GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Year:2021 | Volume:11 | Issue:40|Papers Count:8

Despite the significant development of geography filed in Iran in terms of the number of educational centers, methodologies, research and educational approaches, it has not been able to participate in solving the problems of society in line with international development. However, there are a lot of problems in the society that can be potentially solved by geographers. These problems are divided into two groups: The first group is projects that have been approved for decades and for some reasons, their implementation has been postponed. The second group is updated topics, and here, too, new geography curricula make it difficult to demonstrate its practical aspects in geographical understanding of the subject and identify the possible types of participation to solve the problem within interdisciplinary studies. In this context, understanding of the concept of interdisciplinary studies appears in the form of non-professional intervention in other sciences and overlapping tasks instead of solving the problem with each other. Therefore, in the absence of control and involvement of collective thought in explaining and limiting scientific boundaries, entrants in quantitative and engineering sciences may take over the geographical subjects. There are various reasons for the lack of unity and intellectual cohesion among geographers, of which the absence of serious support from geographical executives of this knowledge, poor involvement of geographical associations and powerless performance of journals to focus on research are important factors. Lack of purposeful educational planning on the basis of solving society problems that originates from these weaknesses, creates mental confusion in undergraduates, and prevents them from solving simple problems. Added to this, the lack of decisive educational planning on the basis of solving the problems of the society that originates from these weaknesses by creating mental confusion in the undergraduates, prevents them from solving even simple problems while in higher education levels, it deprives them of choosing the appropriate subject and producing significant scientific findings. Hence, the activation of scientific associations, the serious cooperation of geographers with the associations, the administrative assistance of educated geography politicians in accordance with the requests of the associations and the serious performance of the journals in guiding and publishing the original researches are the first step to get out of this impasse.

One of the main challenges in the 21st century is to promote the development of human society while protecting natural ecosystems resilience. The key to achieving this goal is to establish a sustainability balance between the ecological and human sectors, which cannot be achieved without comprehensive and adequate assessments of sustainability. In this study, the sustainability of Toutli Watershed, north of North Khorasan Province, was investigated using the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) method. Therefore, sustainability in both ecosystem and human wellbeing for the whole watershed and its 12 sub-watersheds (T01-T12) were assessed into five classes of unsustainable, almost unsustainable, medium, almost sustainable, and sustainable with equal scores from zero to 100. In the ecosystem sustainability sector, four criteria, eight indicators, and 20 variables, and in the human wellbeing sector two criteria, seven indicators, and 19 variables were selected based on the geographical, demographic, and hydro geomorphological conditions. The results confirmed the heterogeneity of the intragroup distribution of sustainability indicators in each watershed. Furthermore, the sustainability level in the ecosystem and human wellbeing sectors in Toutli Watershed was assessed as a medium with the scores of 50 and 45, respectively. Also, the whole watershed sustainability was evaluated in the medium class with a 47. 5 score. In terms of spatial variation of total sustainability index, it was found that sub-watersheds T06 (southeast) and T10 (southwest) in an almost sustainable class, sub-watersheds T03 (northwest), T05 (northwest), T08 (east, northeast and Southeast), T09 (south) and T11 (west) in the medium sustainability boundary, sub-watersheds T01 (northwest), T02 (northwest), T04 (northwest) and T12 (west, southwest, and center) in the medium sustainability class, and only the T07 sub-watershed (north) is in an almost sustainable class. Totally, 56. 80, 41. 59, and 1. 61% of the total Tutli Watershed are located in almost unsustainable, medium, and almost sustainable classes, respectively.

Urban agriculture with the aim of completing urban food needs, providing ecosystem and environmental services has multidimensional effects on increasing cultural and social values and even increasing economic resilience in any society. Urban agriculture is one of the most important factors affecting the increase of social capital. The present study was conducted simultaneously with the implementation of an urban agriculture plan (green garden) and with the aim of investigating the effects of urban agriculture on the social capital of stakeholders at Razi University of Kermanshah applying survey method. The statistical population of the study was 150 stakeholders, 108 of whom were selected as the sample size according to Krejcie Morgan’ s table. The questionnaire method was used for data collection and its validity was confirmed by expert choice. The results of the study demonstrated that the effects of urban agriculture implementation on social capital have been greater in people who participate with family on farm. The findings from the evaluation of structural equation model showed that all dimensions of social cohesion, social interaction, social awareness, social trust and social participation at the level of 99% confidence have a positive effect on people' social capital. Thus, "social participation" with a path coefficient of 0. 825 had the most significant effect on the social capital of the people and social awareness (with a path coefficient of 0. 599) had the least significant effect on the social capital of the people. Therefore, this will provide the conditions for strengthening social interaction and participation, as well as social trust, and will pave the way for culture-building commensurate with the development of urban agriculture and the results obtained from it can be used in the process of planning and macro-agricultural policies and creating new social capital in the country.

Tourism industry is considered to be the largest and most diverse industry in the world. Dehloran desert region in Ilam province has unique natural and ecotourism attractions such as dunes and sandy areas and many tourist attractions, especially ecotourism. Still, the planners have not appropriately considered it. On the other hand, it is necessary to use employment-creating methods that are environment friendly and require minimal investment. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the Weaknesses, Strengths, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) faced by tourists in the Abo-Ghovair desert in the Dehloran region and provide appropriate and efficient strategies. To study the ecotourism potential of the study area, the library and field information was used, and then data were analyzed using SPSS software. Then, using the SWOT analytical model, strategies are proposed in line with the situation in the region and the status quo. Finally, using the AHP model and expert opinions in the Expert Choice software environment, the most critical strategies selected as the identifying strategies among other strategies and determining the process of allocating sufficient funds for the development of advertising facilities, as well as identifying the attractions and abilities of the region through active media in the scale of the region, the province and the country. The SWOT model results showed that the final score of the internal factors (strength and weakness) is equal to 2. 16. The final score of the external factors (opportunity and threat) is 2. 31. According to the principles of strategic management, the strategic location of the study area was determined in the fourth area of the chart, in which defensive strategies (WT) were selected.

Carbon sequestration in the soil, as the main carbon reserve, can play an important role in reducing atmospheric carbon. In this study, we focused on evaluating the soil carbon storage and sequestration potential in urban green infrastructures including agricultural lands, gardens, parks, and vacant lands because of their considerable extent in Hamadan city. The SAVI index was used to determine the physical units of carbon sequestration ecosystem service using Sentinel-2 satellite images. Then, 108 sampling stations were selected using a systematic-random technique and at each station soil, litter, herbaceous samples, and all allometric data of trees and shrubs were collected in 10-meter plots. Samples were dried and transferred to the laboratory to analyze carbon. Statistical tests were performed using SPSS statistical software. According to the results, agricultural lands are the highest percentage of green infrastructures, and the highest amount of Carbon is stored in soils (312047 tons), tree and shrub covers (90266 tons), grass cover (8383 tons), and litter (771 tons), respectively. Since most of the urban green infrastructure area has been allocated to agricultural lands, gardens, parks, and vacant land, respectively, but the greatest potential of Carbon sequestration and storage has been done by park, garden, agriculture land and vacant land uses. In general, the results of this study showed that the highest carbon sequestration is the highest CO2 capture done by soils in the parks of the city which can be considered as a management option to reduce atmospheric carbon via creating more green spaces in the city of Hamadan.

The optimal allocation of available production resources to the activities that bring the most benefit to farmers and also minimize water consumption, is one of the most important issues in agriculture management where disregarding this issue leads to inefficiency in the agricultural production system. Therefore, in this study; Linear programming has been used to allocate the optimal water resources as well as optimal cropping pattern in Dehgolan plain (Kurdistan province). Lingo software version 14 was used to run the linear programming model. Linear programming ran in 7 modes considering water constraints, cropping pattern, workforce, reduction in groundwater consumption, and minimizing water consumption to determine the optimal cropping pattern as well as a suitable solution for increasing net profit and water productivity. In addition, optimal cropping patterns were assessed in order to minimize water consumption. In general, the results of the current study showed that the net profit of these assessed seven scenarios increased 7. 92 to 400 percent in comparison with the current cultivation pattern, while most of the scenarios considered both changes in the cropping pattern and minimizing water consumption. In the scenario of groundwater reduction, despite water availability decreased, the net profit compared to the current situation increased by 10. 11%. Accordingly, it can be concluded that during the shortage of available water, such as droughts or applying the strategy of utilizing less groundwater to compensate for the groundwater withdrawal, economic benefits still can be increased along with decreasing water consumption by changes in cropping patterns. The results of this study indicated that optimization of cropping patterns is crucial for economy and water consumption purposes. Unfortunately, farmers in Dehgolan plain do not use available resources in optimal mode at present.

Today, dust events in western and southwestern Iran have become one of the most important environmental hazards. The main purpose of this study is to reveal the relationship between land cover changes and dust distribution in Khuzestan province during the last two decades. In this regard, land cover data of MODIS sensor, Aerosol optical depth product of the same sensor aerosol and cross-analysis matrix technique were used to reveal the relationship among them. The results showed that firstly, the dominant coverings of Khuzestan province were generally pastures, barren lands, agricultural lands and urban areas. Analyzing the 20-year trend of these uses showed that rangelands, decreasing trend, agricultural and urban lands had an increasing trend and barren lands also had a relatively stable trend. However, the results of spatial analysis of AOD index showed that the mean and standard deviation of this index have reached from 0. 35 ± 09 in 2000 to 0. 44 ± 0. 04, in 2020 in the province during the last two decades. The important finding obtained by the cross-analysis matrix along with the analysis of periodic trends was that the use of medium to rich rangelands, which had not increased in the last two decades, the level of AOD in this use, with a slope of 6500 hectares per year, had a decreasing trend, while the agricultural land use on which the AOD index has had an increasing trend, with an annual slope of 18, 700 hectares has had a significant increasing trend. Therefore, in general, it can be said that the increase in the area under cultivation of agricultural lands, and the lack of control of barren lands in the province, has led to the intensification of dust in the province over the past two decades.

Planning the proper management of waste and considering its harmful effects on the environment in each country is one of the important principles to provide long-term benefits and move on the path of sustainable development. In this regard, waste management is considered as one of the major axes of development in rural areas. Due to the importance of the problem, the present descriptive-analytical study was conducted to identify the factors affecting rural waste management in Shirin Dareh village, Quchan city. The statistical population of this study includes the heads of rural households of Shirin Darreh village (3560) in which 347 were selected applying Cochran formula. The method of Attributive-Survey was applied to collect data. A documentary method is used to examine the record and explain the problem. Furthermore, a survey method was used to collect the data by observation, interview and completion of the questionnaire among the residents. The data were also analyzed using SPSS and LISREL software packages. Exploratory factor analysis was used in order to identify the factors associated with the structure “ factor affecting of Rural Waste Management in Shirin Dareh Village” . Besides, confirmatory factor analysis was used to investigate the goodness of fit index of the research model. The results of exploratory factor analysis indicated that ten factors of ultimate disposal management, education and information, cultural, health, knowledge and awareness, inter-sectoral, financial, executive organization, planned and social programs, explains approximately 67. 51% of total variance of waste management factors affecting rural areas of Shirin Darreh. The findings of confirmatory factor analysis also showed that those ten mentioned factors, to a large extent, measure the independent and discrete dimensions of "waste management factors affecting" within the study area.