JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Year:2009 | Volume:11 | Issue:1 (SPECIAL ISSUE 40)|Papers Count:16

Environmental impact prediction is an important step in many environmental studies. A wide variety of methods have already been developed in this area. During this study, remote sensing images were used for environmental impact prediction in Robatkarim Area, Iran during the years of 2005-2007. It was assumed that environmental impact could be predicted using time series satellite imageries. Natural vegetation cover was chosen as a main environmental element and a case study. Environmental impacts of the regional development on natural vegetation of the area were investigated considering the changes occurred on the extent of natural vegetation cover and the amount of biomass. Vegetation data, land use and land cover classes (as activity factors) within several years were prepared using satellite images. The amount of biomass was measured by SAVI and NDVI indices based on satellite images. The resulted biomass estimates were tested by the paired samplest -test method. No significant difference was observed between the average biomass of estimated and control samples at the 5% significance level. Finally, regression models were used for the environmental impacts prediction. All obtained regression models for prediction of impacts on natural vegetation cover show values over 0.9 for both correlation coefficient and R-squared. According to the resulted methodology, the prediction models of projects and plans impacts can also be developed for other environmental elements which may be derived using time series remote sensing images.

Nowadays Ecotourism Industry is considered as an important and the main part of global economy. Among various types of tourism, ecotourism is a proper means of achieving permanent tourism. Since the regions under the supervision of Department of Environment in Iran are considered as potential capitals of ecotourism and proper means of ecotourism development, hence, protecting these primary resources for achieving permanent revenue is essential. Kavir National Park, due to its unique geographical location and suitable ecological conditions and a biologically diverse environment enjoys a high potential for attracting ecotourists.Kavir national park is located in the central deserts of Iran. The area of this park is equal to 442212 hectares and it envelopes fantastic landscapes, rich biodiversity, many historical monuments and pleasant climate during spring and autumn. We can also observe beautiful sky in night suitable for astronomical purposes in this area.The purpose of this research is to find the ecotourism potentials and environmental planning to develop this industry in the Kavir National Park. These were indentified through field visits and obtaining the information from Park Rangers. In addition, through the use of GIS, software, related maps have been provided and by overlaying process the zoning map and finally the favorable areas forecotourism and tourism were located.

Uncontrolled ecotourism, similar to any development, can have negative effects on culture, economy, environment and even the security of eco-tourists. Behshahr County on the east of Mazandaran Province enjoys a high potential for ecotourism with its mountains, lush temperate forests, vast plains and wetlands. A multi-criteria evaluation was used to assess the potential of the area using fuzzy layers and constraints as Boolean layers. Erosion and landslide potential were the two factors that were used for the first time in the capability analysis for the ecotourism. Standardization of the factors was conducted using suitable fuzzy functions and the weights of the factors were derived through the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Factors and constraints were combined using the weighted linear combination (WLC) method. The final raster layer was grouped into zones and for each zone the zonal land suitability (ZLS) was determined. Removing zones less than 20 hectares in size, around 35 zones were found as the best, 137 zones as the medium and 4 zones as the poor areas for ecotourism. Of the area of the County, around 82400 hectares was not suitable at all for the ecotourism. Around 4500 hectares of the area was found to be highly suitable, 55000 hectares was considered moderate and 2600 hectares was found poor in terms of ecotourism.

The evaluation of ecological land capability is considered as a core of environmental studies, as well as, preventive and remedical measures for environmental crisis. So before the implementation of development, it is necessary to use the ecological potential of land for different uses. Zakherd watershed "with extent about of 82.23 km2" is located in the North West of Shiraz and East of Kazeroon in Fars Province.In the watershed the population is being increased in the water shed, so it's necessary that before development loading, environmental appraised potiential studies is being investigated.In the Zakherd watershed evaluation is used from Mc. Harg method, 1380 makhdoum urban development ecological model and system of GIS. Through this research, at first regional resources (socio- economic & ecological) was found. Digital data with accompany of attribute data is given to the Arcview system to make data base. Therefore by overlaying information layers in the mentioned system the ecological was mapped for the area with the table of characteristic unit. The evaluation of capability was done and fertilized region for urban development.The result of survey was shown that to the point of whole ecological parameters, the total region is not appropriate for urban development but by omitting of elevation parameter that it's the last choice in the Makhdoum ecological model.8.49% of land for urban development has a suitable (grade 2) and 91.51% of the other has not a suitable potential for urban use.For the complement of ecological evaluation, valuating needs, socio- economic indicators and facilities was done in the area so the three nappe of Zakherd, Elyasabad and Hematabab was put to make clear the hairchy of urban development. By the result of search it's made clear that Hematabad nappe has better choice.

The use of ArcGIS software for determining the sewage design de data has been investigated in this thesis. In addition visual Basic program was used for sewage analysis on studying zone (Nabovat minacity in the IIam province). Research stages are as following:The data needed for design such as sewer pipe length, zone area covering a sewer and interpolation of earth height digits in site of manholes were determined by ArcGIS software.Then data related to characteristics of topography and statistical data (e.g. population and water and wastewater capita) in the studying geographical zone were prepared.This data are basis of sewage designing and these were prepared by valid references (e.g. books about geographical and statistical data) and through reference to related foundations and firms (e.g. Iran statistics center, water and wastewater firm and consulting engineering company for using of data related to neighbor zones of designing zone because of approximate similarity of description data demanded for designing).In the next stage the data was output by Arc GIS software, Data analysis was performed through a Visual Basic program.This research Results have specified that usage of ArcGIS software and visual Basic programing have brought about facilities for sewage design.

Assessment of Physical changes and analyzing of urban development plans by using GIS/RS and presenting proper models for urban development applications is of great importance for the country.If Geographic Information Systems and remote sensing technology are not considered just as tools for identification purposes and if we go further and beyond the borders of spatial information production, specially high resolution satellite images undoubtedly we will need such models in the phase of data analysis assessment for development planning.Today, the world's cities are under rapid development. The study of cities expansion processing and problems, facilities, opportunities and weak points help us to present proper plans for future development.In this research, the physical development of Tehran (district5) has been studied from 1968 to 2006 by using geo-spatial information such as maps digital mapping aerial photos and satellite images landuse maps social economic information have been collected. These have been used in the detailed processing GIS and RS data which are included for image enhancement of IKONOS, TK2 and ETM+, geometric collection, coordinating images, preparing Digital Elevation Model, image classification, updating data and classification and urban development model analysis by using GIS analysis.In this research some comments has been offered through attention of economic society and environmental conditions of district and results of land use changes between 1968 to 2006 and GIS analyzing and finally proper model for development are presented by using high resolution satellite images.

Disposal of large amount of hazardous wastes, which is produced in power plants, has received considerable attention. This paper explains an efficient approach to determine how to locate suitable sites for hazardous waste land filling area by using the site screening study, priority processing and analytical hierarchy process. This approach demonstrates how the criteria such as geology, topography, land use, climate, surface and ground water characters, accessibility, applicability and other related factors can be introduced into the over layer technique to determine the primary appropriate sites in a region. Also, a new approach based on DRASTIC and MPCA methods is used for priority processing between primary selected areas. Finally on the basis ofselected criteria' s analytical hierarchy process is used for determination of best site among thigh scored site in the last stage. The introduced method may enable more accurate design procedure for planning in environmental management in the future. This approach is used for disposal of hazardous waste in Shahid Rajaee power plant located in central part of Iran. Result show site 1 in Abyeck area next to Shahid Rajaee power plant is most convenient site for land filling of hazardous wastes generated in Shahid Rajaee power plant.

GIS has a wide variety of application for monitoring and classification of rivers water quality and makes high volume data processing analysis feasible. In the system, more useful management plans can be prepared through identification of populated industrial and agricultural centers and estimating pollution load and composing it with other information. Zohreh River in Khuzestan province with 1750 km2 catchment area and 490 km length is one of the longest and largest rivers of IRAN.The study area of the research is the Zohreh River basin from entrance point to Khuzestan province to the Persian Gulf. Water quality data has been gathered from these sampling points: Kheirabad, Chambostam, Pole flor, Sardasht, Pole 720 metri, Dehmola, Firoozabad, Hendijan and Sajafieh. The measured parameters were BOD, EC, NO3 and Fecal Coli form. Quality zonation has been prepared by using ArcGIS software and using different color themes. The river has been divided into four quality reaches, the effect of: The first reach has good quality, The second one with suitable quality, where the water quality declines due to the effect of populated areas, industries and their untreated wastewater release the third one non-suitable and the last reach where the water quality is very low and sea saline water intrusion plays a major rule in the declined quality of water.

Manesht-Ghalarang protected area in Ilam, Iran covers mountains with forest and is one of the most important natural habitats of Crown imperial (Fritillaria imperialis) of Liliaceae Family. This valuable and rare plant species exist in some locations in this area. This research introduces a new methodology for an ecological assessment and to understand the living environment ofF.imperialis and recommends new sites for rehabitating this plant. If natural or anthropogenic destructive factors such as fire, illness and pest occur in landscape, alternative habitats help the species remain in floristic list of area. The rehabitation was performed based on the plants existing environment. Conditions such as topography (elevation, slope and geographic aspect), climatic factors (rainfall and temperature), geology, land use, soil and companion vegetation were identified, mapped and overlaid using Geographic Information System (GIS). In order to achieve better accuracy in selecting new rehabitated sites, 30 samples of the ecological conditions ofF. imperialis eg. Soil quality parameters including Texture, acidity (pH), Electrical Conductivity (EC), Organic Material (OM) and nutrients (K, P, N, C, Ca, Mg and Na), were identified. In this study, The Ellen berg table was also used for the site evaluation. The results showed that 7 sites measuring 1.97 % (590 ha) of the 30, 000 ha total watershed area, is suitable for rehabitation of Crown imperial.

Forest is a living collection and any strong interference can destroy its equilibrium (balance), so some important rules should be followed in desisting and instructing the forest roads. In this research, the effective factors in finding the suitable forest road with slope digital plans, aspect, height, volume of tree per hectare, forest present type and geology are examined. Then, they are improved by the technology of geographic information system of the mentioned maps. The mentioned digital plans are analyzed by the geographic information system software and classified to different classes. Once the compatible environmental units are combined in plans the geographical information is finalized and, the classification is complete. Finally, the best area on overlaid map is provided for finding the routes.The geographic information system technology is used for the optimum planning of the forest roads.The results indicated that the percentage of roads passing through the road network with a power one rating was higher. In addition the percentage of roads passing through areas with high degredation (power three) were reduced. In was concluded that the application of this system in such level by computer analysis can be effective in preparation of the optimum routes designed.

Traffic safety is one of the most important parameters studied in most countries of the world, important international societies and United Nations. By studying traffic accidents, we can recognize influencing factors on occurring traffic accidents: through these factor used to be defined in order to improve the transportation system. By decreasing and minimizing factors causing accident, we create a safer transportation system. Therefore, analysis of event- occurring points for driving and guidance, municipalities and organizations related to traffic safety is very improvement. This thesis aims to recognize influencing parameters and calculate the amount of importance and effect of each of the factors in crossing's accidents. The thesis also denitrifies the safest and the most unsafe crossings with regard to the conducted analyses. Finally crossings are prioritized with respect to their safety. As part of this study, the existing statistical information relating to crossing's accidents were collected fro, Tehran's driving and guidance police's accident database.Initial analysis was conducted on the raw data to allow the use of Expert Choice and Arc GIS software for data analysis. Importance weightings on influencing factors on accidents for each crossing was obtained separately and through calculations and linear analysis of the existing crossings, They were ranked in terms of safety and the safest crossing was determined. The results indicate that Jalal Ale Ahmad crossing-ninth northern is the safest crossing, with an accident index of 0.067.