Geography and Environmental Planning
Year:2023 | Volume:34 | Issue:2 (پیاپی 90)|Papers Count:7

As a natural hazard, earthquake has always caused destruction and loss of human life throughout history. Proper planning to prevent or reduce the destructive impact of earthquake hazard is of particular importance. In this study, to prevent and decrease the risk of this phenomenon, faults were detected and earthquake risk zoning was done in Rumeshkan County in Lorestan Province. For this purpose, first, the lineaments in the region were detected by using 2013 satellite images from Landsat 8 OLI sensors (row 37 and pass 166) and applying Directional Filters in ENVI software, as well as Lineament Extraction in Geomatica software. Afterwards, by comparing the lines with the constructed band combinations, the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and geological map of the study area were investigated, the faults were separated, and their map was prepared in the Geographic Information System (ArcGIS). In this study, by using expert judgment method and AHP-Fuzzy, the factors that affected the risk of earthquakes in Rumeshkan County, including distance from fault, slope, geomorphology, lithology, and distance from epicenters of past earthquakes were weighted and the seismic hazard map of the region was prepared. According to the obtained results, 31. 8, 34. 3, 10. 3, 14. 6, and 9. 0% of the area were in very low, low, medium, high, and very high hazard classes, respectively. Examination of the earthquake hazard sensitivity map showed that the highest sensitivity to seismic hazard was in the eastern parts of the county and that the central parts had very low and low risks,thus, settlement of population in the latter areas is recommended.

Cities manifesting the world's most consuming ecosystem are responsible for a large part of the world's environmental problems. Knowledge of the ecological conditions prevailing in any regions is essential for achieving development. Ecological Footprint Index (EFI) is of great interest for assessing urban communities as a way to measure the levels of sustainability. In this research, the ecological footprint method, which is a quantitative model, was used to analyze the data and measure the sustainability of urban areas. To this goal, an attempt was made to study the EFI and biological capacity of the urban ecosystem of Sari City by using a descriptive-analytical method and relying on library resources. Ecological footprint in the consumption sector, including housing, services, and transportation, was calculated in 4 areas of Sari City. According to the results of data analysis, the ecological footprint of consumption in the mentioned city was equal to 0. 94 global hectares and its biological capacity was 0. 59 global hectares per person. Comparison of the biological capacity and ecological footprint of this city showed that it had an ecological deficit and was thus ecologically unstable. Among the footprints calculated in the consumption sector, transportation with the ecological footprint of 46. 46969 ha had the most ecological footprint. Also, analyses of the ecological footprints in the 4 regions of Sari City showed that Region 1 had a more footprint than other regions, indicating that it followed a higher consumption pattern, but in general, all areas of Sari City were in an ecologically unstable situation according to the research results.

Searching in family roots and traveling to discover genealogy with a leisure motivation is called tourism, which can not only create opportunities to introduce and preserve family heritage, but also diversify the tourism market. The present study pursued the following 3 objectives: 1) identification of the potentials of Isfahan City for promoting ancestral tourism, 2) introduction of suitable travel packages of ancestral tourism in Isfahan Province, and 3) identification of appropriate strategies for promoting ancestral tourism. This research was of an exploratory type with qualitative method associated with thematic analysis. The statistical population of the study consisted of the experts in the fields of history, tourism, and culture. The findings of this research illustrated that Isfahan City had the potential of promoting ancestral tourism due to the presence of famous families, who had migrated to this city throughout history, families, who were known for their professions, royal families, neighborhoods called other cities in Isfahan, , and immigrants and refugees throughout the history, as well as different past divisions of the country. In addition, the incoming and outgoing travelers and city tour packages could be introduced as the revenue-generating opportunities in the ancestral tourism sector in this province. Lastly, the 4 strategies of market penetration, product development, horizontal integration, and collaboration could be introduced as suitable strategies for the prosperity of ancestral tourism in Isfahan City.

Identifying homogeneous climatic zones plays an important role in the success of regional development programs. The climate system is composed of various elements, factors, and variables that together form the climatic components of a region. Multi-characteristic and multivariate methods can combine and overlap the types of elements and variables effective in constructing the climate with appropriate weights in the climatic zoning area. In the present study, climatic zoning of the Caspian region was performed using factor analysis and cluster analysis. For this purpose, a 30*30 matrix consisting of 30 meteorological stations and 30 climatic and environmental variables was formed. The results of factor analysis showed that the climate of the region is affected by 5 factors including precipitation-humidity, temperature, wind, sunlight, and environmental factors. These factors explained a total of 92. 5% of the variance of the data. Then, cluster analysis was performed by the hierarchical integration method of Ward on the five mentioned factors. The results showed four climatic zones including humid, semi-humid, semi-arid, and arid in the study area.

The peasant exploitation system is an undeniable fact in the rural economy of Iran. Many rural families’ incomes are based on this agricultural system. Despite many problems, peasant farmers are considered as the most important factor for achieving agricultural and rural developments due to their knowledge of the countryside and agriculture. In this research, we studied the problems and challenges of peasant farmers in Zanjan Province. This research was an applied one in terms of purpose and descriptive and analytical in nature. The data required for the research were collected by using a survey method (questionnaire, interview, and observation). The statistical population of this study included 40 villages from 8 cities with peasant cultivation. Finally, 340 questionnaires were randomly distributed among the rural households by using Cochran's formula and the exploratory factor analysis was used for analysis. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the entire research questionnaire was obtained to be 873., which confirmed its overall reliability. The results of factor analysis showed that the 5 economic, managerial, infrastructure-environmental, social and local community factors were finally able to explain 66% of the variance of the rural farmers’ challenges. In the above-mentioned factors, farmers’ low incomes from cultivation (773. ), lack of timely and appropriate government support of the farmers (715. ), destruction and change of using orchards and agricultural lands (746. ), the farmers’ lack of self-confidence and skills (695. ), and low quality and dispersion of agricultural lands (609. ) were the most important and influential challenges for the agricultural operators, respectively. Based on the results, it could be said that most of the challenges and rural problems in Zanjan Province could be solved with principled management and purposeful and practical planning.

Due to the negative effects of greenwashing on the environment and tourism stakeholders, tourism industry is in dire need of extensive guidelines on environmental claims. To establish such guidelines, it is first necessary to know the stimuli of greenwashing in this industry. The present study was conducted with the aim of identifying greenwashing stimuli in eco-lodges and designing its conceptual model. This study, which was an applied research, was done by using foundation data theory in Isfahan Province. To collect the data, a review of the research literature was done and in-depth interviews with the experts were followed. The condition for entering the statistical population of the research was specialization in the field studies of green marketing, greenwashing, tourism, and eco-lodges, as well as having at least 3 years of relevant work experience. Sampling was purposeful and continued until the data and theoretical saturations were achieved. The results showed that greenwashing stimulants in eco-lodges could be divided into 3 categories: causal factors (motivation to take advantage of green benefits), underlying factors (weakness of internal and external environments), and moderators (environmental feedback). The results also showed that environmental feedback, in addition to being moderating (based on the effect of causal factors on greenwashing), directly and indirectly (through underlying factors) affected greenwashing. Overall, the results and suggestions of the present study can give new insights to planners and industry officials to control greenwashing in eco-lodges.

Hydraulic modelling of floods plays an important role in flood management and the related risk reduction. The case study in this research was a 20-km reach of the Atrak River in the upstream of Maraveh Tappeh City, which is one of the most hazardous regions of Iran from flood viewpoint. The aim of this research was to estimate the accuracy of the TanDEM-X digital elevation model with a resolution of 12 meters in simulating flood hydraulic characteristics. To achieve this aim, the HEC-RAS 2D model was used in steady conditions to simulate floods with a return period of 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, and 200 years. The results indicated that the inundation area varied in the range of 4. 40 km2(return period of 5 years) and5. 93 km2 (return period of 200 years). In the return period of 200 years, the mean flow depth and velocity increased by 67. 9 and 49. 5% compared to the return period of 5 years, respectively. The sensitivity test also indicated that the maximum sensitivities of the inundation area, mean flow depth, and mean flow velocity to Manning’s coefficient were4. 65, 4. 84, and-12. 23%, respectively. The validation results of the HEC-RAS 2D model by using the inundation area extracted from Landsat-8 OLI satellite images for a return period of 10 years showed that the fit percentage indicator was 86%. The results of this study indicated an initial effort for hydraulic modelling of flood characteristics with the TDX elevation digital model.