نشریه اطلاعات جغرافیایی (سپهر)
پیاپی 46 (تابستان 1382)

Cartographers deal with aspects of documentation that follow a series of current practices and methods based on logic and conventions. Documentation and information both play important roles in the process of knowledge transfer. Information provides details about documents (primary sources and documents) and items they include. At the moment, the term “super information” or information about information is a common term in the world of computerized information communication, and can be equivalent to documenting.

In ancient times, for the inhabitants of a city defeat and victory in a war was a matter of life and death. No one knew what fate awaited after surrender, because the conquerors were free to do whatever they desired. Throughout history, conquerors can be seen who sieged cities and deceived defenders from defiance and resistance, or defenders slowly gave up because of starvation and famine, and then major massacres were committed following the entrance of troops into the city, and the city was fully devastated. For a city to survive wartime casualties, certain areas of city are deliberately declared to be defenseless for political, economic, military, cultural, esthetic or humanitarian reasons. The number of such declarations is small and the success rate of such proposals varies from one case to the other.

Different land characteristics are important for soil scientists, geologists, geographers, civil engineers, urban and regional planners, architects, urban land developers and others who are interested in assessing land suitability for different applications. Since land conditions and features significantly affect land suitability to help grow different types of plant species, understanding aerial photo interpretation is of importance for land evaluation as well as for botanists, forestologists, specialists and others who are involved in the preparation of vegetation maps and assessments. The main characteristics of land features that can be estimated by aerial photo interpretation are a variety of rocky substrates, landforms, soil texture, site’s drainage conditions, flood harnessing capability and depth of fluid (non-firm) materials on rocky substrates. In addition, the slope of the land’s surface can be estimated by interpreting aerial photos and measurement using photogrammetric methods. In the following chapter, we will examine land characteristics and identification of the most common types of bedrocks and remaining sedimentary as well as displaced soils and organic soils through aerial photos. The aerial photo interpretation process described here highlights the terrain features that are visible on stereo aerial photographs.

Geodesy of gravity is a branch of geodesy that is mostly related to geophysics and geology. Identification of geodesy of gravity from geometric geodesy is based on relevant measurements and theoretical discussions on gravity field properties. These qualities were the same as those which led to discovery of the shape of the Earth, when this information made it possible to understand the dimensions and shape of the Earth by measuring the length of the arc of the Meridian. By collecting enough data from the Earth's gravity field, it is possible to determine the geoid separation from the comparison elliptic (Earth's mathematical form) and to determine the density of the Earth. It is also possible to identify changes in the field of gravity in different parts of the Earth. In the year 1738, Pierre Bouguer attempted to measure the relative perpendicular deviation angle by the Earth's radius mapping operation during explorations in Peru in South America.

Geomorphology examines different forms of land and evaluates the factors influencing their appearance, change and evolution, and, like other earth sciences, it needs the help of sciences such as geology, hydrology, soil science, climatology, ... Therefore, geomorphology, with a scientific and geographical view (natural geography) and avoiding superficial descriptions, is considered as the basis for natural resource surveys. On the other hand, it conducts systematic study and comparison of forms of terrains and their effects on human environment and vice versa (to identify and determine environmental potentials and therefore exploit environmental possibilities in order to achieve sustainable development).

The rapid growth of the world's population and the expansion and development of cities, urban suburbs and rural areas, and the steady and unrelenting increase of human activities on the earth, all indicate the necessity of more detailed, diverse and up-to-date ground information (GI) in all spatial and temporal aspects. This reinforces the role of photogrammetry, in particular its refining capacities for production of ground information (GI) from high-resolution aerial or satellite imagery. In this paper, the author has focused on factors that affect the efficiency of this process.

The potential benefits of satellite imaging to urban applications have been recognized since about thirty years ago at this field’s early stage. However, the combination and integration of this extraordinary technology in processing of information and in everyday management and urban and local affairs is still far away. Why is it that most of the officials involved in the management and administration of the city use the high resolution images of modern satellites only at incidents, while they are in urgent need of certain and decisive information? This is the question that forms the basis of the author’s discussion. The author argues that in order to realize the application of satellite imagery in urban management, achieving value added industry is required to bridge the gap between researcher and end-user. The trend of history has shown that the sharp increase in urban migration to urban areas has led to the fact that half of the world's six billion people are now living in cities. As the population continues to accelerate into urban areas, a certain percentage of current land in cities will expand to agriculture and natural ecosystems. The problems associated with this development, such as uncontrolled migration and population growth, traffic congestion pollution and problems caused by extreme rainfall have so far been enormous and everyday new issues add up to previous ones due to impacts of urban activities on surrounding eco-system. In this regard, there is a chance and opportunity for finding solutions provided that sufficient, accurate and up-to-date details on land information are obtained and applied in a proper and coordinated manner by well-trained and knowledgeable experts.

Accurate, reliable and comprehensive spatial-temporal information on land use in cities is a prerequisite for sustainable land management. Remote sensing provides low-cost and effective solutions for the information required by urban planners at micro and macro levels for analyzing land use planning which ultimately leads to optimal management of urban environment. Better management and more rational use of land requires accurate and timely knowledge of changes in dimensions, nature and balance of space between exploitation and re-production of resources. GIS introduces the best option for integrating various information collections to achieve uniform combination of land development units. By acquiring these units, identifying problematic areas and proposing protective measures become possible. In urban / regional development planning, it is of great importance to identify different types of critical ecological areas and their orientations for future growth and balance in land use. This kind of planning will be beneficial to improvement of environmental protection of special areas and other sensitive land use types. Therefore, latest information obtained through remote sensing in relation to environmentally sensitive areas is very valuable. This information will be very useful for various institutions, such as those involved in land restoration, soil conservation and forestry as well as planning in these areas, selecting priority areas, allocating funds and implementing revitalizing methods based on scientific principles.

Planning is a deliberate process that anticipates a series of actions and related activities in the future in order to achieve specific goals. Planning methods can be considered in two horizontal (decentralization) and vertical (centralization) aspects. A study on decentralization and its role in rural development is an important issue that should be considered. In fact, the city and the countryside should be considered as one organism in which the relations between the city and the village should be considered with a view to decentralization, because the excessive attention to cities and centralization have stopped the growth of villages and led to evil growth of cities. In the long term, this is beneficial neither to cities not villages; therefore, and because of the importance of this discussion in all economic, social and political spheres, we are going to present the concept of decentralization.

The Caspian Sea, as the largest lake on the earth, has created many marine and environmental benefits for its surrounding countries, one of which is the existence of favorable environmental conditions and beautiful natural and tourist landscapes on its southern coast, so that Golestan, Mazandaran, and especially Gilan in the north of the country of Iran, forming coasts around 700 km, with many natural tourist attractions such as lush lands, sky-high mountains and forest-covered slopes, Miankaleh wetland, Anzali Lagoon, Noor Parks, Sisangan and Golestan and wildlife habitats, as well as sandy beaches and beautiful and fascinating scenery is one of the largest tourism centers in Iran. The area also has many other tourist attractions, including historical, cultural, social, therapeutic and recreational, and is on the whole very important in terms of recreational tourism and domestic and foreign ecotourism and absorbtion of enthusiasts of the nature and the sea. It is worth knowing that the main source of all these natural and tourist attractions and even the historical record of habitation and civilization on this land is the existence of the Caspian Sea and its numerous environmental, ecological, climatic and economic effects. These coasts are among the most favorable regions of Iran for the development of the tourism industry, and in particular summer tourism, annually attracting more than twenty-five million tourists, due to natural and special weather conditions in the summer including pleasant summer temperatures, sunny days, sea water temperature, relative humidity, forest cover and beautiful natural scenery, as well as ease of access to Tehran and other populated regions of Iran, enjoyment of facilities, services and recreational establishments and infrastructures. In this paper, prepared in descriptive and analytical research method, while introducing the natural attractions of tourism of the northern shores, the value and importance of the Caspian Sea in creation of these attractions is shown and, finally, solutions are presented for preservation of these attractiveness and optimal use of them in terms of sustainable development of tourism industry in the region.

The borders of Iran have always been changing throughout the country's several thousand years. The study of Iranian documents and historical sources shows that this change has been so vast that the influence of national sovereignty was sometimes far beyond the Iranian plateau, and sometimes limited only to a small part of the plateau. The borders have not been constant over the course of the sovereignty of a certain dynasty and have changed according to the power and weakness of the rulers of each dynasty. This means that with every victory in a war, the borders expanded and, on the contrary, with every defeat, part of the land was lost, and the borders retreated to the political core of that dynasty.

The study of the evolution of human life over the centuries indicates that the type of life and livelihoods, physiological and physical characteristics, types of settlements and the degree of dependence on them ... have been different in various fields of the planet. Without bias and without geographic force, one cannot deny the role of natural and climatic factors in life. Therefore, any change in these factors can transform various aspects of human life. Although it is difficult to make a definitive statement about climate changes because of the complexity of the various factors that confront the Aerial, Aquarius, Ice and Biosphere systems of the Plant, but the consensus among scientists based on numerous studies shows the undeniable role of human being along with environmental factors in the global warming process. However, the final judgment on the role of these factors is not possible considering the information available today. A problem that will be less significant in future owing to current progress. In a general division, meteorologists and climate scientists can be classified into four categories. 1. Studies in relation to the proof of the Earth's trend of change and reduction of existing CO2; in this regard, comparison of statistics and information on meteorology, examination of past bio-climatic records, tree growth rings assessment, study on glaciers and surface water of the oceans and so on. 2- Investigating the factors affecting climate change; cases such as studying the effects of positive and negative interaction, aerosols, airborne particles, solar spots and their cycles, volcanic explosions, effects of greenhouse gases and ... can be noted. 3. Forecasting future changes using climate models; scientists' efforts to predict the future climate using the general circulation model, energy budget model, radiation transfer model, etc. can be mentioned. 4. Synthesis of the study of climate change and application of these studies in order to adapt human life and activities to new conditions. With this attitude, the first three categories of studies together can be considered as a tool for more accurate and proportionate synthesis. In this paper, we try to identify the factors influencing these changes and predict the future conditions by demonstrating the process of climate change through mentioning examples. Clearly, the proposed solutions are mere suggestions and can become much broader.

The geomorphology engineering is the application of the principles of geology to solve the river engineering problems. The process-based understanding of the problem makes it possible that an engineering solution be implemented in parallel with evolution of system rather than imposing it on the system. Increasing the chances of success, reducing costs and decreasing the probability of a problem being uselessly circulated within the system are among the benefits of this view.