Journal of Environmental Studies
Year:2011 | Volume:37 | Issue:58|Papers Count:17

The Grossman and Kruger’s study (1991) about the relationship between economic growth and environmental quality drew the attention of many researchers and international institutions. Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) has been extracted from the study of Kuznets (1955), who believed that there is an inverted U-Shape relationship between economic growth and income inequality. Environmental Kuznets Curve was introduced based on a similar relationship, i.e. in the first steps of economic growth and with increase in per capita income, pollution gradually increases. When per capita income reaches to its turning point, pollution reaches to its peak. If increasing the per capita income continues, pollution mitigates and environmental quality increases.

Introduction Landscape ecology, as a problem oriented science can play a substantial role in the investigation of structural and functional changes of landscapes. Fragmentation is one of the major processes causing changes in landscapes. It is considered as one of the main threats to biodiversity, causing land covers or habitats to break to smaller and less connected pieces and thus reducing their connectivity.Landscape ecological metrics which are quantitative tools to measure landscape changes have experienced lots of evolutions. Recently, landscape metrics have varied and evolved from merely describing structural changes to tools for quantification of ecological processes. One of these metrics is Effective Mesh Size (meff) which indicates the probability of connection between two points in landscape and not being separated by barriers like roads. This metric can be used to explain ecological processes like animal dispersion and habitat viability. Therefore, it is useful to investigate structural changes in sensitive areas (such as national parks).

Introduction The vegetation structure is affected by different factors such as climate, topography, parent material and biological factors and special interactions between them. Soil and vegetation are two important elements of rangelands ecosystem that affect on biotic and abiotic factors. Therefore, identification of variations in rangeland ecosystem components, especially soil and plants are the most important tools for management of conservation, reclamation, improvement and utilization of rangelands. Hence, this research has been identified the indicator species in Qom dry rangelands as the most important tools in ecological management of these ecosystems.

Introduction Land Surface Temperature (LST) is an important factor in global change studies to estimate the radiation budgets in heat balance studies and as a controlling agent in the climate models. The information about LST has an important role in the issues and themes of earth sciences such as global environment changes, human-environment interactions and more specifically to urban climatology. The climate in cities, countryside, and other constructed areas is altered due to changes in land use/land cover (LULC) and anthropogenic activities of urbanization. The most imperative problem in urban areas is increasing surface temperature due to the conversion of vegetated surfaces to impervious surfaces. These changes affect the absorption of solar radiation, surface temperature, evaporation rates, storage of heat, wind turbulence and they can drastically alter the conditions of the near-surface atmosphere over the cities. The temperature difference between urban and rural settings is normally called urban heat island (UHI). The impact of urbanization leads to increase the surface temperature in urban areas mainly due to the alteration of natural surfaces.

Introduction The main goal of this research is to develop a model, based on GIS and MCDA methods, for both the assessment of present land uses and the allocation of future land uses. For this purpose, two models are developed to determine land use suitability and compatibility, using GIS functions and MCDA methods of TOPSIS, ELECTRE and SAW. Finally, a model is developed for the allocation of new land uses, on the basis of parameters such as land use suitability, land use compatibility, difficulty of land use change, and land use demand. In this model, land units with lower levels of suitability and compatibility are considered and evaluated to be changed to more adequate land uses.

Introduction Pollution and environmental degradation are unwanted byproducts of various industrial activities, threatening the environment much more than ever. Nowadays, environmental crisis, moving towards sustainable development, is eliminating non-tariff barriers existed in economy, preventing the waste of resources and creating conditions for mutual understanding on economic issues. This can be considered as a cause for bringing up the environmental management system. In this view, simultaneously coordination of qualitative, environmental and safety and health reinforcements is a criterion for choosing services and products in a civilized society. Therefore, organization management based on safety as well as environment and quality maintenance must be counted among the essential basis of each organization. Moreover, by proper planning as a result of accurate recognition of these systems, such aforementioned system can be established.

Introduction Surveys on the quality of living in 215 cities around the world shows that major cities such as Vancouver in Canada, Honolulu in the United States and London in the Great Britain, ranking respectively 4, 28 and 38 are amongst the world's top 50 cities, while Tehran ranks 178. On the other hand, in 2001 and 2009, the urban environmental quality index of Tehran was respectively evaluated 53.3 and 59.5 percent of the desired quality, respectively. The results of these studies show that the cities of Iran, particularly Tehran has lower urban environmental quality compared to many major cities of the world, despite passing several decades since municipal plans have been formulated for the cities of Iran. Nowadays in pioneer countries in the field of planning such as Canada, land use planning is being revised by applying guidelines containing a set of environmental principles for the distribution of land uses. Therefore, it seems that one of the most important reasons for the urban environmental quality deficiency of Iran's cities is insufficiency and inapplicability of the environmental principles for the distribution of urban land uses.

Introduction Protecting water resources is a priority issue in natural resourcs management and is essential to sustain both human and ecological communities. Both water quality and quantity influences the growth and health of human populations as well as affects ecological health of watershed systems.Human activities has had profound effects on rivers and streams world-wide, with many freshwater systems being impacted by multiple physical (e.g. channel straightening), chemical (e.g. contamination by organic and inorganic pollutants) and biological (e.g. introduction of invasive species) stresses. The nature of anthropogenic disturbance varies within catchments affected by different land uses. For example, agricultural land use may be characterized by increased inputs of non-point source sediments and pollutants, combined with more erratic hydrology due to the increase in impervious surfaces, and restricted ecological interactions between waterways and their land margins caused by removal of riparian vegetation. Land uses change the natural functions of a watershed by impeding or altering water flow and impacting water quality.

Introduction The southern hillside of Alborz Mountains and specially Koohsar Natural Park is a suitable destination to alleviate daily stresses in Tehran metropolitan area. The purpose of this research is to provide principles and solutions for sustainable mountainous landscape planning, and their future development. Preservation and promotion of natural heritage and tourism enhancement, with emphasis on environmental quality, is among the planning goals of such environments. In this regard, the master p lan of the study area was produced based on the recreational demands of visitors and environmental parameters like topography, geology, climate, habitats, hydrology, land cover and land use. Finally, site design was provided.The expected results of the research are: conflict mitigation on intact areas using zoning procedure emphasizing on the reduction of negative human conflicts. We considered modeling for planning with the least environmental deterioration, for sustainable tourism planning and finally to achieve tourism planning principles. Then, we compare the research findings and provide a strategic plan (the best planning option) of Koohsar Natural Park aiming at considering the sustainable planning principles, tourism development, and environmental quality promotion.

Introduction One of the pollutants in surface and underground water resources is Manganese. Metal Manganese is found in surface and ground water as a divalent ion that can be considered as a pollutant agent. Manganese is present in the wastewater of many industrial plants such as dry cell, glass and ceramics, paint, match and painting materials in the petrochemical industry.The purpose of this study is to determine the capacity of Iranian zeolite (Semnan mines) in manganese removal from aqueous solution and the effect of correcting materials on the absorption feature of adsorbent

Introduction In this research, controlling factors affecting salinity of groundwater in Mond aquifer, Bushehr province, was investigated. Hydrogeochemical modeling of the waters draining an aquifer not only can characterize their spatial and temporal variations, but also can be useful in understanding the interaction between groundwater and the aquifer matrix. These types of investigations have proved useful techniques and different methods of studying the chemical composition of groundwater that provide an understanding of the main factors which contribute to groundwater salinity. Composite diagrams have been used as a tool to interpret groundwater chemistry data in various parts of the world. The saturation indices (SI) for minerals most representative of the rock can serve as a useful tool in understanding the interactions between groundwater and host rock. The calculation of saturation indices has been performed by a number of researchers.

Introduction Rivers are main sources of water for drinking and food production. Meeting these demands has caused the water required for environmental needs to be mainly ignored, especially in developing countries. This issue is a major concern in Iran and has been controversial for many years. In recent years, the Tenant method, which is known as the Montana method in Iran, has been officially recommended to assess the environmental water requirements. As it will be described subsequently, this method was developed for a special purpose and is proper for seasonal environmental water allocation.Hydraulic methods base their judgment about maintaining aquatic life on deriving uniform flow parameters, which influence the quality of river habitat directly.

Introduction Nitrate is an important pollutant in groundwater that the costs and consequences of health problems and damages due to this pollutant are not measured. Nitrate is a good indicator of water pollution to organic materials. It is important in drinking water hygiene. Thus, utilizing indirect and low-cost methods for accurate estimation of nitrate is considered. Collecting data regarding nitrate in groundwater requires a series of periodic accurate measurements that consumes a lot of time and costs.

Introduction Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a major group of organic contaminants consisted of two or more benzene rings. Many of these compounds are potentially toxic for both human and aquatic life. Therefore, many studies have been carried out to investigate their toxicity in PAHs exposed organisms. Bushehr coast al area is impacted by PAHs compounds derived from human activities related to oil exploitation and export.In addition, it is also influenced by contaminations originated from industrial and municipal discharges. Since all mentioned contaminants are major sources of PAHs input in to the Bushehr marine environment, PAHs contamination of water and aquatic organisms in the area is an expected issue. The bivalve 's metabolism system is not well developed to remove PAHs content from their bodies rapidly. These are filter feeder organisms with low mobility. These characteristics make them eligible candidates for biomonitoring of PAHs compounds in coastal ecosystems. Since Ark clam (Barbatia helblingii) is well distributed in Bushehr coasts, this investigation is carried out to evaluate the potential of this specie as a biomonitoring agent for PAHs contamination.

Introduction Oil and its compounds are becoming an important problem and the most prevalent type of contamination in the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Among oil hydrocarbons, PAHs are of significant concern because of their properties. PAHs are a large group of organic compounds with two or more fused aromatic rings in linear, angular or cluster arrangements. Many of these compounds have been found to have toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. Their properties specially change with variations in the number of rings. Thus, it is necessary to clean polluted areas from these compounds immediately. Bioremediation is the most effective option to clean up this class of environmental pollutants. According to its definition, bioremediation techniques are processes applied to microorganisms to breakdown or detoxify pollutants. Bioremediation by suitable bacterial strains is an effective and economical option, based on microorganisms’ ability to degrade contaminations.