GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH
Year:2011 | Volume:26 | Issue:2 (101)|Papers Count:19

The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate sustainable development indicators and to measure regional disparities in the rural districts of the province based on statistics of 2006. The study population consists of 121 villages of the province which are mainly arranged on the basis of 17 indicators and transforming them to 10 combined indicators. Based on the factors examined, the dominant approach of the study is «descriptive and quantitative analysis»; thus, the investigated indicators are standardized based on the Z-Score and the parameters of this study using hierarchical cluster analysis, villages are classified and have been analyzed which resulted in the identification of three group levels and the status of each district is specified based on the developmental level. The results of this study indicate that among the villages in the province, 15 villages are located in two sub-clusters (at the third level) and have gained the first priority of development. The second level consists of nine villages in three sub-clusters which are the second level of development priority. The first level consists of 97 villages in four sub-clusters based on the indices under investigation, and consist the last priority in the development.

Because of the presence of special properties in semi arid catchment, these areas are suitable for drought events. The responses of these areas to drought events are in the form of the disappearance of plant cover on surfaces slopes, intensive erosion or landslide occurrence on side of rivers’ course. Azarshahr catchment (situated in 37o 36’ to 37o 49’ N and 44o 20’ to 45o 49’ E) as one catchment of Sahand mountains (located at west slopes of Sahand mountain) has experienced major changes at behaviors of geomorphological processes. The result of assessment of changes of surface and subsurface water, chemical characteristics of water, rivers’ sediment data show that these properties and characteristics influence drought events. To determine drought’s geomorphological effects resultant of these events all data were analyzed applying neutral networks and the final map was obtained by use of Arc/View. The results show that the major effects of drought are present in southern, west and east of Azarshahr catchment. These parts of catchment are very suitable for the occurrence of drought. Gulling, landslides and rill erosion are outcomes of drought.

Nowadays, many countries view tourism as the best way of promoting culture, making international relations and gaining economic incomes; for this reason, tourism has been at focus in many countries which has many recourses for tourism and great capacity for attracting tourists. Meanwhile, one of tourism sub-branches is Ecotourism, which has a particular compatibility with nature. Iran is a country full of tourism resources, especially Ecotourism. One of these rich resources is Fars province. Marvelous nature of Fars brings into eyes beauties of nature. Among cities, Mamassani is still unknown to tourists though it has many capacities and places for tourism. In this research, it is attempted to analyze the tourism situation of this township. Statistical method used in this study is of qualitative, descriptive and survey type. The population of this study has been all tourists of Mamassani which were 50000 individuals, based on the report of Culture’s Heritage of Organization. The sample of this study included 381 individuals. In addition, a Questionnaire and Arc GIS was used in 1387. This study also pays attention to natural landscapes based on yardsticks like resources for tourism, facilities of the region, and its local population. This yardstick reveals unfortunate low facilities of the area despite its high capacities. The results of this study show that it is necessary to pay considerable attention to areas like Mamassani which has so many capacities for tourism. As a result of these considerations, we may witness less nature destroying in the area.

Weather circulation patterns play a main role in the occurrence of environmental phenomena especially in middle latitude. Occurrence of dry and wet spells is in relation to synoptical system repetitions and types of weather. In this research first by using of Standard Precipitation Index (SPI), extensive droughts in the province were identified. Then by using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Clustering Analysis (CA), daily circulation patterns in synoptically scale were realized. In order to classify weather types, daily mean temperature data in 500 hPa and in mean sea level pressure were selected from the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data with a 2.5 spatial resolution during the period of 1950-2006. For identifying type of weather, array S and Varimax Circulation, and for classifying daily weather types K-Mean Clustering method were used. All the days were divided into 18 groups, which present the most predominant weather circulation patterns in the study region. Composite maps of mean sea level pressure and 500 hPa were drawn for every weather types. At the end, dry and wet spells were compared with frequency occurrence of circulation patterns, then rainy weather and dry weather types were identified.

The main objective of this research is investigating the performance of Ravang’s rural – industrial area and its role in rural development, occupation and income, using available equipments, stabilizing rural population (preventing migration to cities), identifying positive and negative points of establishing and starting this plan and finally recognizing problems and providing suggestions. The method of this research is descriptive, analytical and survey. Findings of this research show that Ravang industrial area was not successful in rural development of Dudehak village and could not attain its primitive goals. Failure to attain goals result in the lag of Dudehak from proper development and it caused an increase in unemployment, migration to around cities like Delijan and Qom, lack of increase in villagers’ saving and income, a reduction in occupation security and a decrease in welfare of rural societies.

Evaluation of river discharges trends is very important for water resources management and design of irrigation and drainage networks. In this research, annual, seasonal and monthly trends of Maroon river discharge were evaluated using the Mann-Kendall and Sen’s slope estimator non-parametric tests and the regression analysis parametric test. For this purpose, river discharge data from five hydrometric stations including Idanak, Behbahan, Gorgor, Meshrageh and Shadegan were applied during 1987-2006. The results of this study showed that annual discharge values decreased at all stations in the last two decades. The data indicated that decreasing trends of annual river discharge at Behbahan, Meshrageh, Gorgor, Shadegan and Idanak stations were 80, 40, 21, 1.4 and 0.4 m3 per decade, respectively. The analysis of seasonal discharge results using the three tests demonstrated that spring and winter discharge values decreased in the study period, while increasing trends were observed in summer discharge values. The most differences between non-parametric and parametric tests were detected in autumn discharge values. The non-parametric tests showed positive trends in autumn discharge values, while these time series were characterized with negative trends using the parametric test. The analysis of monthly discharge results by the applied tests indicated that March, April, May and June discharge values declined at all of the stations. The results of such research can be applicable to prediction of future droughts, irrigation planning and water resources management.

Particular factors play major roles in the development of urban tourism. Cities with a plethora of tourist attractions and facilities often attract a large number of tourists. Therefore, to pave the ground for developing urban tourism facilities, first it is essential to identify attractions and resources and then to assess and prioritize them. The existence of various attractions and the geographical location of Sanandaj can play a significant role in the development of the city. In this study, using analytical hierarchy process, we have examined various tourist attractions of Sanandaj in cultural-historical, man-made and natural classifications. After forming a group, setting the targets and establishing criteria, sub-criteria and options which lead to a hierarchical structure, these criteria, sub-criteria and options have been given points, drawing on figures, data, field studies and opinions of the decision-making group which comprised tourism officials in Sanandaj. EC software has been used to analyze and prioritize the city’s tourist attractions. The findings suggest that cultural and historical attractions of Sanandaj have a higher priority than other ones for development and planning. The used model has a 0.08 consistency, indicating the accuracy of calculations and results of the prioritization.

The main objective of this study was to investigate how months cluster in any thermal regions based on temperature. For this purpose, the mean of daily temperature data have been provided using 620 synoptic and climatology stations. Then, mean temperature was converted for any station, based on solar calendar, and maps of mean daily temperature have been interpolated using kriging method. Spatial resolution of these maps was 18*18Km. So that 5214 pixels covered the country and temporal and spatial behavior of mean temperature could be represented by a 5214*366 matrix. An agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis with ward's linkage applied on this matrix and six different thermal regions were detected. In creating thermal regions topography spatial configuration and latitude have been involved. For diagnosing thermal seasons in Iran, mean matrix of monthly temperature was calculated. A repeated agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis applied on data of transpose matrix showed that there were three thermal seasons cold, moderate and warm with four months in Iran, which was similar in all six thermal regions. Recognition of thermal seasons is important for energy consumption and tourism timing management.

The geographical territory of Caucasia includes areas which have been referred to, in various forms, in geographical, historical and even literary texts. Studies on the history of Caucasia in different eras show that not only this region was not originally called by this name, but, later on, this name was not used for what is now modern Caucasia. Studies show that each part of Caucasia was referred to by a specific name, based on the tribal characteristics of its inhabitants or the lineage of its rulers. Modern Caucasia is divided into the southern and northern parts. In the works of some of the Muslim historians and geographers northern Caucasia is not mentioned at all and those which have referred to it have used specific names for each part of it. Hence, they have called the regions around the Caucasus Mountains in northern Caucasia, in which the Khazar inhabited, the country of the Khazar. This research attempts to investigate the historical geography of Caucasia, its cause of denomination and its geographical boundaries. Historical and geographical books written about the first ten centuries Hijri (S. A. W) - within which most of historical-geographical books are written- along with library documents are used with a descriptive-analytic methodology to reveal Muslim historians and geographers’ viewpoint on Caucasia.

The aim of this research is recognizing synoptic patterns of the level 500 hp occurrence of late spring freezes over Kurdistan province during 1965-2005. After determining freeze temporal-spatial threshold, 22 freezing days spreading over the region were extracted. Then, level 500 HP height data located in a scope of 25-60 northern latitude and 30-60 eastern longitude was formulated as an S-mode matrix for freezing days. After that, the synoptic patterns were classified using statistical method of Component Analysis and Ward’s clustering method. Finally, the composite map of high and low level of each cluster was prepared and analyzed synoptically. The findings show that at the time of the most severe late spring freezes, mainly seven synoptic patterns prevailed in to three main groups: Short waves trough, Short waves ridge, high atmosphere Cut-Off Low system synoptic. So that, downwards and upwards moves of the rear and front side of the above-mentioned direct cold and relatively dry air masses of high latitude from North and North–West of Iran towards Kurdistan provinces and determine temperature descending and bring about freezes.