ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCHES
Year:2017 | Volume:8 | Issue:15 |Papers Count:23

The wind as one of the manifestations of renewable energies is very important for tabernacle instead of fossil fuels. The Fars province, according to its topography and position is one of the best places to build wind power plant. In this research, different criteria and sub-criteria in the provinces of Fars for potential evaluating of the wind power plants construction were considered. Criteria fuzzy modeling has been down based on expert opinions and survey researches, the control points and fuzzy function type of each layers based on fuzzy membership ranging from zero to one was applied by IDRISI software. Then, in order to the importance of the integration information of, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for layers weighting was implemented by Expert choice software. So, the Arc GIS software were applied for spatial analysis and overlaying the layers. Fars province divided into four levels: excellent, good, fair and poor, in terms of capability for the wind power plants building. Finally, the results indicated that excellent areas for the construction of wind power plants in the study area are located in the north, south and south west of the study area at Eghlide and lamerd station with an area exceeding 893722.69 hectares. In addition, good areas are Lar, west firuz abad, mamsani, Abadeh, Eghlide and south Darab with an area exceeding 3662847.76 hectares. It is hoped that renewable energy of wind without any pollution could be utilized by the construction of wind power plants in these places.

Diversity of attractions of IRAN, a lot of historical monuments and natural and cultural heritage left by the different geological periods, has led the world call this land a world in one border. One of the most important natural attractions, is the deserts and salt desert witch accounted about a third of the country’s area. Such expanses of arid areas, requires attention to this potential areas in ecotourism industry, especially in SEMNAN province witch located in IRAN central part and on the MASH’HAD’s High way. Meantime, SHAHROOD County with the enjoyment of a unique landscape is one of the tourist centers and play an important role in providing for ecotourism. As the first step in planning for any kind of recreational activity is lnad capability evaluation. In this study, ecotourism capability in SHAHROOD COUNTY evaluated and zoned by fuzzy logic, FAHP and TOPSIS, and based on 15 criteria (slope, distance of villages, distance of roads, distance of faults, landuse, range cover, aspect, Cloud forest, land slide points, tourist attractions, distance of rivers, distance of flood plain, services, wildlife and elevation) in GIS environment. Finally, the ecotourism capability zoning map of this county is generated. The results shown that 8765 km2 of total areas (51482 km2) has high capability, 2188 km2 has very high capability for ecotourism development. Among the ecotourism attractions Cloud forest is the first priority and the Salt River is the last priority for development.

Ghalle Shadab region with an area of 4157 hectares is located in the province of Khuzestan, north of the city of Dezful. This region since 1387 is designated as non-hunting area to reduce hunting pressure and preventing habitat loss. The present study aims to make zoning of non-hunting area of Ghalle Shadab region in order to achieve the best model of conservation and development. In the zoning process, maps of environmental unit was formed after identifying the ecological and socio-economic resources (scale 1: 25000) using geographic information system (GIS) analysis and integration of ecological data (system-based approach), and after the preparation of special ecological models for park management, zoning of the region was done and zoning map were developed as a planning unit.The results shows that in the present study area zoning are as bellow: restricted zone 27.45 percent, protection zone 51.95 percent, extensive use zone 14.21 percent, intensive use zone 0.831 percent, cultural-historical zone 1.93 percent, recovery zone 3 percent, special use zone 0.024 percent and buffer zone 1.12 percent.

In this study, the impact of dams on land use changes and water level of the lake Urmia in a 40-year period were studied. For this purpose, the digital data for 1354, 1368, 1385 and 1393 was prepared using MSS, TM and OLI sensors of Landsat and a total of 38 satellite image was used for the analysis and classification. Then, desired classes including irrigated agriculture, water, pasture, man-made, salt marsh and no vegetation were separated. Results showed that generally, in this area during the study period the area of water and pasture cover decreased, while the areas of irrigated agriculture, saltmarsh, no vegetation area and man-made classes have increased. Moreover, although the area of water class has experienced the most significant decline, the irrigated agriculture has enjoyed the highest grows rate. The results of the system analysis showed that considering parameters such as population growth, precipitation level, input water flow (of the lake), during the first interval the impact of the dams were limited while the natural parameters have a high impact on the water level of the Lake. But in the second and especially third periods the severity of the impact of the dams on the land use changes and reducing the water level of the lake has been more evident.

Today, the environment is a cultural and social factor that can be studied from different aspects. This study is aiming to examine cultural-social factors effecting citizens behavior in protecting the environment. Theoretical bases are structural, social solidarity and action theories. Research method is qualitative and survey and questionnaire is used to collect data. The population include 40076 residents of the city of Boroujen and the statistical sample include381people selected through cluster sampling. Based on the tests conducted in this study results show that the variables of traditional values, religious values, social ethics, responsibility, citizens obedience from the proposed models, income, age and citizens occupation, were important in showing their behavior in environment. Generally we can say that social-cultural factors are determining factor in peoples behavior in society, and environmental behavior of all people are originated from these factors.

In this study, indirect production function was applied to cross sectional data of 2013-14 Collected from 201 irrigated wheat producers in Fasa city, to investigate the effect of increased energy carriers’ price on damages cost of pollution emission. According to the high consumption of energy carriers (gas oil and electricity) in production of wheat, with the rising cost of these carriers after targeting subsidies, wheat production cost increased that resulted in reductions of wheat production and thus the damage cost of environmental pollutants emissions. The results showed that a 50 present increase in the price of gas oil and electricity respectively decreases wheat production by 2.22 and 11.75 percent per hectare and this in turn reduces the pollutant damage cost respectively by almost 232 and 1223 thousand rials [1] per hectare. Thus, increasing energy carriers’ prices can lead to controlling damage cost of environmental pollution emission, however, increasing energy carriers’ prices causes wheat production to decrease and so the policy should be implemented cautiously. It also seems that use of appropriate technology in wheat production along with increasing the productivity of all inputs may result in lessening the damage cost with low reduction in wheat production.

Protection of the environment and preventing its degradation have become one of the most important challenges of the international community. The present study attempts to identify factors affecting this issue. Political economy approach has been used to study the effects of corruption and political instability on environmental performance index, in selected countries in the Middle East, including Iran, over the years 2002 to 2012, using panel data. In the model presented in this paper, environmental performance index is used to indicate the quality of the environment. The control of corruption and political stability indices are used to indicate the corruption variables and political instability variables, as well.Environmental performance index, as a synthetic indicator of the quality of the environment and sustainable development, does not focus solely on indicators of environmental pollution; and this is the advantage of the index. As the results show, political stability and control of corruption have a significant positive effect on the environmental performance of selected countries in the Middle East. From the results it can be concluded that focus on institutional reform policies in these countries, with an emphasis on changes leading to political stability to deal effectively with corruption, is very important.

In this study, changes in forest bird community and environmental variables were studied in burned and unburned forest stands at Fazel Abad forest, Gorgan in 2011. Birds and environmental variables were studied using distance sampling method. In each of 80 sampling points (40 sampling points in burned and 40 sampling points in unburned forest stand), birds in a radius of 25 meters and environmental variables in a radius of 5 meters from each point were detected. In the reproductive seasons, which coincide with the first spring after the wildfire, the diversity and total density of birds was higher in burned forest compared to unburned forest stand. Great Tit (10.18±1.56), Coal Tit (3.50±0.51), Chaffinch (15.46±4.57) and Black Bird (3.57±0.08) that are classified as Arboreal grainivorous birds, had higher density in the burned forest; while Nuthatch (11.53±2.15), Great Spotted Woodpecker (1.27±0.03) and Red-breasted Flycatcher (1.91±0.03) that are classified as cavity-nesting birds, had higher density in the unburned forest. In the non-reproductive season, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, Black Bird, Syrian Woodpecker and Nuthatch had higher density in unburned forest. The feeding strategy and nest-building behaviors of birds are driving factor in response to the wildfire. Cavity-nesting birds were more vulnerable in relation to disturbance and habitat change. Moreover, the results illustrate the importance of elapsed time after wildfire. The causes of forest wildfires should be identified and through the proper management techniques to be controlled.

This study was carried out to assess the habitat suitability for panther and the effective factors affecting its distribution in Golestan Province of Iran using the Maximum Entropy Model. The Maximum Entropy Model was selected for it gives good results when applied to large areas. We recorded 193 points of presence for panther in different areas of Golestan Province and considered eleven environmental variables in habitat modeling. Assessment of correlation among variables showed no correlation above 0.9 among the selected variables. Ruggedness with a contribution percentage of 33.2 and a permutation importance of 4.8 was the most important factor in determining the panther’s habitat suitability. Distance from preys with a contribution percentage of 28.7 and a permutation importance of 60.2, altitude with a contribution percentage of 4.4 and a permutation importance of 3.5, slope with a contribution percentage of 3.8 and a permutation importance of 1.6 and vegetation with a contribution percentage of 6.5 and a permutation importance of 0.8 were the other effective factors affecting the distribution of panther. Our results showed that the suitable habitat of panthers in Golestan Province was located generally at an altitude of 2100 meters a.s.l. and on slopes between 20 and 40 percent. In addition, we found that the model has an acceptable predictability with an AUC of 0.972.

One of the most important steps in plain zoning groundwater quality is the quality management of groundwater resources. In this study, the use of geostatistical methods, the chemical properties of groundwater of Ilam city is examined. Water from 78 wells in a 13year period from 2002 to 2014 and the removal of sodium, chloride electrically conducting, sulfate, TDS, EC and TH were chemically analysed.The results showed that the quality of groundwater in this area has a strong correlation and spatial structure of the model follows the Gaussian and spherical, then the kriging interpolation was used by GIS software. Finally, using fuzzy logic, classification of Schoeller and Wilcox and metod FAHP Buckley multi-criteria decision-classification map of the study area were collected for drinking and agriculture. Zoning map shows the region' s groundwater, according to Schuler, 21% of the area of water quality, medium quality, 36% and 43% of the poor quality of drinking water the according to Wilcox, 15% of the area of water quality, 8% and 77% of the average quality of water for agriculture are the poor quality. So we can say that the quality of drinking water in the study area is intermediate and unfavorable for agriculture.

Carbon is the most important greenhouse gas that in recent decades which increasing of it has caused earth warming in the atmosphere. Warming has devastating effects on lives and was caused destruction of natural ecosystems, occurrence of drought, climatic and ecological imbalance. Carbon sequestration in plant biomass and soils under the biomass is the most simple and cheapest possible way to reduce levels of this atmospheric gas. Then was tried to investigate potential of carbon sequestration of Helichrisum aucheri and Helichrisum globiferum in that have wide presence in the natural ecosystems of West Azerbaijan province.30 samples from studied species were selected and they rooted and shooted organs were separated and were transferred to the laboratory (totally 120 plant samples) and carbon sequestration coefficient of plant organs was determined with combustion method separately.12 soil samples were taken from vicinity of each studied species randomly (totally 24 soil samples) and their carbon sequestration was determined. The results showed that carbon sequestration rate had significant difference (p<%1) between studied species. Also soil had more potential of carbon sequestration than plant organs.

This study aims to assess the effect of grazing intensity on plant species diversity and functional groups in a highland mountains, Toof sefid watershed, located in 85 km North West of Shahrekord in Charmahal and Bakhtiary province. For sampling, three grazing management area (exclusure, light to moderate grazing, heavy grazing) selected and within each treatment, 300 plots with four square meter were installed along three lines. Shannon diversity indicator, Simpson and species richness and functional groups calculated for each grazing management area and compared using one-way analysis of variance. The results showed all diversity indicators were significantly higher in exclusure (species richness: 14.4, Shannon index: 2.244, and Simpson index: 0.865) compared to light to moderate grazing (species richness: 9.09, Shannon index: 1.377, and Simpson index: 0.617) and heavy grazing (species richness: 10.10, Shannon indicator: 1.536, and Simpson indicator: 0.652). The results indicates that heavy grazing causes reduction only in plant diversity and no changes in functional groups might be occurred in highland; and mountains.

Identifying indicator species facilitate predicting ecological characteristics of arid and semi-arid ecosystems and help managers to introduce appropriate plant species for rangeland restoration. This study focused on indicator species related to four different utilization methods including, exclosure, rangeland, abandoned area and agriculture area in rangelands of Mahoor Mamasani in Fars province. Vegetation and soil seed bank were sampled in 1 m2 quadrates systematically located on transects. Soils were sampled from 0-5 and 5-10 cm depths. Then seed bank composition was identified after seed germination in glasshouse. In order to identify indicator species and examine changes in characteristics of vegetation and soil seed bank, we used indicator species analysis (ISA). The result on indicator species analysis showed that in exclosure there were 24 and 3 indicator species in vegetation and seed bank, respectively. These were 4 and 3 indicator species for rangeland area, 11 and 2 indicator species for abandoned area and 13 and 3 indicator species for agriculture area. As some vegetation and soil seed bank indices damaged under overgrazing and land use change it is recommended to make some changes in current rangeland management and utilization in order to restore vegetation.

The purpose of this study is investigation of the correlation between carbon dioxide emissions per capita as an indicator of environmental pollution with value added agriculture to industry, value added services to industry, urban population density and power consumption in Iran with an emphasis on effects of 21th Rio Declaration for 1978-2014. Therefore in this study, relations between the short and long term models and variables by using the model Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) were analyzed. The results showed that in both short and long run, with increasing one unit in energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions will be increased equal to 0.002 units. So it is suggested development supports of renewable energy, particularly solar energy, wind and water in order to improve air quality and environmental indicators. Also according to the dummy variable of Rio conference and its significant with plus sign, this variable shows that in the long-run pattern, Iran has acted for protecting the environment.

The serpentinite soils in ophiolitic zone of Robat Sefid in 60km south of Mashhad (Khorasan-e-Razavi) were examined to evaluate the pollution potential of heavy elements in the area soils. Main parameters of soil texture, EC, pH, organic matter (OM%) and calcium carbonate equivalent (CCE%) were determined in geochemical lab of geology department in the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. Total concentration of Cr, Ni, Co, Mn and Zn in soil samples were measured by using AAS analysis method. Selective sequential extraction (SSE) was conducted to determine those heavy metals concentration in 5 different soil phases based on Tessier method. Correlation coefficient of geochemical parameters, and also geo-accumulation index (Igeo) and enrichment factor (EF) were computed to assess the pollution level in the soil samples. Those calculated indices represented different levels of heavy metals enrichment and soil pollution in studied area. According to potential ecological risk index (RI), the risk was high. Also, pollution load index (PLI) value was more than 1, which indicates polluted soils. The correlation was significant between Cr, Ni and Co to sand (%), which indicate sand-size heavy metals bearing minerals such as chromites are abundant in the soils. Concerning the mobility factor (Mf) and risk assessment code (RAC), Co, Ni and Mn categorized in low to moderate levels. The Mn and Ni element with high activity and bio-accessibility could be considered as pollutant elements in the area.

Environmental degradation, increasing loss of natural resources and growing trend of various environmental pollution shows the critical status of environment. Lack of human awareness about the importance of environment makes this situation more critical. Children and teens are the major capital of a community. The attention rate of the officials in upgrading the level of environmental knowledge of this group could be a basis to estimate the environmental progress in different fields. This research was done by determining the effective socio- economic and individual parameters on the level of environmental knowledge and attitude of urban and rural secondary school students. Statistical society of this study was all sixth, seventh and eighth grade students of two educational regions of Qazvin and villages which were covered by these two educational regions.Using stratified random sampling, 721 students were tested by the questionnaire. Collected data were analyzed by SPSS using ANOVA and T test.The results showed significant differences between urban and rural student’s environmental knowledge and no significant difference between urban and rural students’ environmental attitude.From 16 different individual and socio-economic parameters which were tested in this research; gender and type of school were effective on both environmental knowledge and attitude of urban and rural communities while the effects of the other parameters were different between these two communities and some other parameters had no effects. The results of this research could be useful in future decision making to increase environmental knowledge and attitude of the students.

In this study, the economic valuation of regulating gas function that obtains CO2 capture and Oxygen supply function by Bamou National Park Rangeland Ecosystem were estimated.For determining the quantity of CO2 captured, Biomass expansion factor was used method, as well as, and Photosynthesis equation and replacement cost method. According to results, the quantity of CO2 gas captured from plant coverage and soil were 10.9 and 140 ton per hectare and 464360 and 5284185 in the total area of the park. By considering 75.34 dollars for per ton CO2 gas consequences in the CCS project as a replacement method for gas regulation function, economic valuation of this function estimated 373 million Rial per hectare of this park and also 14176.266 billion Rial from the total 38000-hectare area of this park in 2012. It is Recommended to increase responsibility of Local Authorities of Bamou National Park for Regional Planning.

Ecosystem services are benefits that people obtain directly or indirectly from ecosystems. InVEST software was used for assessing the impact of land use change on carbon storage and sequestration. This study, covering the years1984, 2010 and projecting for the year 2036 was implemented using Markov–Cellular Automata in the eastern part of Gorgan-rud watershed in Golestan Province. The amount of carbon stored in carbon pools includes aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, soil and dead organic matter. These pools were extracted based on IPCC guidelines. Assessed and modeled trend of land use change showed that forest area covering more than 50 percent of the study area in the year 1984 reaches less than 20 percent of study area up to the year 2036. Results showed that land use change trend have caused a decrease and will do so in terms of the carbon storage. According to the results between years 1984 and 2010, around 815.2 km2 of the study area has experienced negative carbon sequestration. With the continued trend in deforestation, around 401.9 km2 will be added to this amount up to the year 2036. Integrating ecosystem services results with land use planning and land use management requires spatial maps of ecosystem services in regional scales that was emphasized in this study.

The appropriate site selection is an important issue for waste management activities in developing countries. An inappropriate landfill site may cause negative environmental, economic, and ecological impacts. Sanandaj city, western Iran, with a population of 370, 000 people faces daily production of 330 tons of solid wastes. Current landfill site of the city has caused environmental problems, while losing its capacity. This study attempted to determine appropriate landfill sites for municipal solid wastes in Sanandaj city through combination of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques. For this purpose, nine information layers were weighted according to Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Inversion Hierarchical Weight Process (IHWP) methods. The final suitability maps for a landfill construction in both methods obtained by using overlay function and seven exclusionary criteria, which were used to prepare the restriction map. The result of this study showed that IHWP method increased the accuracy of the final decision for identifying best quality landfill sites and provided better results in comparison with AHP. Finally, an area with the extent of 87 ha, located approximately 5 km north-west of the Sanandaj, was identified as priority number one to establish a landfill site.