GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS
Year:2015 | Volume:4 | Issue:15|Papers Count:11

1. Introduction: Any development with any quantity or quality degree has particular environmental impacts. Human manipulation in natural environment does not necessarily mean making changes in initial environment. Continuity of human action in the changing natural conditions, which could eventually disrupt the balance of existing environment or causes unintended and unforeseen consequences as currently human societies have been facing this problem. Obviously once the idea of construction comes until the project operation, a long and tough way must be passed over. Environmental considerations in all phases of the project are major issues that must be considered. This includes the entire process including design, implementation and even scheme exploitation. If human reactions and environmental interactions are assessed in the form of construction projects practices, environmental power and its potential will be revealed by initial recognition. Importance and dimensions of negative effects can be achieved by using modern methods. Based on the findings, rules can be implemented to reduce the adverse effects and to manage the negative effects...

1. Introduction: Adding lime to increase the geotechnical characteristics of fine-grained soils, to achieve different goals always been done from ancient time. There are many techniques for stabilizing unstable slopes, among them lime treatment is a quick, simple and costeffective operation that can be incorporated into any unstable slopes. Some scientific techniques of soil treatment have been introduced by Bell (1996). The effect of lime on maximum compressive strength were studied by Indraratna (1996). He concluded that the addition of only 2% of lime results in a 50% increase in compressive strength and if this amount increases to the 5% of lime, the increase is doubled. Although lime stabilizes the soil rapidly after the treatment, the mechanical properties and strength of soil change over a long period of time (Bell, 1996; Sivapullaiah, Sridharan, & Ramesh, 2000). Recently a new method has been developed by which lime is injected into soil in the form of saturated solution. As it penetrates into the soil due to the gravity, it improves soil strength through pozzolanic reaction (Davoodi, 2007). Limited studies have been conducted to investigate the suitability of using saturated lime solution in slope stability. Optimum concentrations of lime solution and lime dosage were investigated by Pui Ling (2005) and Pedarla, Chittoori, Puppala, Hoyos, & Saride, (2010). Moreover, it is known by the studies of Khelifa (2010) that the curing time influences the physical properties of soil stabilized by lime, and considerably increases the shear strength of cohesive soils stabilized by lime. This study intends to assess the effect of calcium dosage on uniaxial strength of clayey soils stabilized by saturated lime solution in order to be applied in unstable slope stability and sediment control...

1. Introduction: SLEMSA is one of the erosion estimate models presented by Stocking (1978). On one hand, this model has accurate ability y of assessing the erosion rate due to application of non-linear relation evaluating methods. On the other hand, the model benefits from the application of actual deductible numbers in calculation, and its educational approaches.The main question raised in relation to this model is that whether we can add a new capability to this model which can enable us to show us the portion of each element in the erosion. To respond this question, the drainage basin was chosen and we proceeded to calculate the erosion factors rate in SLEMSA model in 214 cells (4km2) and then through the use of vectorial dimensionless method, the main volumes of the model including X, K, C elements were made dimensionless and then the portion of each factor in each cell was calculated by Logarithmic Revers method...

1. Introduction Climatic change is one of the most important challenges human beings have confronted with in recent centuries due to its severe effects on water resources, agriculture, energy, tourism and even human bioclimatic. Developing strategies, making decisions with awareness about water consumption in different parts in the future, and available water resources management require climatic change information (i.e. precipitation and temperature) which can be directly used with hydrology and climatology models.In recent years, climate prediction models have been used for numerous purposes such as the generation of climate data using different scenarios related to greenhouse gases in general circulation models. By using these models, the output of general circulation models (GCM) can be examined at micro-scales. One of these models is called LARSWG, which has received considerable attention from the researchers in Iran or elsewhere.

1. Introduction: How people manage risks and which variables influence on the process of risk management play a crucial role in providing productive urban disaster management and increasing public participation in the urban risk management programs. The purpose of this study is tobetter understand the motivations of residents in adopting reduction risk behaviors to protect themselves and their residents against earthquake risk.Understanding this process will help urban disaster management enhances participation in and implementation of their programs...

1. Introduction Earthquake is a significant natural disaster which always affects different areas. Zirkooh city due to the existence of active faults always faces destructive earthquakes (Rajabi, 1384, p.279). In May 9, 1997 this city was stricken by a severe earthquake with an intensity of 1.7 Richter scale, and faced severe physical injuries, financial, and social damages. Following the earthquake, Islamic Republic Housing Foundation of Southern Khorasan province which is in charge of the construction of villages hit by natural disasters, adopted aggregation and integration policies. Because of the need to address in timely manner to the damaged villages has caused to pay less attention to some factors such as economic, social-cultural, and skeletal and also village residence satisfaction of their life quality in biological complexes which this leads to negative consequences. In this regard, the survey was conducted in response to the main question that is, “Is accommodation of the villagers of earthquake-stricken villages in rural biological complexes could answer their satisfaction of life quality compared to their life condition before earthquake? ”

1. Introduction: Variability and changes in precipitation amounts, including extreme precipitation and droughts, trigger relevant societal and environmental impacts. Atmospheric circulation strongly determines precipitation variability oversouthern half of Iran. The influence of prevalent synoptic situations on the distribution of precipitation amounts needs to be understood, as well as their frequency changes to appraise the impact of atmospheric circulation on intra- and inter-annual (decadal) fluctuations of precipitation amounts.On the other hand, the atmospheric moisture budget plays important role in the hydrology of this region. The aridity in the southwest and south of Iran is due to subsidence scale caused by Hadley circulation and a location far from oceanic sources of moisture. However the moisture and other properties of atmospheric quantities are transferred by local circulation from another source to the given region. Many investigations have been carried out on this subject. The consideration of the precipitation and its source region of moisture flux over south and southwest of Iran, during 1970-74 has been shown that 23 percent of the total low pressure system which passed over this area are from the southwest of the Red Sea (Faraji, 1982). In the investigation of moisture flux over Iran, which is carried out by Alijani (1995) noted that the Mediterranean Sea is the main source of moisture for precipitation over Iran.Evans, Smith & Oglesby (2004) have shown that the Persian Golf and the Caspian Sea are the main sources of moisture for precipitation over the Alborz and the Zagros mountains. They have shown that the subtropical jet current brings the warm and moist air from the South part of Saudi Arabia and the Aden golf to the Middle East in the middle and higher troposphere (Dayan & Abramski, 1983)...

1. Introduction: A drought is a prolonged period ofwater deficit and usually occurs when an area does not receive significant precipitation for a sustained period of time, say several months (Chen, Kuo, & Yu, 2009; Linsely, Kohlerm, & Paulhus, 1959). The effects of drought often accumulate slowly over a considerable period of time that may linger for several years even after the termination of drought. Therefore, some authors have called it a creeping phenomenon (Wilhite, 2000). It is difficult to precisely determine the onset and end of a drought event. A drought can be short, lasting for a just a few months, or it may persist for years before climatic conditions return to normal. Drought considered as the most complex, but the least understandable phenomenon of all the natural hazards affecting more people than any other hazards (Mishra & Desai, 2005). Droughts can be classified into four categories as meteorological, hydrological, agricultural and socioeconomic (American Meteorological Society, 1997; Palmer, 1965; White & Walcott, 2009). The preparedness and planning for a drought depend on the information about its areal extent, severity and duration (Mishra & Singh, 2011). This information can be obtained through drought monitoring that is usually done with the use of drought indices (DIs) which provide information to decision makers about drought characteristics. Thus, these indices can be used to initiate drought action plans.Prediction of droughts is useful for early warning that may reduce the response time and consequently the impact of a drought. For many regions, especially semi-arid regions, limited knowledge is available about the diurnal and seasonal cycles of land surface interactions. Semi-arid areas pose a challenge due to large contrasts between dry and wet conditions within a temporal cycle (Schuttemeyer, 2005). Meteorological drought is generally an indicator of other drought types with below normal precipitation, and usually occurs first before other drought types do. The seasonality and climatological...