Journal of Spatial Analysis Environmental Hazards
Year:2015 | Volume:2 | Issue:3 |Papers Count:7

Spatial analysis as the main approach of geography was reviewed and searched through its historical development. The results of this exploratory research showed that this approach was born after the Second World War due to the overall interest of geographers to develop universal theories and laws. The advocators of this field believed that the old regional geography was not able to develop a scientific and applied knowledge. The main motivation of the development of the spatial analysis was the quantitative revolution of the 1960’s which was triggered by the article published by Shaeffer in 1953. This was followed by some prominent geographers such as Bungeh, Ulman, Barry, Hagget, Chorley and others.  ...

Tehran, in the south of Alborz Mountains, is faced with three types of weather risk, weather risk caused by geography, climatic risks caused by air resistance and weather risk due to global warming. The aim of this study is to examine the three types of risk in Tehran. The method of this study was to evaluate the changes of synoptic factors that affect global warming and urban development. In order to detect the height changes of 500 hPa two 5-year periods including 1948 to 1952 and 2010 to 2014, were studied.The results showed that changes in heights of 500 geopotential, there was an increased risk in the city of Tehran. The effect of climate change in recent decades, increased the stability of air in Tehran. Human factors in the formation of heat islands, increase LCL height and density of the air balance is transferred to a higher altitude. Changing urban wind field, atmospheric turbulence intensified, exacerbated thermodynamic gradient, fat and refugee cyclones, heat island effect of the city.Thermal stability in the warm period will appear. The thermal stability of all levels of lower, middle and upper troposphere was intensified. Thermal stability couraged the development of subtropical high pressure in the area. With the arrival of the atmospheric pressure during calm and humid days the stability and pollution were increased. Negative vorticity from early June developed the intensive high pressure over the region. Compare the conditions of the two study periods showed that: the height of the high pressure was 100 meters higher than the second period. The number of days of intensified subtropical high increased during the second period. The high pressure has moved to the northern areas during the second period. This change in the subtropical high pressure increased the dry periods motivating the loss of vegetation. Heat island effect was increased as well. More than 90% of the temperature inversions occurred at an altitude of less than 500 meters in both warm and cold periods of year. Wind direction at both stations has shown that the establishment of any pollutant source in the West of Tehran will increase the pollution.

The term "Game GIS” implies to real spatially enabled games in which a special part of the world is virtually simulated, represented and managed. In fact, game GIS is an integrated system consists of video games and geographical information systems, aimed to simulate and representing spatially enabled environment. The achieved result of implementing a game GIS service can be exploited before a crisis for wise designing of a city and diminution of the aftermath casualties. As the decision making process plays the key role to reduce the losses, the need arises for using the models as much as close to the reality. By this, it is possible to use the virtual world in in the form of a game rather than experiencing the real world with real wounded and killed persons in. This enables us to recognize and manage a test environment for promoting the managing the real environment of a city during and before a natural hazard disaster like an earthquake.  ...

The process of urbanization and development in high-risk areas such as river banks has increased the vulnerability of urban communities to environmental hazards. The banks of Khoshk River in Shiraz is one of these areas. These hazards are two parts: hazards resulted from river and waterways erosion (destruction, transportation and sedimentation) and the hazards resulted from floodings over the surrounding urban areas. ...

Vulnerability to natural hazards is one of the most important issues of villages in Iran. Iran is listed in the first ten accident-prone countries in the world. It annually imposes many damages on villages through natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, etc. To tackle the problem, an important attempt was applied during the recent decades is the policy of resettlement. The mentioned policy has been followed in forms of movement, integration and aggregation of villages. As spatial foundation and location of settlements are mostly based on natural environmental factors, then before any attempt, or before any dislocation of the villages, ecological potential of the new place needs to be evaluated. However, as dislocations resulted from unpredicted events such as flood are associated with emergency conditions and would be done very quickly; there is not enough time for evaluation before the action.  ...

Forest fire is one of the important problems in Iran which is caused by different factors such as human and natural factors. One of these factors is climate conditions that can be created by heat wave and special circulation of atmospheric phenomena. Occurrence of forest fire in north of Iran have different impacts on environment such as destruction of natural. According to the position of Iran in the dry climate zone provides required conditions for this hazard. Unfortunately, every year thousands of hectares of precious green cover is burned. Forest fires have harmful effects on human life directly, or in directly and lead to environmental destruction and pollution, global warming, loss of vegetation, and dry soil erosion. As a result, research on forest fires will become necessary. The study region is Mazandaran province forests located in north of Iran with area of 23756.4 square Kilometers. The main object of this study is to detect the forest fires using satellite data and associated analysis with synoptic approach based on weather maps. ...

Human and social crisis and natural hazards are of great importance and urgency in urban development planning. As a result, in order to reduce the loss of life and financial damages, one of the necessities of urban planning and spatial analysis is identification of vulnerable areas. In Piranshahr city due to its sensitive geographical location and zoning the implementation of passive defense in urban planning is of utmost importance. The importance of this study is to examine vulnerabilities in order to operate an optimal crisis management. The main objectives of the study are: ...