نشریه جغرافیا و توسعه ناحیه ای
سال سوم شماره 2 (پیاپی 5، پاییز و زمستان 1384)

This study aims at determining the development degree in East Azerbaijan cities in 1996. The statistics of the present study contains fourteen cities and is graded based on thirty seven indices and the method of the study is descriptive-analytical. The indices which are studied here are: cultural, economical, housing, hygienic, and social. The degree of development is determined based on the analytic-synthetic techniques of human development. The findings of the present paper show that the degree of the cities is different in various indices and this fact represents the unequal development of these cities, considering different indices. Finally, it concludes that the development pattern of East Azerbaijan follows a core- periphery pattern.

This paper examines research methodology, geographic situation and its general characteristics, factors determining the climate of basin, climatic elements and its classification as well as the hydrology of surface waters. Due to the limitations imposed by changes and climatic elements in the region studied, the duration of development season for plants is limited to five months. Flood water controlling, building dams and choosing agricultural and garden plants which need little water can compensate for the shortage of water in the region.

Many rural regions are uniting these days and are thus exposed to evolutionary trends in their structures and functions. Many rural family members are working and even living in non-rural centers under this situation. Some of these families earn their incomes in such centers and thus within a uniting regional framework, separating rural and urban affairs from each other will certainly hinder the efficiency of civil investment and the effect of developmental policies. Focusing on these two styles of living together can blow a new spirit into the regional relations and rural and urban connections so that appropriate directions can be adopted towards united policies and the establishment of better systems and fundamental structures. In contrast, in recent decades the spatial relations in many rural regions, particularly those with nomadic precedence and connections, have witnessed the lack of spatial balances. The rural region of Baghe Malek, situated in the east of Khoozesstan, is an example of this type of regions. By examining the structure and functional systems of these settlements this paper attempts to show how structural weakness results in the functional inefficiency and regional instability. With respect to the governing attitude adopted in this examination, compiling policies and finding proper solutions for establishing efficient rural and urban relations and connections is an essential condition for achieving an acceptable level of development and stability.

Over 15% of our country’s active population is suffering from unemployment at present. Attending to tourism industry is one way of job creation which is known as invisible industry due to its commercial importance in the economy of countries. From this perspective Iran enjoys special conditions and is quite rich in the areas of cultural tourism and natural tourism. On this basis the morphological elements of Iranian coasts assume an important and particular position. The southern beaches of the Caspian Sea (with a length of 664 Km) have proved their superiority over other coastal lines of Iran because of having natural and geomorphologic advantages. Due to the possession of potentials such as low and sandy beaches (with a mild and less than 1% slope), coastal marshes and lagoons (with particular ecologic conditions), good looking and sightly islands and peninsulas, ideal combination of mountain, jungle and sea, the existence of flowery meadows and the like along with other historical and cultural attractions, they receive millions of domestic and foreign tourists every year. Unfortunately, in recent years (particularly in the last two decades) some natural and human factors such as the rising of water level in the Caspian Sea and water advance, mud settlement and contamination of marshes, destruction of jungles, intensification of erosion, oil contamination resulting from extracting oil from fields in the Caspian, uncontrolled and decentralized construction on coastal lines and others have threatened the ecotourism of the region in such a way that it has sometimes reached a critical condition. For conserving and continuation of natural life and achieving a sustained development in the coasts under study, it is necessary that the authorities look for solutions immediately. This requires the application of appropriate, practical and scientific solutions.

The writers of the present article have chosen a sample of 2000 families (8958 subjects) based on the cluster-random sampling. There are fifty urban clusters and fifty rural clusters (twenty families in each cluster). The important items in the study are: rate of birth and death, growth, age, family control, and unwanted dangerous pregnancies. The results of the study show that the rate of birth in the urban areas is 17/4 and in rural areas is 16/76 per thousands. The natural growth in the urban and rural areas, considering the raw rate of death in the province is 13/1 and 12/8 per thousands respectively. The population structure of the province shows a high rate of growth of the age groups 9-15 comparing with the other age groups; and it requires the proper predictions in satisfying the needs of this age group, before and after marriage.

The present research aims to involve the space organization of Khorassan province in identifying the situation of regional imbalance and offering approaches so that the present state can be improved. The space structure of the province is influenced by the factors in natural environment, policies for settling population and the activity and infrastructure of production. This situation has brought about intense imbalance in the region and the destruction of basic sources for development. The main centers, axes, and poles of activity are compatible to some degree with the capabilities of natural environment but the investments and measures taken in creating social and economic infrastructures along with political and security considerations have affected this affair greatly. In order to move in the direction of sustained development in the region and to decrease regional imbalances, the social, economic and environmental structures of the region should be re-examined. Not only did dividing the province in the recent year not decrease the present inequalities in the region but also it increased interprovincial inequalities at a national level. A new regional classification has, therefore, been offered to decrease the regional consequences

Drought indicates an unexpected decrease of rainfall within a certain time interval, in such a way that this decrease puts the adaptation of life system in danger. Since nomadism and the living dependent on it is considered a type of cultural adaptation of man with his environment. The drought phenomenon challenges living based on nomadism in a serious way because by nature it destroys balance and adaptation systems. Unfortunately wide sections of Iran including Sistan and Baloochesstan province have faced droughts since 1998. This happens while on the bases of census results of nomadic tribes the tribes of the province formed 5% of the whole population and included 9.6% of the tribal families in the country in 1998 and from this perspective it is considered the fourth province in which tribes have settled. Considering the continuity of drought phenomenon in the following years, which still continues, a considerable part of postures has been destroyed as the most important source of fodder for cattle and the cattle which form the economic base of tribal life has suffered irreparable damage. A reduction of its products has also followed or gotten lost. During these years the Bureau for tribal affairs and other related organization of the province have, of course, taken some steps which have been effective to some extent. The present paper explores the effects of drought on cattle affairs and the products at a provincial level and the steps taken by the department of tribes.

The writers of the present paper have first analyzed the quantitative and qualitative indices of housing in the city of Taft. Then they have specified the housing situation of the city comparing with other urban areas in the province and the country. The results showed that the housing situation of the city had growth rate during 1975-1996. Comparing with the other urban areas in the province, it had quantitatively better condition, but, qualitatively, lower degree of growth. In the other part of the study, after the population prediction of the city up to 2026 (using “People” software) the writers have determined the housing needs and the demand for it for the next fifty years. The estimates shows that 4356 new houses are needed but there would only be a demand for 3800 new houses which meets 83/2% of the needs. Based on the capacity of the city, 52/6% of the city needs and 63/3% of the demands can be satisfied. Small housing can be a desirable pattern for the stable development of the city.

Until 1970s the local knowledge invoked the concepts of being backward and static in the mind which ensued from classic thoughts and attitudes towards development, particularly towards innovation and the ways of transferring technology to developing countries. With the emergence of economic, social and environmental problems resulting from inappropriate application of technologies some changes occurred gradually in the paradigm of renovation and thus extraordinary changes took place in the type of attitudes towards local knowledge. Under these changes, cultures, knowledge, capacities and skills of the locals were considered respectful and valuable. They attracted the attention and emphasis of development experts as complimentary scientific knowledge in planning development and cooperation. However, the gender dimension of local knowledge has received little attention and there are few researches on identifying the nature and role of female local knowledge in the areas of production. Based on the theory of gender differences, women and men have different knowledge and skills in production which results from their different roles and duties. As the results of this research show the rural women of the sample city have a rich local agricultural knowledge whose degree varies at various stages of production in a way that their greatest knowledge with a mean of 16.2 belongs to “planting” and the lowest to maintenance and manufacturing operations with a mean of 13.3. The identification of this knowledge can be effective in developmental planning and an appropriate way for adjusting the socioeconomic inequalities hidden in policies and development plans.

The phenomenon of erosion has always been viewed as one of the most important factors wasting the earth resources. Considering the increasing trend of soil erosion in aquiferous basins, the employment of exact measures and techniques for the examination and evaluation of erosion and destruction processes for conserving soil and water resources seems necessary. The region under study, the aquiferous basin of Davarzan, is in Sabzehvar. For the exact assessment of erosion phenomenon in this basin and determining the degree to which each of factors affect this phenomenon, a model of fuzzy logic has been utilized to determine the scope of erosion danger. The mentioned model can be used to exactly analyse the role of natural and human factors by considering a range of probabilities instead of assigning an absolute number to weigh factors. For increasing the exactness degree in calculation and the processing speed of information and compiling the layers of information, the geographic information system has been used within the framework of Elvis software. Then by employing the rules and combination of fuzzy membership functions, application of fuzzy algebraic sum, fuzzy algebraic multiplication and fuzzy gamma with 0.2, 0.5 and 0.8 functions, they have been tested by focusing on regional conditions so that the most appropriate measure can be specified for determining the scope of erosion danger. The results show that operator 0.5 in the model of fuzzy gamma offers the best scope in Davarzan basin.

Due to the existence of rich resources and unique natural capabilities, coastal zones all over the world have drawn man’s attention in such a way that they have attracted more population. The pressure of population on coasts and overusing the resources have created many problems and brought about ecological crisis in the trend of sustainable development. Geographic information systems (GIS) in integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) can play an active role. The first role of GIS in coastal zone management is to organize information correctly. The application of GIS starts with establishing a stable structure for the data which have basic differences in the nature, scale, form and topic and continues with keeping, updating, publishing and developing information basis. In other words, the existence of ICZM is established with the presence of GIS, continues with its assistance, and its development depends on the progress of GIS. With the recent progresses of WebGIS, the possibility of sharing geographic data via designing and creating metadata has materialized and the integrated coastal zone management has found new dimensions. In this research Khoor Moosa has been chosen as a geographic event on the coast of the Persian Gulf and its data bank has been established in the GIS environment. Its metadata has then been designed with a standard model of FDGC and ISO and placed in the web environment. The results of this research confirm the necessity of establishing special standards for designing metadata on the coasts of country which are first compatible with the national geographic data bank and secondly based on the principles of specialized coastal management. In this research a model has been offered to standardize coastal geographic data to achieve integrated coastal zone management.

A study of city centers in Iran shows that tribal ghettos have been formed as organized units in some of these cities. The gypsies settled in central suburban section of Sabzehvar are among these ghettos. This quarter is one of the problems of Sabzehvar in term of both its form and its sociocultural texture. One of the aims of this research is to study the central section of Sabzehvar, identify the economic, tribal and cultural infrastructure of Golestan quarter as a tribal ghetto in the old texture of Sabzehvar and discover the relationships among the economic, social and population variables for the improvement and renovation of quarters. Gypsies are considered nomadic groups who have a mutual decamping and movement on the basis of local conditions. The literacy level and education rate is very low among gypsies and more than 50% of houses in this quarter face intensive health problems. Seasonal immigrations have an important role in gypsies’ life. The results of this research emphasise the importance of social aspects in gypsies’ immigration. One of the outstanding characteristics of Golestan quarter is the mixing of residential role with commercial function. Statistical tests confirm that the two variables of economic condition and the texture and solidity of the resident’s houses in this quarter are very probably interdependent. This research shows that the health problems of houses is a public problem of the quarter and the economic conditions of families does not affect them much. The tribal and family dependency is one of the most important reasons for settling in this quarter. Affairs such as offense and family problems are of little importance. The results also show that one of the basic causes for the creation and continuation of Golestan quarter in the center of the city is the easy accessibility of the work market and employment in the informal sector. Therefore, their replacement would amount to distancing them from the work location. One of the negative effects of replacing the residents in Golestan quarter is the destruction of social connections and networks in that quarter which help them overcome the difficult and hard conditions of life.