GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH
Year:2001 | Volume:16 | Issue:3 (62)|Papers Count:9

Despite significant resistance shown against the alteration of traditional qualities to modern ones, the structure of traditional cultures, to which societies are accustomed, can not stand against changes and finally yield to them.The present article, the evolution of modern housing from traditional housing in Kurd tribes, is an example of this alteration.If the traditional cultural qualities of a traditional society with a defined character change when confronting modernization, this question evolves that whether at last a new identity will be formed in these societies or all their cultural values will be basically dissolved in the dominant culture. We'd better put the question in this way that when traditional societies confront modern cultural attacks, would they experience a complete change and dissolution of their culture, or would they keep their cultural identity though their cultural elements change?

Policy-makers and planners in the developing countries now widely recognize that the location of services and infrastructural facilities play an extremely important role in the rural development. Furthermore, improved geographical accessibility to basic services for rural population is a fundamental goal for most governments in the developing countries. On the basis of provision of services in locations nearer to rural areas, planners face two different approaches, namely, urban functions in rural development (UFRD) and location-allocation models (LA). This article compares the nature, scope, advantages and limitations of both of the above mentioned locational planning methods.Findings indicate that urban functions approach and location- allocation models are different in nature and scope and deal with different problems and issues. Urban functions in rural development deal with how to integrate services and infrastructures to strengthen the role of towns and market centers to facilitate regional economic development while location-allocation models deal with how to maximize access for a segment of rural population to particular services or facilities. Nevertheless, the goal for both approaches is to redress the conditions of spatial and social inequality by improving access to necessary goods and services. The underlying rational for either approach is that service gaps in the given central place are filled in a hierarchical manner in order to enhance access to necessary goods and services. Although, there are real differences between these two methods, they have important similarities, and central place theory is the common root of both approaches. Both have useful elements for rural and regional planners, but in view of difference in nature and scope, they should not be viewed as mutually exclusive alternatives.

Rural migration research has concentrated primarily on examining why people migrate and which factors influence their decision to migrate. Although both economic and non-economic factors are recognized as playing a role in migrants' decision-making process, the relative influence of these factors varies from person to person, since migrants comprise an assortment of individual of different backgrounds. The desire to translate the rural migration phenomenon into concrete theoretical and empirical models seems necessary in order to provide a better understanding of migrant’s behavior. This paper tries to explain traditional and new theory of rural migration.

Sustainability was perhaps the issue of the end of the 20th century. It has been largely popularized after releasing the Bruntland commission report on environment and development, and the definition of sustainable development in that. The concept of sustainable development was the core of the report and also the foundation for the 21 agenda. The objectives of sustainable development would be fulfilled at all levels of spatial organization. The urban level has attracted much attention because of the continuously growing concentration of people and economic activities in urban centers, especially in the developing countries. At the urban level, the urban sustainable development is the principal concept. In the literature on this concept there are other issues that emerge from the thinking and working domain of the authors who use them. The concepts such as, eco-city, sustainable urbanization, sustainable city, urban sustainability, green city, and safe city are the concepts that appear from economic development perspectives, environmental perspectives and equality perspectives. In this article we review some of the research on these concepts and perspectives of urban sustainable development.

The southeastern region of Iran receives about 10 percent of its annual rain during the summer. In order to determine the origin of this summer rainfall, 15 widespread summer rain periods during 1969 - 1993 were selected. Weather maps of these rains were analyzed at the surface, 700, 500 and 200 hpa levels. This analysis showed two distinctive patterns. According to the first pattern a low pressure develops in the south with a high in the north of the Caspian sea. These two systems bring warm and cold air masses together and develop a baroclinic zone over Iran. The 500 hpa though supports this zone, during the days of the second pattern, the low center over the south deepens and extends to the upper levels and the mid -level ridge of Tibet moves away from Iran and an instable atmosphere develops. In both patterns, the existence of Easterly Jet at 200 hpa level intensifies the precipitation.

Climatic factors are being widely used in the implementation of scientific, economic and industrial projects. The effects of climate have been found particularly relevant in the field of medicine. As a branch of geography, climatology proves the importance of applied geography in other fields. In the research project, the report of which is presented in this paper, the relationship between climatic factors and air pollution with MI in Tehran between the years 1990-94 has been investigated. In this study descriptive statistics measurement of correlation co-efficiency among variables and T-student test have been utilized. The results suggest the following:1) There is a significant relationship between MI and air pollution. CO, NO2 and SO2 , in particular, play an important role in the increase of MI.2) The occurrence of MI is more prevalent in winter. This is due to inversion, night length, and increase in air pollution.3) The factors contributing to MI are numerous. Among them, factors air pollution, as this paper reveals, is of importance.

The E1 Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) exerts a profound influence on global weather and climate patterns. A great deal of time has been spent and efforts have been made to investigate the phenomenon with benefits in terms of economy, public safety and the environment.In this paper the authors studied ENSO signals and impacts on precipitation and other related elements during summer and autumn. In order to study the relationships between precipitation over the region, ENSO and other circulation patterns especially NAO and AO, several long term climate data sets were obtained.These included the data of 23 precipitating stations and Climate Diagnostic Center (CDC) re-analyzed data and plots. This data covers both surface and multiple-level of atmosphere over the region. Additionally simultaneous correlation and principal statistical and component analysis were used with the reanalysis data to study the tele-connectivity between ENSO, AO, AO, and other tele-connection patterns. The results suggested that precipitation significantly correlated with ENSO in autumn and its amount in ENSO warm phases (E1 Nino) was greater than cold and natural phases.