Bazaars are among the few historical buildings that still continue to operate. The Bazaar in a city has been important not only from economic aspects but also from cultural and social aspects. Today, the empty space of such urban spaces, which can become a lasting space by creating a sense of belonging and peace, while meeting the needs of today's people, is felt very much. Sound is one of the main factors in creating memories in the human mind. In order to investigate the role of sound in the traditional architecture of Iran, a research was conducted in the Vakil Bazzar of Shiraz. The final goal of this research is to investigate the quantitative and qualitative conditions of the sound using sound meter software in the Vakil Bazzar of Shiraz. The permissible level of noise pollution in urban spaces is 60 decibels based on the resolution of the Supreme Council of Environmental Protection of Iran for commercial areas. The results of this research indicate that in the quietest conditions, the noise pollution for at least 33% of the Bazzar space is higher than the maximum allowed amount of noise pollution. How to improve the sound conditions in Vakil Bazzar, such as reducing noise by creating a masking sound source, creating a pond and a fountain, is one of the most important results of this research.

A critical eye on the destructive impact of air pollution in Tehran is needed as the basis for urban planning, protection policy and management. This paper is focused on modeling in the GIS (Geospatial Information System) to estimate the concentration of particulate matter (PM) in any point of a typical part of Tehran which extends over 18.2 km2 and includes the so-called “Traffic Zone”. Many important general hospitals are located in this region, some of which are within the zone. The model is built on the data obtained in 42 stations located within the region. The results strongly indicate that the concentrations of PM10, PM2.5 and PM1.0 of any points inside the region, including the traffic zone, do not meet the required international standard values. The extracted estimate values for the 22 hospitals reveal that the concentration of PM10 for “Azadi Psychic”, “Children” and “Mustafa Khomeini” hospitals are the worst, estimating from the model to be 119.42 mg/m3, 107.09 mg/m3 and 101.14 mg/m3 respectively. The percent ratio of the mean concentrations of PM10 /PM2.5 / PM1.0 in this region is found to be approximately 7: 2: 1.

Increasing urbanization and growing population density with their ensuing enhanced transportation cause problems in the bioconditions of the urban environment. Heavy metals such as lead and cadmium account for part of the environmental pollution resulting from urban transportation. The purpose of this study is to determine lead and cadmium concentrations and their distribution trend in urban roadside soil. For the purposes of this study, four roadside sites were selected in Isfahan. Samples were collected from surface soil (0-5 cm) and deep soil (50-55 cm) at distances 0.5 to 50 meters from the roads. The results from statistical analysis of lead and cadmium concentrations demonstrated that roadside soils were polluted with heavy metals as they exceeded maximum acceptable concentrations (MAC) of agricultural soils. It was observed that lead and cadmium concentrations in soil decreased nonlinearly with increased distance from road at each site. Regression analysis of data from lead and cadmium normalized concentrations (as the dependent variables) versus distance from road (as the independent variable) showed that the logarithmic regression model, in terms of its simplicity and its relative fitness to all the data from this study, could be adequately used as a suitable model for the distribution of these metals in roadside soils. The results obtained from this study can be used in designing urban areas and in planning urban transportation management and traffic control system.

Large urban areas are facing growing problems of noise pollutions. Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) can conveniently be adapted to gather, analyze and present noise information. GIS can also be extended to answer to user specific problems through deterministic and statistics models. The objectives of this research were to measure urban traffic noise levels, analyze temporal and spatial dynamics of urban traffic-induced noise pollution in the first districted of Tehran estimate the noise for pollution concentration, assess the results of Federal Highway Administration Traffic Noise Model (FHWA-TNM) and Iranian Traffic Noise Predictor (ITNP); and represent them in a GIS environment. Measurements were done at the traffic peak time and also when the traffic was at its minimum, during three successive months. In this study, Leq, L10, L50, L90, Lmax and Lmin were gathered. The results demonstrated that most of commercial and residential regions surrounding the main streets are suffering from sever noise pollution. Processed data, spatial analysis and models are integrated within the framework of ArcGIS software environment, providing adequate tools to address noise issues. The assessment showed that the issue of noise pollution is currently ignored in urban regulations concerning environmental quality.

Introduction: Perception of groundwater vulnerability level to pollutant is considerably essential in urban areas to facilitate groundwater planning and management. Because of the health and economic impacts associated with groundwater contamination, groundwater pollution assessment must be taken into consideration for sustainable groundwater protection. In this research, the concentrations of some heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn), major ions (Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl- , SO42- and HCO3-, NO32-), electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, total hardness and pH were measured to evaluate the degree of groundwater pollution in Kerman urban area.