GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH
Year:2001 | Volume:15 | Issue:3-4 (58-59)|Papers Count:14

At the present time, many features and the structure of Turkman community are being changed under the influence of various factors. The present article deals with the matter of housing among the Turkman tribes. The traditional structures and elements of the Turkmans, with their specific functions, have so far been relatively stable. This article shows how a functional change in housing can influence the whole community. The mechanism of such functional changes, in effect, can be the motor of the historical changes if the communities.Believing that functional changes in social elements do not necessarily lead to perfection, the authors have deliberately avoided using the term evolution. As seen in the Turkman Tribes, the functional changes have brought about some social changes rather than evolution. This can be attributable to the ecological disequilibrium, emigration, etc.

Urbanization and high rate of population increase, along with rapid urban and economic growth, have brought about the critical conditions of land issues. Specialists believe that the population and city size have been doubled in a short period of time. These conditions call for serious control of urban land. But, who should have the power to control this? And what kind of control would be acceptable? The public or private sector? If the public takes over, is it guaranteed that it acts better than the private sector? The main purpose of this article is to discuss the conflicting views (both left and right) in terms of controlling the urban land. The author will give the example of 5 countries with different economic policies in order to pay sound attention to both applied and the theoretical  

This is a research program aiming to devise ways to measure the tempo of life in a certain culture and to assess people's attitude toward time.A traveler may notice that the pace of life varies in different parts of the world, and even from place to place within a single country, but it is difficult to quantify these differences. The author has made attempts to measure it in simple ways, such as noting the accuracy of the public clocks, the speed of postal clerks in doing their jobs, etc in six different countries and cities within the United States.

Since 1899, when the term geopolitics was first devised by Kjellen, it has undergone many ups and downs and experienced many conceptual changes. That is why it still suffers from the lack of a relatively comprehensive definition to show its scientific identity.Among the definitions presented, those denoting the unidirectional deterministic influence of geographical factors on political issues are more prevalent. There are still some indicating the bilateral relations between geography and politics, or spatial analysis of relations and structures of power as well as global rivalary. None of these, however, enjoy a relative comprehensibility.Having examined 20 definitions, the author has tried to present a new definition for the term geopolotics, based on the three elements of geography, power, and politics.

The study of the history of science, makes man familiar with the secrets and unknown features in the development of human knowledge. It seems that different branches of science have undergone the same process, specially in the early stages, in the course of their development. Of these common features, one can name the tendency to unidirectional explanation or unidislipilinary analysis of the phenomena. The present article discusses the hypothesis that, "for a member of reasons (some of which have been mentioned) modern sciences have all experienced a period of determinism (geographism, socialism, geneticism, etc) in their early stages of their development". This dates back to the time when they appeared as separate disciplines or entities independent of other fields of knowledge. This view revolutionized the whole domain of science and the rules governing that. Recent views on science are on the other hand, based on inter-disciplinary theories which optimize the capabilities and values inherent in any of the scientific branches in relation to each other. Geographism a representation of the old view in geography, was first formed in the 19th century by Riter, Rutzel, Buckel, and some other geographers.

The improvement of science and technology in recent centuries has caused man to take control over nature. Man's concept of nature has changed and the relationship between man and nature is destroyed. Regarding agriculture, "Green Revolution" is a result of the interaction between mental processes and the development in technology.Man with modern facilities like: chemical fertilizers, pesticides, agricultural machinery, cross-bred seeds ruined nature, to obtain maximum production. But nowadays environmental and social disorders resulting from modernization processes have made us think of other ways of production. On the one hand we have been equipped with modern technology while trying to retain the tradition techniques of production. Postmodern agriculture is actually a return to indigenous techniques without ignoring the effectiveness of modern technology. Doing this we will be able to develop an appropriate agricultural system consistent with the ecological and social conditions of our country.

The aquifer of Neishabour Plain makes the middle part of Kalshour catchment. Considering the fact that the quality of the water in Neishabour aquifer is not the same in its different areas and the permanent flow of salty water which passes through the area, the question is what elements basically affect the quality of the water.According to this article, it is obvious that there are 3 main reasons:The region's geological formation, the region's climate, and the permanent fall of the underground water base line in the aquifer as a result of the deep wells being over-used.The first, the geological factors, indicates that the destructive and evaporative depositions of Musen which contain a lot of soluble salt, found in SE area of the catchment as well as in the north / south mountain range cause the surface and underground waters to become salty,Climate of the region: especially the high temperature, in the surface of the land causes more evaporation and as a result increases salt in the water.

Animal husbandry for the nomads and villagers, is the primary and secondary source of income respectively. Second to the agricultural activities, working together, helping one another, and cooperation are off common and institutionalized in animal husbandry.This article deals with one of the most prevalent types of cooperation seen among the nomads and villagers pasturing the livestock. Hearing words such as the "flock" and the "shepherd", the Iranians remind of a flock of sheep and pastors. The present article discusses that there are more than one type of flock. As animal husbandry develops in different parts of the country, more specialization and labour division will be needed in this regard. The same is also true as for the shepherd. The author then deals with the three different forms of cooperation seen in pasturing the animals: employing a shepherd, pasturing the flock in turn, and a combination of the two.

Special attention should be paid to the topographical condition of the Red Sea coastal areas, particularly in the northern half of the sea where mountain ranges that surround the sea almost touch the water. Consequently, in the cold half of the year, synoptic systems of the region result in producing S-SE current in the southern half and N-NE currents in the northern half. These currents that blowing the opposite direction and face each other around the area limited approximately between 18°-22°where they create a noticeable convergence zone.Concurrently, when the North African trough develops over Egypt and the Sudan, the Red Sea convergence zone is highly activated and causes the trough to move east under the convergence zone causing unusually heavy rainfall over the south and south east Iran

One of the most important ecological issues nowadays is the unpredictable changes in the climate and their consequences in future. Big investments in international research show that man's activities in the current century have caused some difficulties for man as far as the climate is concerned. These activities are related to nuclear reactors, industrial wastes, pollutions of different kinds etc. Occurrence of destructive overland flows, increase in the earth temperature, reduction of the thickness of the ozone layer and increasingly polluted air are all indications of a possible "Climatic Change".The purpose of the present investigation is to study the rainfall variability in Mashhad as an evidence for climatic change. In this investigation, the data of Mashhad daily rainfall during the years between 1329-1372 were gathered.The data were then grouped to two periods of 1329-1362 and 1362-1372. Results showed that in spite of the change in the mean rainfall for the two periods (nearly for every month) a firm conclusion for climatic change cannot be reached due to the short duration of rainfall and the lack of data concerning other parameters involved (such as temperature, sun shine, winds, etc.)

Suburbanization is one of the fundamental components of 20th century urbanization. Suburbanization is the result of deconcentration which started in the late 1880s. Nonetheless, the expansion pattern has different forms, affected by different stages of urban development and factors. Urban form and structure is the result of numerous factors like economic, social, political, cultural etc.This paper reviews the basic theories explaining the urban expansion event and predicts its future pattern.

Hydro-climactic factors like air temperature, rainfall, rate and its distribution are important indices for anticipating or forecasting the landslide events. Thus, the hydro-climactic thresholds can be used as an empirical basis for issuing warnings, in areas highly susceptible to snow melt-season landslides. Other measures can be the deployment of field instrumentation to monitor hazardous landslides, timing avoidance of mitigation strategies, scheduling construction projects in sensitive areas, and anticipating highway maintenance needs. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of research done in many parts of the world.