Journal of Environmental Studies
Year:2018 | Volume:44 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:16

Introduction contamination in these resources, and these resources may not be used. Groundwater management, especially in dry regions such as Iran, is essential and this concern becomes further with development of agriculture, industry, population growth and climate changes affecting the quality and quantity of groundwater resources. Hence, groundwater contamination can treat the human health. One of the ways to prevent of groundwater contamination is identifying the vulnerable area of aquifers and management of land use. The assessment of groundwater vulnerability maps requires the application of methods and techniques, based on the hydrogeological knowledge of the region under. Several methods have been devised to vulnerability mapping. Groundwater resources in the Malikan region strongly affected by nitrate fertilizers leachates, due to the presence of grape gardens and intensive agriculture. So in this area, identifying the vulnerable area with the proper method is very important. In this study, improved DRASTIC methods using fuzzy logic and catastrophe theory were used to vulnerability assessment of Malikan plain aquifer...

Introduction Soils are considered as the largest carbon sink in terrestrial ecosystems. Rangelands are the largest terrestrial biomass in world, and contain about 30% of terrestrial carbon stocks. The temperature sensitivity of soil organic matter decomposition (expressed with Q10) is widely used to show the response soil organic matter decomposition to temperature changes. Some biotic and abiotic factors such as land management, soil nutrient contents and stoichiometry as well as soil depth can alter Q10. Since soil carbon content is association with organic matter from vegetation and root turnover, over gazing or destruction can reduces inputs organic matter and leads to surface erosion and increased emission of carbon dioxide. Therefore, sustainable grazing management is effective for protection of soil carbon. It has been determined that fraction of stable and recalcitrant organic matter increases with increasing soil depth. Therefore, studying the Q10 in relation to soil depth, especially in natural ecosystems, will improve our understanding of carbon dioxide efflux...

Introduction The extensive presence of tourists around the wetlands not only has caused serious issues for these sensitive and vulnerable ecosystems, but the local communities and their settlements have experienced various effects of tourism in different degrees and forms. In case of uncontrolled tourism, the identity and cultural fundamentals of the local communities could face threats in addition to the destruction of the natural resources in touristic destinations; i. e. systematic instability is created in the region. After the Second World War, the economic and social consequences of the war drew attentions to tourism as a path toward economic development and meanwhile and various ideas emerged from their comprehensive growth to sustainable development...

Introduction Creating a healthy environment in rural areas is one of the most important environmental issues that not only plays a role in rural politics, but also in land politics. Today, the concept of sustainability in community policy has become a model that leads to the sustainability of a city or village, conservation, protection and recycling of the natural environment. The decision in the village should be such that the increase in environmental benefits is reduced or eliminated negative environmental impacts. In such cities or villages, groups and businesses must be aware of the impacts on their natural environment, and they must be held accountable to reduce or eliminate these negative impacts...

Introduction To improve the ecological condition of landscape system and preventing its destruction in the process of urban development, it is essential to optimize its ecological-sociological functions. We utilize ecological services of the landscape system as well as providing our socio-economic needs. For this reason, we should use the principles of landscape ecology for examining and analyzing the structure of the urban landscape and process changing of it and then use the obtained information in development plans and moving to sustaining ecological networks and development of the environment...

Introduction Disintegration of excess sludge from activated sludge units for production of a carbon source in post-anoxic processes in order to remove nutrients from wastewater streams has been widely used in recent years. For this purpose, ultra-sonication is one of the most applicable methods for disintegration of cell membranes to provide carbon, the source from disruption of microorganisms. Such substances extracted from disintegrated sludge can be used as readily bio-degradable sources of carbon to be used by other microorganisms in following process units. The amount of power (P) per volume (V) applied to the samples in specific durations (t) as well as the concentration of sludge is the most dominant factors in determination of the disintegration process. The main hypothesis of this research is that if the sonication of samples is intermittent during the total time of ultrasonic radiation, the defensive mechanism of cells will be weakened due to irregular forces applied to the cell membrane. This will lead to degradation of microorganisms at lower Specific Energy (Es) while the energy consumption in the whole process will be reduced accordingly. The effect of this parameter has been investigated through this research, whilst no research has been focused upon this issue earlier in previous studies. In this research, samples of secondary sludge have been disintegrated at the frequency of 24 kHz while the applied power, time of sonication and sludge concentration were changed for each set of experiment. As an extra independent variable, intermittent sonication was altered from 0. 3 to 0. 9 second. Degree of Disintegration (DD) was monitored as a dependent variable to evaluate the efficiency of the sludge disintegration process...

Introduction Dust is a phenomenon that mainly occurs on arid and semiarid regions due to the high wind speed and its turbulence on soil surface without any cover and talent to erosion (Khoshhal Dastjerdi et al., 2012). In recent years, dust of deserts has increasingly grown and has played an important role in climate change in the world (Yarahmadi & Khoshkish, 2013). Today pollution from dust particles has converted to one of the environmental problems, especially in developing countries (Aliabadi et al., 2015). Dust, as a phenomenon of desert areas, disrupts human activities, agriculture, social infrastructure, transportation, and industry (Takemi & Seino, 2005). Goudie et al. (2009) mentioned that Sahara Desert is the strongest sources of global dust in West Africa and western China. Kumar et al. (2015) investigated three major dust events that occurred in northern India during the monsoon season in 2010, by land measurements, satellite, and model estimation. The results showed that all dust storms originated from the desert or transported from it and they were created due to favorable conditions. In this paper, the annual and monthly frequency of dust phenomena in Qazvin and Alborz provinces has been studied during the statistical period in order to minimize the damage caused by this phenomenon using its results...

Introduction Rapid population growth, food shortages and environmental hazards have caused serious global challenges. The world’ s population is growing rapidly and it is forecasted to reach 8. 5 billion by 2025. Providing food for people is difficult due to lack of natural resources, so malnutrition has become a serious health problem for humans. Today, genetic engineering can increase the quantity and quality of food (Ashraf & Akram, 2009). Transgenic plants are from this category...

Introduction The movement of predators with respect to prey, and of prey with respect to predators, is fundamental to the respective success of both predator and prey. Simultaneous and sympatric data on movements of predator and prey are rare, and the tools to analyze dependent movement are still a work in progress. Here, we analyze and compare the home range, behavior and the interaction of three rare, highly endangered big cats in the Bafq desert of Iran; a coalition of two male Asiatic cheetah Acinonyx jubatus venaticus and a Persian leopard Panthera pardus saxicolor. The animals were GPS tracked for several months at a relatively low temporal resolution of eight hours...

Introduction Urbanization and cities have a great impact on human life. Today, more than half of the world's population living in cities. One of the important impacts of the city is the change in environmental characteristics. Changes due to urbanization have negative consequences on environmental, social and economic characteristics. Cities reduce the amount of albedo and emissivity of the ground...

Introduction Natural resources are valuable and important parts of environment. The nature of landscape elements of Koohrig along with mentality and beliefs of the people is the determining factor of interactions between people and with these places. Study on extraterrestrial landscapes and geotop is important from many different aspects, because these landscapes in the world are diverse and their various scientific dimensions have a wide range. Considering these phenomena, planning to understand the behavior of tourists in order to have a better understanding and beginning the tourism organizing in the site, and entering of it to the landscape science is essential for high quality exploitation and perfecting the environment, while preserving and maintaining them. The lack of general understanding, and specialized, applied and case studies on unique natural landscapes and mismanagement has led to harmful interventions and alternations in these landscapes. In the present study, Koohrig geotope located in Mehriz city, Yazd province was selected as a case study. This landscape is one of the natural legacies that has been subjected to improper human alternations due to lack of knowledge and mismanagement. This has led to an inefficient exploitation and in accordance with the capacities of the environment, which has led to a destruction. According to the discussed issues, this article seeks to answer the following questions: 1. What is the relationship between the natural features of Mehriz Koohrig and human interactions? 2. What are the landscape features of the existence of a ritualistic-cultural perspective in Mehriz Koohrig? 3. What are the criteria for the interventions methods and quality improvement of Mehriz Koohrig Landscape?...

Introduction Today, the urban ecological network is considered as an approach to enhance the ecological values of urbanizing areas. Indeed, the concept of urban ecological network in relation to overcoming the natural environment and its fragmentation due to the human environment development is appeared. This concept as a suggestion to protect the ecological elements of the urban structure in response to the disruption and destruction of its components was proposed. Ecological network structure based on the principles of landscape ecology includes a combination of the landscape basic elements such as patches, corridors, and matrix. These elements in urban areas consist of natural and artificial ecological layers so that the adjustment and how these layers adopt with each other are very important. Supporting the urban ecological networks is a factor to protect natural processes and biophysical functions in the cities, and promotes the system capability to cope with environmental pressures by balancing human and ecosystem services. However, ecological networks are destroyed, damaged or fragmented in many urban development plans instead of using them as natural potentials. This issue leads to serious negative consequences in urban areas...