macro viewpoint” and according to this standpoint, development commences from the very smallest urban unit that is “Community”. Community development has two main approaches: one is “need-based approach” which is influenced by entitlement policy and believes in technical values and the other is “asset-based approach” that implies on local capitals, residents’ participation and capacity building.Asset-Based. Community Development (ABCD), as an alternative approach to community development, starts with what is present in a community, the tangible and intangible assets available, rather than with what is deficient in a community and what a community’s needs are. This approach is one strategy which is internally focused and relationship driven. Community assets mainly include social capital and physical capital. Social capital as an important part of local capacity, can be used by individuals and groups to facilitate their accessibility to local resources. Participation in social networks, norms and social trust are the key concepts in social capital. Also physical capital (buildings, roads, open and public spaces) which makes up the most visible and formal part of a community’s fabric, is essential to the success of community development process.In this article, the relation between social capital (as the most important asset in local community level), social-physical factors and organized participation tendency (necessary pre-requisite of asset-based approach) is analyzed after introducing asset-based community development approach. The studied indicators are extracted from domestic and international studies and experiences and are measured through survey and random sampling in Imarnzadeh Hassan neighborhood. The results of multiple regression and path analysis for organized participation tendency, social capital and social-physical factors indicate that social capital (0.484) has direct and increasing effect on organized participation tendency. Also, the antiquity of residence (0.256), quality of physical facilities from the residents' viewpoint (0.333) and the rate of referring to public places in the neighborhood (0.354) mediated by social capital have increasing effect on organized participation tendency and the effect of ownership situation (0.058) is lower than the other three factors. These results confirm the importance of both social and physical capital for capacity building in Asset-Based Community Development approach and also indicate that physical capital has instrumental importance to increase social capital in order to develop local community; So physical and social capitals shall be considered integrated to have capacity building provided.

Location and allocation issues fall into group of Capacities including costs, facilities, time and diverse problems solving that have made location allocation problem very complex. Exact methods can rarely be used to solve such a problem; however the heuristic methods can be utilized according to the problem, type and its structure.Many researches about location-allocation analyses have done it by operation research method. Since majority of data and analyses applied in the location-allocation problems are spatially references, so the GIS science abilities can be utilized beside optimization methods, simulations and different allocation analyses for the better solving of problems. Human beings have been always facing earthquake as a natural disaster. In very late decades, thousands of people have been affected physically and financially by severe earthquakes. In such cases, very quick relief operations could prevent excessive incidents and casualties happening after the earthquake. Researches depict that time is a vital element in reduction of casualty after the earthquake, as the first 24 hours is the most significant time for saving victims, because of surviving the victims is likely in that period. So, the causalities would be reduced if the time of getting to medical centers decreases. As a consequence, development of a proper method to optimize the process of allocating victims among existing and new medical centers can efficiently lessen the casualties of earthquake. In this research, designing and implementation of a heuristic method based on genetic algorithm were elaborated after reviewing studies of solving location-allocation problems. This method was developed to allocate victims of an earthquake to different medical centers optimally by using the abilities of GIS science. To evaluate the efficiency of designed algorithm, a scenario for number of injuries, location of injuries, capacity and number of medical centers and roads network status and information was defined. The results show that the designed structure is able to solve such a problem in a reasonable time. Furthermore, in implementing the algorithm, changing size of initial population will be assessed as well. Results also revealed that optimization of the target function and finding a suitable solution for equations and inequalities could be influenced by the change of this parameter. The final outcome of implemented method includes the spatial location of new required medical centers. The method also calculates that how many of the injuries at each demanding point should be taken to any of the existing and new medical centers as well.

In recent three decades Mazandaran province has enjoyed increased urban population; the increase in urbanism and using the land in order to advance the urban settlements without considering environmental abilities have caused unpleasant happenings and ecological destruction in the province, that finally keeps the environment away from constant development. In this research, after literature review, the ecologic model of Iran in order to determine the research criteria was adopted and then by using the Delphi method examined. Then, the mentioned criteria by using basic sources were produced as informational layers and criteria measurement scale with distance dipolar comparison method. Their preference rate by using Entropy Method was determined, and two by two comparisons according to expert group of Delphi were used. Environmental abilities by applying MCDM Methods and expert group of Multi-Characteristics Decision Making Models were evaluated, from subgroup of rating and scoring, the simple total weight method and from adaptive subgroup, the rating method based on the similarity were used finally, the final ranking was determined by using the average ranking method. The results show that among 52 cities of the province, 87% located in appropriate area, and 9% located in average area and 4% located in inappropriate area for urban utilization respectively. Location of 87% of the province cites in appropriate area or plain lands includes 30% of province area have caused compaction in space and activity in plain area of the province.

Reduction of vulnerabilities against natural risks is one of the main objectives of structural and urban planning and designing. One of the considerable informal sectors in Bandar-Abbas city is Chahestaniha. To identify vulnerable areas resulted from types of natural risks in the Chahestaniha, based on layers information and zoning on the risk and vulnerability, physical and structural database layers including soil mechanic, slope and aspect, land type, hydrology, building density and width of roads network were used. The method of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) investigated factors compared with each other and weights of each factor that indicates effectiveness of vulnerability of the sector was calculated. Given the weight numeric values of each factors, weighted maps of them was prepared and eventually vulnerability map by using weighted layers and weight ratio of each factor, prepared. The results of model show that northern and eastern part of the sector are threatened by high vulnerabilities caused by landslide of the sedimentary hills, streets flooded by the high rate of underground waters and the steep and earthquake destruction due to buildings weakness and instability of land construction. South and west of area are identified by low vulnerability because of wide streets and moderate slope.

Vulnerability assessment, mitigation planning and preparing facilities for the earthquake, are all inevitable actions. Due to the location of Tabriz metropolis in a relatively high risk zone, major earthquake in this metropolis, can cause several damages and casualties. This determines the necessity of preparedness to deal with the crisis caused by the earthquake.Material and methods: In the present paper, in order to evaluate the earthquake vulnerability of the area, the map of human factors, framework factors, vital installations and facilities which are effective in decreasing the vulnerability, have been developed using GIS and spatial multi criteria evaluation. Also the degrees of vulnerabilities in different regions were identified by giving weights to each factor affecting earthquake vulnerabilities. Result and discussion: According to the final vulnerability map, In addition to the northern and eastern parts of Tabriz municipality region 1 are specified as critical areas of potential earthquake damages. Proximity to the fault, increased amounts of land slope, depreciation of buildings and structures and lack of proper access to urban networks are considered as the main factors increasing the Likelihood of earthquake disaster and its vulnerabilities in this region.