ARID REGIONS GEOGRAPHIC STUDIES
Year:2011 | Volume:1 | Issue:4|Papers Count:9

In order to define a surrogate index instead of climatic indices for analyzing and monitoring droughts, monthly rainfall data (period of growth from March to September) of 36 stations spread over Esfahan and NOAA satellite images during the 1997- 2003 period were prepared and processed. The climatic index of SPI was computed from monthly rainfall and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was extracted from NOAA images. Based on land use map, the vegetation map of Esfahan Province were prepared that has rich, medium and poor range lands. Among several time periods of SPI index, three months period had a high correlation and therefore all calculations were computed based on the mentioned three months. The results showed that, in all stations of study area, both indices were high during spring months of March to May and decreased during the summer warm months. Both of the indices were high over the rich range lands and lower in poor range lands of province. The correlation between the indices was acceptable in all stations and this reveals that the use of the NDVI index instead of SPI is appropriate surrogate index in analyzing and monitoring droughts in Esfahan Provinc. The performance of mentioned indexes is high especially where the climatic data are rare and sparse and where time series are not regular.

Dry climate, poor vegetation and relatively smooth surface and neighborhood with plain Lute are the most important factors that brought about wind erosion processes prevail in the Kerman region. Obviously, wind erosion rate and volume of material transfer depends on characteristics of speed and direction also frequency of wind as well as surface and sediment characteristics. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the morphology of sands, the state of effectiveness of wind dynamics and the causes of sand stabilization in the southern Kerman city. The data of this research are wind statistics of synoptic stations surrounding this area and characteristics of sand and tools of research are maps, aerial photographs, satellite images, laboratory equipment and mathematical models and computer software. To achieve the purpose of this research, statistics of wind stations surrounding Kerman obtained and were analyzed by wind rose. The sand samples have been fitted with wind speed threshold and then combined and compared with indicator obtained in laboratory operations. Results of statistical analysis of seasonal wind directions show that the dominant winds in the Kerman area mainly are blown in two major vectors northern and western. The seasonal wind's vector has been affected by the dimensions of thermal low pressure cyclone dominated in Lut that controlled winds along the margins of the Lut. Evaluating the general wind blowing vector and wind roses also their adjustment with topography of the region indicate that main direction of wind along the area affected by thermal expansion of seasonal cyclone dominant in the summer of Lut is North direction. Then because of Limitation of the scale of thermal cells during winter, wind in Kerman that located in vicinity of Lut is generally taken Western direction. Wind Channelizes along the mountain valleys and topography is effective in changing the direction of local ground-level winds.

Nowadays, urban management has evolved. Cities are managed for the welfare of most citizens. Urban management has an important role in the success of programs and urban development plans. This issue will be more important especially in relation to sustainable development. Cities due to having natural, historical and cultural attractions are considered as tourism destinations. Development of urban tourism has both positive and negative economic, social, cultural and environmental effects and establishing balance in this field in a manner that it has more positive effects than negative ones requires strong management policies. Thus, sustainability in urban tourism requires systematic attention to the technical, cultural, political, economic, historical and environmental aspects, so that using tourism attractions is in line with today requirements as well as the maintenance and sustainability of resources for future. This paper aims at analyzing essential variables of urban management, in connection with the sustainable development of urban tourism in the city of Kermanshah. The results suggest that a direct positive relationship exists between integrated management and mutual cooperation of urban managers and local people and sustainable development of urban tourism, that is, if urban management is more coordinated and there exists better relations between managers and local people, the possibility of achieving sustainable development of urban tourism will increase.

The Malaria is endemic disease that has been broken out from old times in Iran. The outbreak of this illness is affected by economic, social and cultural problems, especially environmental conditions. In this study, It correlation between annual changes of patient cases and SOI index in Iran during 1990-2007 period and, monthly changes for Chabahar city during 1382-1387, have been analyzed. In this regard, values of annual rain in Iran during a statistical period (1990-2007) and monthly and annual rain of Chabahar during (1382-1387) were used that obtained from Iran meteorological organization and meteorology station of Chabahr respectively. The monthly and annual SOI index data was taken from NOAA. The results showed that SO accident negative phase (Elnino), which accompanied with increasing precipitation in this country, is matched by decrease of Malaria cases and that in years which positive phases (Lanina) occurred, Malaria cases increased. But in Chabahar city, this situation is inverse. This means that, negative and positive phases of Southern Oscillation are accompanied with decreasing and increasing rain respectively. So, Elnino increased malaria cases and Lanina decreased it in Chabahr.

Study area, Danekhoshk anticline, is a typical growing anticline in Kermanshah province and is located in Folded Zagros structural Belt. The purpose of this research is to calculate the eroded rock volume and its relationship with tectonic in Danekhoshk anticline. To achieve the purpose of this study, at first, boundaries of 90 drainage basins on slopes of studied anticline were determined based on Quick bird Satellite image and SRTM topographic data. After reconstruction of the geomorphic palaeosurfaces, the original (pre-erosion) DEM of study area was derived. Then the present-day (actual) DEM was prepared. The eroded rock volume for each basin was calculated by subtracting the volume of present-day DEM from original (pre-erosion) DEM. Studied anticline was subdivided into 9 tectonic zones based on dip (S) and width of limbs and then mean of eroded rock volume (Ve), basin area (A), and ratio of eroded rock volume to basin area (Rva) parameters were obtained for each tectonic zone. Result of this study reveals that rate of Rva increases with increasing structural dips of anticline limb. Also, there is positive relation between Basin area (A) and eroded rock volume (Ve). Data analysis represents that faults have important effect in increasing rock erosion of basins. In zones 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, the highest rates of Rva are in faulted basins 25, 31, 57, 72 and 76 respectively.Overall, this research shows that the volume of eroded rock in Danekhoshk anticline is perfectly affected by dip and width of limbs, basins area as well as the faults location.

This paper investigates the relationship between social capital of married women and their fertility as well as distribution of fertility along urban regions. For this purpose, a sample of 384 women aged 20-50 were interviewed in Sabzevar. The index of dependent variable was CEB. Social capital concept was operationalized through its objective component–formal membership in social networks. Some other independent variables such as using mass media, education, income, job state and birthplace were studied. Results of multivariate analysis show that variables including women education and membership in formal groups were used in the regression model. These variables explained 20 percent of dependent variable variance. It is notable that the impact of education on dependent variable was negative while the other noted variable had a positive impact on dependent variable. Furthermore there is a significant relationship between urban regions and fertility, that is higher socio-economic urban regions, has lower fertility.

Social capital is one of the important social issues that, such as significant indicators of economic including inflation, GDP, employment rate, etc. play a significant role in the development of countries. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and analyze the spatial distribution of social capital in areas of Quchan city. The methodology of this research was survey, and data was obtained by means of questionnaires and multi-stage cluster sampling.200 persons of inhabitants of five areas of Quchan were selected as Statistical Society. For valuation and ranking of areas in terms of investment rate, Social Capital Model of Decision Making (Topsis) was used. Based on conducted analysis, five areas have three levels of wealthy, semi wealthy (medium) and wealth less (bereaved). For measuring social capital in the city of Quchan, 12 studied indicators were weighted by Shannon Entropy model and then Topsis were used as a multi-index decision-making method. Finally, the map of fruition levels of city's areas was prepared by means of Arc-GIS software.Result of conducted reviews, shows that among the urban areas of Quchan, three bereaved areas (one, two and five) with a priority factor of 0.38 have the lowest level of enjoyment. The second level is the area 4 that its priority coefficient is 0.53, and the level one is the area 3 with a priority factor of 0.77 that, in terms of studied indexes, has the best condition among the five areas of Quchan.