Geography and Environmental Sustainability
Year:2022 | Volume:12 | Issue:43|Papers Count:7

Recently, the tourism literature has paid much attention to the role of society in all aspects of sustainable development and has considered the participation of society in tourism as an important challenge in the development of sustainable tourism. Local stakeholders often face numerous structural, cultural and operational barriers to active participation in community-based tourism. The present research has been done in terms of applied purpose and content analysis method. Data collection was done through library studies and was completed by a questionnaire using experts. Initially, 13 community-based tourism challenges were identified, endorsed and localized by experts; Then, the challenges identified by seven urban managements, tourism and university management experts were weighed using the SWARA method. Then, a model of barrier internal relationships was presented using an interpretive structural modeling approach. MICMAC software was applied to confirm the findings. According to the findings of interpretive structural modeling, the barriers were balanced at six levels and the barriers to the political attitude of the experts, the centralized government structure, and the distinct missions and goals; have had the most impact. Also, according to MICMAC, the six challenges include the political attitudes of experts, the centralized structure, the distinct mission and goals, the resistance to reform, the domination of the elite, and the high costs of participation; were identified as influential study variables. According to the results, the main factors that hinder the sustainable development of tourism are beyond the control of the people and local authorities. Therefore, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts at the national level should distribute power among city councils and establish a balance of power, so that local authorities can feel their impact on the development of community-based tourism.

Drought is a phenomenon that occurs at different times unpredictably with different intensity and has severe effects on human society and ecosystems. In this study, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and PERSIANN Dynamic Infrared Rain Rate (PDIR Now) sensors were applied to examine the drought effects on vegetation in Northern River Basin of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020. Therefore, MODIS data include Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) with a time period of 16 days and a spatial resolution of 250 meters, Land Surface Temperature (LST) with spatial resolution of 1 km and period of 8 days, and monthly precipitation data with a resolution of (4*4) km. The relationship between drought and vegetation in spring was investigated using time series analysis, regression analysis and calculation of anomalies. The results showed that the average vegetation coverage in the whole statistical period was 45. 21%. In this study, vegetation area in 2001, 2008 and 2011 have reached the lowest rate (9. 9%, 9. 9% and 19. 3%), respectively. According to VCI, 83. 5%, 81. 39% and 74. 9% of the basin in these years are under drought conditions, respectively. Rainfall data confirm that these years have had the lowest rainfall 96. 7, 133 and 117 mm, respectively. The years 2003, 2009 and 2010 with the highest vegetation in this season were recorded mainly due to the lower LST and higher rainfall then their average period. The correlation between EVI and LST is (r=-0. 87; p<0. 05), EVI and Precipitation (r=0. 60; p<0. 05). However, in Northern River Basin of Afghanistan, LST and rainfall must be considered together to determine the relationship between drought and vegetation dynamics properly.

Decades of environmental conservation experience have shown that Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) of human society is an essential part of conservation. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to investigate the KAP of Mashhad citizens towards biodiversity and related factors. This research was conducted with a mixed quantitative and qualitative method. The statistical population of the study, using Cochran's formula, 384 samples of people over 15 years old living in different areas of Mashhad, was determined based on clustering. The data collection tool was a localized EU questionnaire whose validity and reliability were 0. 73 for 5 items of variable attitude, 0. 77 for 7 items of variable and 0. 71 of 5 items of variable behaviour. Descriptive statistics and results from Exell2016 and SPSS16. 0 software as well as distribution and frequency tables and related graphs were applied to describe the data. SPSS16. 0, t-test, test hypotheses from t-test, variance analysis and Spearman correlation test were applied to analyse the data and hypothesis test. The results showed that less than a third of people had heard of the biodiversity term. University education contributes to the improvement of the term biodiversity. There is also a significant relationship among the variables of gender, income and education's type of citizens' attitudes toward biodiversity. In addition, there is a positive and significant correlation between environmental knowledge and attitude. In fact, with the increase in the level of knowledge, the attitude of citizens towards biodiversity has been raised to a higher level. As a result, their behaviours are directed towards the protection of the environment. There is also a significant difference between the KAP of citizens living in different areas. Finally, by analysing the biodiversity profile in the KAP of Mashhad citizens and referring to the Delphi panel, a conceptual model of the research was presented.

Earthquake is a kind of natural crises that has caused a lot of damage to the affected communities in different dimensions throughout history. In this regard, NGOs, along with governmental organizations, can play an effective role in minimizing these harms and achieving maximum recovery and sustainability of these communities, if are planned properly. The main purpose of this research is to analyze of the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the rehabilitation and sustainability of earthquake-stricken areas in Kermanshah province. This research has applied a qualitative approach and directional content analysis method. The study population of this research is the NGOs active in the earthquake affected areas of Kermanshah province. The purposive sampling (a kind of snowball) has been used to select interviewees. Sampling continued to reach the theoretical saturation. In this study, theoretical saturation is obtained by reviewing 23 samples from the study population. Data collection is carried out through interviewing, observing and taking field observations, examining documents and often a combination of these methods. The findings reveal that the major activities of the NGOs in the areas of the earthquake include Needs Assessment and Information, Collecting and Distributing Goods, Providing Medical Services, Providing Psychological Advice, Providing Services to Children, Providing Services to Women, Providing Residential Services, Providing Health Services, Providing Environmental Services, Providing Social Services and Providing continuing education services. The results indicate that NGOs have played a significant role in rehabilitation and sustainability of earthquake-stricken areas, and with the right planning and policy, the maximum participation of active NGOs can be used as powerful arms in the reconstruction and sustainability of affected areas in future crises. Finally, some suggestions are provided based on the findings.

Today, environmental challenges and urban infrastructures have become important issues for urban planners, managers and those who are involved in urban issues. Various approaches have been proposed to achieve urban balance and sustainability, one of which is the ecological city. An ecological city is a city whose physical and economic structures have been formed with environmental considerations and are compatible with natural environmental conditions. The purpose of this study is to localize the ecological city model in order to achieve sustainable development in the city of Dorcheh. This research is considered as qualitative research in terms of paradigm, applied in terms of purpose and descriptive, analytical and exploratory in terms of nature. The method of data collection was documentary and field through interview tools with Delphi method. In this method, 30 experts and specialized people on urban issues were interviewed. The results show that the environmental dimension and its indicators have the highest frequency (5) and the highest average (4. 22) among other dimensions and indicators of the ecological city of Dorcheh, followed by the economic dimension and the index. It is in the second place with frequency (4) and average (4. 11). Therefore, in the proposed model of the ecological city, the indicators of these two dimensions should be in the planning priority of city managers; Also, EC and IES standards were used to localize the model of sustainable ecological city. Therefore, the indicators such as using the clean energy, green building, public pedestrian, and bicycle transport should be on the agenda of the urban planners and the managers to achieve an ecological city.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19 epidemics, restrictions such as “ quarantine” have been imposed worldwide led to significant changes in the environment, especially the air. The purpose of this study is to investigate the temporal-spatial distribution of pollutants (CO) and the effect of corona constraints on it. For this purpose, CO data was extracted from MERRA-2 satellite with monthly and spatial time steps of 0. 5 x 0. 625 with time coverage of 2015-20. Then, the data distribution was analyzed by ArcGIS software. In this study, in order to measure the effect of applying corona restrictions on the level of CO pollutants, the data related to the period of applying corona restrictions (July 2020) were compared with the corresponding months in the base period (July 2015-2019), then the control effect of synoptic systems and atmospheric factors for the distribution and dispersion of this pollutant were studied in the provinces that had maximum of this pollutant in Iran. The results showed that the monthly average of this pollutant decreased not only in the provinces that had the maximum CO anomaly, but also over the whole atmosphere of Iran. The results of synoptic factors of geo-potential height and vertical air movement at the level of 500 hPa showed that in both periods, synoptic conditions were the same above the atmosphere of Tehran, Isfahan and Khuzestan provinces, so the studied synoptic factors have no role in this decrease. Examining the factory closure and the average condition of vehicle traffic in some of the busiest roads of these provinces, a decrease in transportation was also observed. The decrease in CO during periods of economic restrictions can be seen as a positive message of COVID-19 for air quality.

Agriculture plays a key role in empowering the government to achieve and maintain food self-sufficiency. Sustainable agricultural growth depends significantly on its transformation process, which in turn is associated with changes in cultivation patterns. Determining the optimal cultivation pattern is one of the issues that are highly considered in agricultural economics. Various studies of economic development emphasize both the importance of changing the pattern of cultivation in the process of rural development and its role as an important factor in reducing the income gap and poverty of rural households. The purpose of this article is to investigate the effects of changing the cultivation pattern on the economic structure from the perspective of villagers with a structural equation modeling approach. Library and field studies were conducted in relation to the villages of Astara, Talesh and Rudsar in Guilan province. For this purpose, 390 households in the villages of these three cities, which changed the cultivation pattern from rice to kiwi, were selected as a sample. The present research is applied research in terms of purpose and descriptive-causal research in nature. The results show that the measured validity of all five measurement models as well as the second-order five-factor model is acceptable to investigate the effects of changing the cultivation pattern. Finally, production boom (0/30), the increase in investment (0/18), improvement of business environment (0/66), reduction of villagers' debt (0/46) and reduction of migration (0/22) are among the factor burdens. Based on this, it can be said that the citrus cultivation pattern has played an effective role on the economic structure of the studied villages.