نشریه اطلاعات جغرافیایی (سپهر)
پیاپی 88 (زمستان 1392)

Explicators believe that noble verses of Surah Al-‘Alaq were among the first verses revealed to the holy prophet of Islam. According to Surah Al-‘Alaq, teaching by pen is considered to be among the God’s attributes (Recite, and your Lord is the most Generous, Verses 3-4). To have a creative and uplifting pen, we have to get acquainted with the value of pen and its high mission. Islam has been revealed to lead human being to peace and friendship, so that human use the pen committedly, travel in the way of perfection, and organize his/her mundane and spiritual life in the light of discovering the world truth and exploring the divine knowledge. Pen expresses human attitudes, beliefs and his understanding of the universe, and thus nurtures and flourishes his logic. Human being contemplates about the system of creation to create an effective work and a lasting memorial. Therefore, pen should be considered as a translation of human mind and heart and a tool for their flourishing and lasting (Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe, Surah Al-Qalam-1). In fact, pen is the original source of all civilizations, development and evolution of sciences, awakening of thoughts and source of guidance and awareness, to the extent that human history is divided into two era: pre historical and historical period. Historical period begins when writing was invented and human being could write down his life adventures. In other words, this is the period in which human starts writing and leaves “what they inscribe”. Pen is the protector of sciences, guardian of thoughts of thinkers, the intellectual connection loop of scholars, the bridge between human past and present, and even the earth and the heavens are also related by pen and tablet. In a system whose culture is its most obvious identity, endeavoring to write, compile and research is the finest and most humanistic form of collective participation. Sepehr has endeavored to take influential scientific and technical steps to develop geography and geomatics and provide necessary conditions to realize exchange of scientific achievements between scholars, teachers and students. With the God’s beneficence, guidance of the editorial board, teachers, scholars and investigators in the armed forces, universities, higher education centers, enthusiasts, and collective efforts of scientific and technical board, Sepehr journal has created an appropriate environment for scientific conversation.

In Iran, the policy of building new towns was proposed with the aim of decreasing demographic pressure on large cities during the late 1980s. Construction of new towns started and new urban problems and issues unfolded, after which different criticisms and suggestions for improvement were proposed. In this regard, the present article explains the reasons for the failure of new towns in Iran. This descriptive-analytic research takes advantage of documentary-secondary data collection method. Investigations show that due to temporary intense increase in the country’s population, widespread emigration from villages to cities and lower short term development capacity of cities compared to the population growth rate between 1961 and 1991, building new towns around many mother-cities of the country was not necessary. Yet, the main reason for the failure of these new towns in attracting population includes lack of a comprehensive plan to transfer industries from mother-cities to new towns, lack of an efficient public transportation system between mother-cities and new towns, uncertainty in predicting and grouping the population, economic situation and income of households in new towns, weakness in locating, lack of support from the government and other related organizations, the slower increasing trend of land price in new towns as compared to mother-cities, higher benefit of constructing residential units in mother-cities as compared to new towns, economic downturn and increasing inflation rate between 1990-2013, and purely physical attitude of urban planners in preparing the plans and neglecting people’s demands and needs.

Miqan wetland is a natural hole formed between Zagros and Central (Markazi) Iran mountain ranges. This wetland is expanded in the center of this basin and in the heart of Markazi province. In Iran comprehensive water plan, this basin is classified under 7-1-5 study code. The basin covers an area of 5514 km2 and its average annual precipitation is about 280 mm. This basin has experienced lots of fluctuations in precipitation, so that it spent a low rainfall period during the 60s. In order to investigate the system of precipitation changes in this basin, monthly precipitation data was exploited from weather stations and was transformed into zone data using Kringing interpolation method and a cell size of 5*5. Finally, 220 cells covered the basin boundaries and a data matrix of 220*12 was obtained. In order to identify precipitation changes, standard scores of the monthly precipitations’ time series were calculated and Mann-Kendall non parametric trend test was applied. Results indicate the presence of a trend in the basin’s precipitation in March, July, September and October.

Nowadays, tourism industry is among the largest and most varied industries of the world to the extent that many countries consider it as their main source of foreign exchange earnings and job creation, establishing social justice, cultural growth, increasing welfare level and a field for the growth of private sector and a means for the development of their infrastructure. The present article seeks to find an answer to this research question: “what are the reasons for this country not benefiting from various advantages of tourism?” The research method is applied-descriptive which is performed in the form of a case study. While collecting information about the tourism development of the provinces and categorizing them, its potentials were ranked using TOPSIS. Results indicate that for most of the cases the province’s potentials are not in a good situation in terms of development index.

Growth and development of urbanism along with world-wide industrial development and expansion, induced urban authorities of industrial societies to change their attitudes fundamentally. The present research seeks to perform a descriptive-analytic investigation on the environmental situations and urban management in Tehran during three historical periods. This goal is reached by identifying strengths and weaknesses in SWOT framework. Results indicate that social policies in Tehran are not completely in line with environmental policies, and this leads to the postponement of environmental sustainability in Tehran.

Solar radiation is one of the most important and influential parameters in thermal balance of the atmosphere and thus it is considered to be the basis of many climatic studies. Evapotranspiration is defined by the amount of available energy for evaporation. Since energy at ground level is mostly supplied by the sun, many researchers have been interested in the influence of solar radiation on agriculture and especially irrigation sciences. Main research variables include total radiation received at ground level and the slope of radiation changes which are calculated and analyzed using data quality control and routing methods recommended by World Meteorological Organization, and measured at two different geographical points with semi-arid climate. Regarding Pearson correlation coefficient, the significance level of Kermanshah station was set at 99% and Tabriz was set at 95%. Total annual radiation and statistical period are positive related. With an increase in statistical years, annual radiation increases with an appropriate slope which shows the ascending trend of annual radiation in stations.

With the development of new science, two quite different methods were applied to reach scientific explanation. There is an explicit distinction between these two methods (induction and analogy). In induction, generalization is reached by experience and observation. Final explanation is generally dependent on the available data, in a way that these facts cannot be separated from the final theory. Classification is a key mechanism in this approach. Thus, the proposed explanation depends on the classification method used and also on the available data and concepts used for data classification. Analogy can be considered a cause for the new research trends in geomorphology. By using analogy to explain research topics, geomorphology has become explicitly “scientific”. This requires adaptation of quantitative and mathematical techniques and establishing experience and observation as foundations of this science. With the beginning of quantitative geomorphology and its development, attention to the explanation of geomorphological processes and the performance of such processes have increased. Using theory of systems as the general structure of explanation is an important feature of scientific geomorphological revolution. Systematic approach presents the general structures in which geomorphological models can be adapted. Chorli (1966) explains the main branches of geomorphological activities as follows: field observations, experimental, secondary research and theoretical works.

Basically, solid waste management system is one of the most important items in controlling production, saving, consuming, and also in waste collecting and disposal. The main goal of urban solid waste management is to create an effective and sanitary collecting system which responds to citizens’ needs. On the other hand and due to the importance of sustainable development in urban societies, solid waste management is now one of the latest sciences which can decrease the influences and damages caused by consumerism to a considerable degree. Abundance of solid waste is the inevitable result of development and consumption, while lack of management is one of the most important factors in creating environmental pollutions. In addition to the costs of burying wastes, costs of collecting waste have also increased and most of waste management costs are related to collecting urban solid wastes. There are different plans for collecting urban waste, based on the type, composition and amount of produced waste, social and cultural features and urban priorities. According to the World commission of Environment and Development, sustainable development satisfies the present generation’s needs, without damaging the future generation’s capability in satisfying their needs. Not only physical resources, but also human resources must be maintained in development. Sustainable development begins with people and their cooperation; which are crucial in maintaining sustainability in economic, social, ecological and political stages of development.

Traditional methods of climatic classification are very diverse. Despite traditional and comparative importance, these methods have weaknesses which impair their comprehensive performance. Natural potentials as the background of human activities form the basis and foundation of many environmental programs and land use plans. Sustainable development needs careful planning based on resource constraints and abundances, and local development potentials are determined by its climate. Due to the significant topographic diversity and geographic expansion of Iran, providing a logical classification based on this country's natural realities is quite difficult. Due to topographic diversity of Mazandaran province, its climatic classification is not easily executable. The present article seeks to determine the climate of Mazandaran province according to Litinsky model. We tried to use different methods for climatic classification of the province, yet finally we focused on Litinsky model and explained it. Litinsky model use three fundamental elements of temperature, precipitation and Berry coefficient. Then, it takes advantage of auxiliary indicators including adaptation, continuity of dry season and solar radiation condition to provide a comprehensive classification. To do so, data obtained from 10 synoptic and climatologic stations in Mazandaran during 1984-2005 statistical period was used in SPSS environment. Finally, climate of Mazandaran province stations were determined and proposed in table 4.

Over time, Tourism industry has reached such a brilliance and economic justification which has made it the third most beneficial industry (after oil and transportation industry). Although Iran is among the ten top countries of the world regarding historical, cultural and natural resources, it assumes less than 1 percent of global earnings in tourism industry. Chahar Mahal va Bakhtiari, and especially Kouhrang is a beautiful area with a pleasant climate surrounded by high mountains of Zagros mountain range. The appropriate climate condition provides a situation for the development of tourism departments. The existence of many natural attractions is one of the distinguished features of the area, and we can hope to develop the tourism industry of the area by establishing appropriate tourism infrastructures and exploiting their capabilities in tourist attraction. The present article seeks to identify the tourism potentials of Kouhrang area and provide appropriate solutions for the tourism development of the area. Using Delphi questionnaire, field study, and interview, it identifies tourism potentials of the area and defines weak and strong points, threats and opportunities according to SWOT method, while weighting and prioritizing the strategies mentioned for the development of tourism in Kouhrang area. Analyses indicate that Cheshme Kouhrang waterfall, Sheykh Ali Khan waterfall, Chema ice cave, Dime spring, Emam Zade Sar Aqa Seyed, Chelgard ski resort, Lalehaye Vajgoon plain are among the tourism attractions of the area. In order to develop tourism in the studied area, tourism development programs must prioritize conservative strategy.

Due to the increasing complexity and development of dynamic phenomena like land degradation and desertification in the present century, new technologies have focused on their evaluation and monitoring (Alavi panah, 2003). Remote sensing, Geographic Information System and Global Positioning System are among the most important technologies based on spatial information (geoinformatics). In fact, investigating spatial and temporal changes of complex phenomena like land degradation and desertification with the aim of ongoing evaluation and monitoring for proper management and exploitation is inevitable. With the emergence of such modern technologies, it is expected that better and more accurate investigation of land phenomena become possible. Remote sensing, which is based on collecting spatial information (in specified time intervals) by airplanes and satellites, plays a very important role in land degradation and desertification evaluation and monitoring in local, regional and global scale. Multiple capabilities created by this technology (being multi-spectral, inexpensive and digital, having wide field of vision, increasing spectral, land, temporal, radiometric resolution capability, duplicate coverage and spectral variety, easily available data, quick access to distant points and high accuracy) have resulted in the development of a new approach in the studies on the evaluation and monitoring of desertification.