سیدحجت موسوی

Tourism services are one of the most vital industries on world economy, and at the same time, they are very prone to crisis. Important unexpected events that affect tourism may include external conditions such as natural disasters, epidemic diseases, terrorist attacks, financial crises, as well as internal events such as family crises. In addition, incidents such as political, economic, social and technological issues can disrupt the performance of tourism-related organizations and require the response of regional tourism organizations and local authorities in order to minimize damage of tourism destinations. A wide range of tourism services such as accommodation, transportation, reception, tour guide, and many others are affected by various crises. therfore, crisis management in tourism, both at the level of the organization and at the level of tourism destinations, is a big challenge. Tourism is inherently vulnerable to countless crises, from epidemics to terrorist attacks, and can significantly affect its performance and reputation. The occurrence of various crises in tourism activity is inevitable and can occur in form of natural and human hazards in tourism community and endanger the safety of tourists. Therefore, the research was conducted with the aim of identifying and prioritizing the factors that create emergency (critical) conditions in tourism tours.

Problems of watersheds and their water resources require comprehensive planning and integrated management in this natural open system, which is necessary to be prioritized in national and regional plans to achieve the sustainable development goals, flood risk and crisis management, and solving water shortage issues. Purpose of this research is the evaluating and analyses of hydrogeomorphometric components in Bastam watershed systematically to understand environmental, flood and erosion issues. In this regard, parameters of the height distribution, average height, altimetry and hypsometry curves, slope, aspect, watercourse rating, branching ratio, drainage density, watercourse boundary, main watercourse length, concentration time, perimeter, area, basin shape, Gravilius coefficient and equivalent rectangle was evaluated. Results showed that study basin with an average height of 2085.341 meters and an average slope of 21.788% is a mature and relatively smooth basin, and its upstream slopes at altitudes of more than 2100 meters are exposed to exploration due to the roughness youth. Maximum extent of the basin with 24.53% belongs to the southeast aspect. Shape of the basin is like a rectangle with a length of 91.842 km and a width of 19.175 km, which has a medium to small flood capacity. Components of branching ratio 3.528, drainage density 0.2985 and compression coefficient 0.09352 indicate the low to moderate flooding of this basin. Its concentration time in the main waterway with a length of 62.675 km is equal to 6.066 hours, which has the maximum flood with 6-hour rains.

Modern urban and industrial life and transportation system development have caused a significant increase in ecotourists in natural areas. Despite the extensive visit of nature lovers, Feridounshahr county lacks favorable accommodation and welfare facilities needed by tourists. Since these arrangements are modern and complex, they are often presented in tourist villages and their location requires to be established in places that have the most efficiency. So, this research, an environmental assessment has been made to determine the most favorable place for tourist village establishment in Feridonshahr County. Therefore, through the integration of 9 information layers of spatial data, including population centers, slope, topography, elevation, land type, river network and buffer, access roads and fault buffer, suitable places for creating a tourist village were monitored. In this regard, first, all digital layers that were effective in locating the optimal areas for creating a tourist village were prepared, and each of them was given a weight based on their importance. Pairwise comparison method was used to weight the information layers for obtain their normalized weight. After weighting, to assemble all digital layers, vector layers were converted to raster and then combined with each other. Results showed that according to zoning and recognition of places prone to tourist villages creation, more than 11% of the County's area has suitable land potential and they are often located in form of scattered areas in the east, north and northwest, which due to the proximity in the county center can to become a bed for the development of tourism and optimal use of tourists from the pristine natural environment. In this regard, the establishment of a tourism village in these areas can lead to the development of nature-oriented tourism in Fardunshahr county and achieve economic achievements and a sustainable environment for the local people.

desert tourism emerged in the late 20th century as a special type of ecotourism worldwide. However, compared to other tourist destinations, including mountains and historical sites, desert tourism started relatively late due to the lack of required infrastructure, the existence of threats, and misconceptions concerning the desert.Some scholars argue that offering desert tourism tours, organizing desert areas, and providing tourism facilities can generate substantial revenues for countries enjoying such natural attractions, that have invested in such kind of ecotourism. Thus, as a relatively new type of ecotourism, desert tourism can be defined as visiting desert attractions such as geomorphological forms of sand and those derived from salt crystallization, organizing sports events, enjoying brilliant sunshine during the cold season of the year, vegetation, clear and starry sky, animal life, and other attractions.Equipped with environmental capabilities, nature provides humans with facilities for sustainable economic activities, including tourism, whose operationalization requires accurate scientific knowledge and the kind of treatment that is oriented towards economic stability and the survival of the natural environment. However, despite all such capacities and potential, no study has so far been conducted on desert tourism and its role in the development of sustainable ecotourism, especially in terms of sand, salt, and sun. Therefore, it can be argued that desert areas may considerably contribute to the sustainable development of tourism, making it necessary to pay high attention to them. In this regard, Sefidshahr enjoys great potential in terms of ecotourism in Playa ecosystems due to its geomorphological and climatic situation. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the tourism capacities of Playa areas in Sefidshahr with an emphasis on sand, salt, and sun. 

The current study is a descriptive, analytical, survey research using comparative studies, field visits, and experts' opinions to collect the required data. To this end, the theoretical framework of the study was determined by reviewing the related literature and conducting library studies. Then, the environmental capabilities of the Sefidshahr region were identified in terms of tourism in desert ecosystems that are based on sand, salt, and sun using field visits and interviews with relevant experts. In this regard, the required data were collected by identifying the available information concerning natural attractions, geomorphology, existing land capabilities, tourism infrastructures, and facilities, including the capabilities of the desert geosystem in terms of sand, sun, and salt. Then, the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities of developing desert tourism in the study area were examined. Finally, the most effective factors involved in the development of desert tourism were identified using factor analysis and structural equation modeling.In this regard, first, the natural and human capabilities in the region were identified, based on which a researcher-developed questionnaire was prepared to assess the current situation of the region. The questionnaire was administered to 38 specialists and professionals in the field of ecotourism once the content validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed, with its Cronbach's alpha being 0.903. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, T-tests, and structural modeling.The current study was conducted over a period of 15 months, which started from the beginning of the fall of 2022 and lasted until the end of the fall of 2023. The study area includes Sefidshahr, which is located in the cultural region of Kashan and Aran and Bidgol cities, belonging to Aran and Bidgol county in terms of Iran’s political division. 

According to the study’s results, the main strengths of Sefidshahr as a desert tourism destination at 99% confidence level were found to be salt geomorphological forms and sand dunes (with the average rate of 4.0789 and statistic rate of 32.057), ecotourism development potential, Biotourism and Agritourism (with the average rate of 4.2632 and statistic rate of 31.738), over 300 sunny days annually (with the average rate of 4.1053 and statistic rate of 24.468), Dastkand underground complex (an underground carved out city) and the Mehrkadeh Narseh (a historical site) (with the average rate of 4.2105 and statistic rate of 33.421), the existence of a world-famous disabled painter (with the average rate of 4.2368 and statistic rate of 24.264), the organization of various attractive rituals and religious ceremonies (with the average rate of 4.0526 and statistic rate of 21.094), historical and traditional context of the city (with the average rate of 4.0541 and statistic rate of 24.695) and religious attractions (with the average rate of 4.0263 and statistic rate of 25.529), respectively. Moreover, easy accessibility to the tourist attractions of the surrounding areas such as Fin Garden, Sialk Hills, Vigol ancient site, the historical houses of Kashan and Aran and Bidgol, and the underground city of Noushabad (4.1316 and 27.241) was found as the most important opportunity in Sefidshahr.As for the structural models, the main influential factors were reported to be the traditional view of the Indigenous community (0.99), conducting of scientific and applied research (0.95), allocation of governmentally decided budget to the entities responsible for ecotourism development (0.94), access to the North-South railway (0.93), the presence of natural attractions (0.90), proximity to the pleasant weather areas of the Karkas Mountain (0.90), the presence of large government organizations and decision-making NGOs (0.88), general national policies set for attracting international ecotourists (0.88), the diversity of tourism services centers (0.84), marketing of ecotourism products and its branding (0.84), Dastkand underground complex and the Mehrkadeh Narseh (0.82), lack of governmental ecotourism associations (0.82), the historical and traditional context of the city (0.80), and the presence of local private ecotourism houses (0.72), respectively.

The proper management of the aforementioned capabilities can help develop desert ecotourism and overcome the obstacles in the path of sustainable tourism development in Shafidshahr. Therefore, desert tourism planners for Sefidshahr need to focus on removing obstacles to the development of ecotourism and desert geosystem, training skilled and specialized personnel, reinforcing the infrastructure, advertising, and branding, seeking to achieve relative stability in the development of desert ecotourism in the region.

Health tourism as an economic development strategy in countries where medical tourists spend more than others to improve their health has increased the income and gross national product. In this regard, Kashan city, with its numerous medical centers with international licenses, has a high potential in developing medical tourism at the national and regional levels. Therefore, the present study has structural analyzed the feedback of health tourists regarding the behavior of medical centers in order to evaluate the obstacles of medical tourism in the hospitals of Kashan city.

This research is an appelied study in terms of practical purpose and is a survey and analytical study in terms of method and type. The data collection tool is a researcher-made questionnaire with 5 indicators and 61 variables, which was completed by 308 medical tourists in Kashan medical centers after confirming validity and reliability with Cronbach's alpha 0.807. Data analysis was done through t-test, Tukey's and structural equation modeling.

Results showed that the usage of famous doctors with a t-statistic of 106.59 is the best factor in the reason for choosing a medical center. The variable of disease diagnosis and therapy methods with a t-statistic of 84.50 is the best factor in the satisfaction from services, and the variable of patient companions' access to comfort facilities with a t-statistic of 119.26 is the best factor in the satisfaction from facilities. The variable of reaching the health center through land routes with a t-statistic of 36.38 is the best factor in the access to hospital. Also, the indicators of the reasons for choosing center, satisfaction from services and awareness methods have the highest effect with factor loadings of 0.99, 0.94 and 0.7, respectively. In return, indicators of satisfaction from facilities and access methods have the lowest effect with factor loadings of 0.24 and 0.34 respectively.

As a result, it indicates that the presence of experienced doctors with a brilliant treatment record plays a positive role in attracting medical tourists. Also, it can be stated that the comfort facilities of medical centers can play a role in their acceptability from the view point of health tourists as much as medical services. Therefore, for the development of medical tourism in Kashan city, strengthening the facilities of health tourism and transportation infrastructures in the region is the first priority of planning to remove obstacles.

Dust storm is one of the desertification and land gegradation consequences especially in arid and hyper-arid regions of the world. Fine particles released from the Earth's surface can be released several kilometers and subsequently over long distances, sometimes even across continents. These particles play a key role in the Earth system by affecting the radiation balance as well as forest and ocean ecosystems. Weather is often considered as the main factor influencing the occurrence of dust storms. Dust storms have increased in recent years mainly due to continued droughts and global warming. Temperature is an important variable in climatilogy in terms of its direct effect on weather variables such as pressure, wind movement, cloud formation and precipitation. Based on previous studies, the increase in temperature along with the decrease in rainfall and the increase in wind speed provide the conditions for the creation of dust storms. In general, the review of the studies conducted in the field of evaluating dust changes and the effect of temperature parameters on it shows that it is possible to conduct these studies from different perspectives and methods. Therefore, it is necessary to find a comprehensive view on dust and factors affecting it by reviewing and evaluating the results of other studies so that the phenomenon can be controlled and managed. The number of dusty days in Khuzestan province is significant and has increased in recent years. The reason for that is its proximity to the great deserts of the neighboring countries. Therefore, this province is one of the challenging areas of the country in the field of dust management and control. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the trend of dust changes and the effect of temperature on this phenomenon. The results of this study help to better understand the phenomenon of dust in Khuzestan province.

In this research, three data groups were used including the monthly average temperature of 13 meteorological stations in the study area, the monthly average land surface temperature (LST), and the monthly average aerosol optical depth (AOD). First, the trend of dust changes was evaluated using the Mann-Kendall test. Then, the relationship between temperature parameters and dust was investigated using the correlation between the AOD in a buffer of 5 km around the selected stationwith temperature parameters including monthly average temperature and average monthly LST in buffers of 5, 10 and 20 km around the selected station.

The evaluation of the average changes in the buffer of 5 km around the selected stations showed that in the months of February, July, December and April, no increasing trend was observed in any of the stations and even in the month of April, there was a decreasing trend in two stations. The trend of AOD changes was increasing with a probability of more than 90% in the months of August, September and November in seven, March in five, October in four, January in three, May in two and June in one station. The correlation results of temperature parameters and AOD showed that a very strong correlation between average LST and AOD has occurred only in the three months of May, June and July in different buffers. There are the highest number of strong correlations in the months of May to August between temperature parameters and AOD. Also, the highest number of very weak correlations occurred in April, March, November, and December. The highest number of very weak and weak correlations are related to air temperature (85 and 47 numbers, respectively). This shows that LST is more important than temperature in evaluating changes in dust intensity in the study area.

According to the results of this research, it can be said that air temperature has a weak correlation with dust, and most of the strong and very strong correlations occurred with the average LST in different buffers, which shows that LST is more important than temperature in evaluating dust intensity changes in the study area. In general, evaluation and monitoring of dust changes can be effective in identifying new dust sources as well as evaluating wind erosion, dust control, and management activities. Therefore, it can be suggested that an online and up-to-date system based on remote sensing and artificial intelligence be designed and presented to evaluate and monitor dust changes. In this case, the management of the dust phenomenon in Iran will be more targeted and the dust sources can be identified faster. On the other hand, one should pay attention to the factors affecting these changes and evaluate their effect on dust.

Nowadays, food has found a special place in the tourism industry and most restaurants, hotels, and residences promote their food culture. Furthermore, Food is one of the main motivations for tourism, and Iran is considered one of the main schools of food with its variety of food, drink, and bread. Therefore, the need to deal with food tourism is very important in the development of tourism. Therefore, the aim of this study is to measure the effect of native foods on the development of food tourism in traditional restaurants in Tehran, which is practical and descriptive-analytical research. For this purpose, a researcher-made questionnaire with four indicators of restaurants' spatial distribution, interior space, native food, and tourist attraction was used. Questionnaires were completed by 350 domestic and foreign tourists and 250 managers of traditional restaurants in Tehran in the year 1400 and the sampling was done randomly. The questionnaire's validity and reliability were confirmed with Cronbach's alpha value of 0.859, respectively. The data analysis was done through one-sample t-test, LSD, and structural equation modeling. The results showed that in the index of spatial distribution, the factor of the proximity of traditional restaurants to historical attractions with a value or factor load of 0.56 and respect for the spatial distribution of traditional restaurants with a factor of 0.3 had the highest and lowest effects, respectively. In terms of the local food index, the attractiveness of food variable had the highest effect with a factor of 0.67, and the use of Tehran local foods in traditional restaurants has the lowest effect with a factor of 0.18. In terms of the indoor space, inducing a sense of relaxation with a factor of 0.57 had the highest effect, and tourists' knowledge of local foods had the lowest effect with a factor of 0.1. In terms of the tourist attraction, diversity in preparing and serving local foods with a factor of 0.67 has the greatest effect, and sharing the experience of serving local food with others had less importance with a factor of 0.44. As a result, it can be stated that the presence of native foods in traditional restaurants of Tehran can be very effective in the development of gastronomy tourism industry

Ecotourism is closely related to the environmental potential of the ecosystem. Therefore, the feasibility study of suitable zones for ecotourism can help identify the relevant capacities, improve the developmental programs, protect the environment, and sustainably develop tourism, especially ecotourism. Moreover, more accurate identification of suitable zones for ecotourism and careful setting of well-designed plans to enable the zones’ potential in this regard seems to be an effective solution, playing a key role in sustainable development, improvement of the living standards in target communities, and maintenance of the ecosystem’s natural balance. Considered as a tourist destination in Iran, Kashan City enjoys a wide range of tourism capacities in terms of resources, attractions, infrastructures, facilities, etc. However, the ecological potential of the region has not been assessed scientifically in terms of ecotourism development. Therefore, this study sought to evaluate the ecological potential of Kashan City for developing centralized extensive ecotourism so that appropriate plans could be set for developing nature-based tourism, taking advantage of the city’s landscapes as the natural potential for sustainable development.

The current study attempted to assess the ecological potential of Kashan City for developing ecotourism using spatial analysis via ArcGIS, ENVI, and Google Earth software. Moreover, the tourism development model was used to assess the environmental potential of the study area. The criteria used in this regard consisted of climatic factors, including temperature, sundial, wind velocity, and precipitation. landscape factors such as slope, aspect, elevation, bedrock, and soil order, and ecological factors such as vegetation density, greenness value, plant height, and species were also taken into account. On the other hand, a set of base maps, a digital elevation model, spatial data, satellite images, climatic data, field surveys, and library studies were used to collect the required data. Finally, after providing the digital layers of the aforementioned indicators and applying the thresholds, the areas for developing ecotourism were classified into three categories, including highly suitable, suitable, and unsuitable areas.

The results of land suitability analysis for developing ecotourism in Kashan showed that 1859.58, 2690.27, and 476.97 sq. Km (42.2, 6.06, and 84.84 percent) of the total study area were highly suitable for ecotourism in terms of climatic, landscape, and ecological criteria, respectively. Moreover, 1859.58 and 2730.29 sq. Km (42.2% and 61.97%) of the region were highly suitable zones for extensive ecotourism in terms of climate and landscape criteria, respectively. On the other hand, the final results of the feasibility study for ecotourism development in Kashan city revealed that 60.63 and 39.34 percent (1730.86 and 2667.71 sq. Km), and 63.09 and 22.65 percent (2778.82 and 997.63 sq. Km) of the region enjoyed highly suitable capabilities for centralized extensive ecotourism, respectively. Furthermore, as can be seen in climatic factors maps, the northern to southeastern regions (as a continuous zone) have the highest land capability, and the western to southern areas have the lowest land capability in terms of extensive tourism development. Considering the same influence of climatic status on centralized and extensive ecotourism, the spatial distribution of proportional classes was found to be the same for both types of ecotourism zones. Moreover, as far as climatic factors are concerned, wind velocity and precipitation maps suggested the highest spatial diversity and temperature and sundial maps showed the least spatial diversity. On the other hand, considering their distinct role in the type of ecotourism and different alteration threshold of each parameter, the landscape factors offer a greater variety than the climatic ones. On the other hand, the slope, aspect, bedrock, and soil order maps revealed the highest spatial diversity, while the elevation map suggested the least spatial diversity. The high spatial diversity among vegetation-related factors could be attributed to the distribution of plant species (from shrubs to trees), the extent of greenness, vegetation density, plant height, and the range of changes in tourism classes in terms of such indices. In general, the highest land suitability belonged to the areas with maximum greenness.

The analysis of land suitability maps for the development of extensive centralized tourism in Kashan City suggested that the city was highly suitable for the development of various types of nature-based tourism, including ecotourism, mountain sports tourism (mountaineering and rock climbing), agricultural tourism, medical tourism and nature therapy (sand therapy, halotherapy, and desert tourism), bio-tourism (species and gene biodiversity), astronomy tourism, rural tourism, etc. Moreover, regions covered with vegetation are highly appealing for all types of tourism, especially if they are located in arid lands with natural shrubs and trees. On the other hand, more than 84% of the study area was found to be suitable for ecotourism development in terms of climatic and landscape factors, indicating the lack of vegetation in the region, which is quite justifiable as it is located in an arid land with a dry climate. In contrast, the highly suitable areas for ecotourism development are scattered throughout the region with a focus on the center, south, west, and east of the study area, most of which are covered with agricultural lands and vegetated mountainous areas. Furthermore, it could be argued that due to the reputation of Kashan City for its Rosa damascene flowers, the city’s agricultural areas are suitable places for agricultural tourism, bio-tourism, event tourism, and flower and rose festivals.

Shoush Danial (AS) city as one of the areas with many tourist attractions has desired potential for tourism planning and development. Therefore, purpose of this research is to analyze value of tourism heritage of this region using modified Periera and assessing their life cycles through Butler’s model and Doxey’s irritation index. For valuation analysis, a questionnaire based on modified Periera was compiled that at first level, the scientific criterion was in form of inherent capability (maximum of 5.5) and complementary capability (maximum of 4.5) and management criterion in the form of productivity capability (maximum 7) and protection capability (maximum 3). Life cycles of tourist through Butler’s model during the stages of exploration, involvement, development, consalidation and stagnation, and behavioral responses of human societies based on the Doxey’s irritation index were studied in cases of interest, indifference, agitation and hostility. Results showed that sites of Danial Shrine (63.35%, consalidation and interest), Karkheh protected area (60.7%, exploration and interest), Shoosh castle (60.5%, development and interest), Choghazanbil (57.95%, development and interest), the Shoush ancient hills of (57.9%, development and indifference) and Dea’abel Khozaie tomb (56%, involvement and interest) ranked from 1 to 6 tourism development. In contrast, the haft tappe ancient hills (45.65%, exploration and indifference) and Fath-al-Mobin battlefield (44.15%, consalidation and indifference), because their value is below average (50%), need to support the strengths and opportunities and eliminate the weaknesses and threats. These rankings indicate the importance and productivity of these tourist sites proportionate of their potential.

  Health tourism is based on natural resources (salt lakes, hot springs and minerals, mud, sludge therapy, medicinal plants). This study aims to locate areas prone to developing health tourism (salt) Salt Lake. Aran and Bidgol with emphasis on the construction of salt therapy sites by AHP method and using GIS.

 This research is an applied type and its method is spatial data analysis. The method of data collection is two methods of field studies and the use of basic maps and satellite images. First, the criteria and sub-criteria of the location model for the construction of a salt therapy site were determined. Then, their scoring was done through a hierarchical analysis model and expert opinions. After preparing the layers of the indicators and applying the points obtained from the model to them, the weighted layers of the criteria were obtained, which combined led to the preparation of a suitable layer for the salt therapy site. Finally, to determine the optimal proportional location, the range of proportional layers was classified into 5 priorities. The results showed that the area of floors with the potential to build a salt therapy site includes; No potential 3056, low potential 1919, medium potential 10973; High potential 3413; The potential is very high 1357 square kilometers.

The result of the location model indicates that the acceptable level of the Salt Lake has a high potential for the designed model

The first step in health tourism is recognizing capabilities. The aim of the present study is to assess the feasibility of Aran and Bidgol salt lake health tourism with emphasis on the construction of a salt therapy site. This research is of applied type and its method is spatial data analysis. The method of data collection is two methods of field studies and the use of basic maps and satellite images. First, the criteria and sub-criteria of the location model for the construction of a salt therapy site, including: access (access to tourist attractions), access to raw materials (salt), access to accommodation and welfare and urban planning; Landscape (land use), protection of natural resources (desert national park), restrictions (distance from salt mines and distance from swampy areas) and hazards (distance from faults and distance from aqueducts) were determined. Then, their scoring was done through hierarchical analysis model and expert opinions. After preparing the layers of the indicators and applying the points obtained from the model to them, the weighted layers of the criteria were obtained, which combined led to the preparation of a suitable layer for the salt therapy site. Finally, in order to determine the optimal proportional location, the scoring range of the proportional layers was classified into 5 priorities. The results showed that the area of floors with the potential to build a salt therapy site includes an average potential of 10973; High potential 3413; The potential is very high 1357 square kilometers. Areas located in the east of the region and areas near the access route in the central part of the region have more potential. Designed to have. Existence of natural, historical-cultural attractions and access to raw materials (salt) in the region can provide the conditions for the construction of a salt treatment site.

A huge influx of tourists on weekends from overcrowded metropolitan cities unable to provide tourists with the leisure needs of parks and natural areas to take advantage of the tourism potential of planners has led planners to capacity-building tourism development and location. Because the expansion of tourism has been accompanied by environmental and ecological incompatibilities. The capacity to find suitable places in this type of tourism is considered not only as a means of promoting the socio-economic levels of indigenous peoples, but also because of its conservation practices as a management strategy experienced in the fields of natural resources, its conservation and protection. Provides.  It can be said that optimal and principled utilization of land natural resources and land use regulation based on its (ecological) natural ability play an important role in managing and preventing environmental degradation in the direction of sustainable development. In this study, it has been attempted to identify suitable areas for tourism development within the Potas Khor and Biobank Complex by applying GIS and ECO assessment. Finally, estimate the actual tourist reception capacity in the area.

This research is a kind of applied research and spatial-comparative analysis.
Combining library studies, ground data and climatic statistics for meteorological stations and field surveys were used to collect the data. Data analysis and final evaluation of the environmental potential of the area in terms of identifying potential areas of extensive recreation based on the ecological model of tourism development. To achieve the purpose of the study, GIS and Layer Overlay technique were used as a suitable tool for land evaluation and site feasibility. For this purpose, first, the data of slope parameters, slope direction, soil grade, bedrock, vegetation, temperature, sunshine hours, constraints and accessibility were obtained. Appropriate areas were plotted from the perspective of each parameter. Then, by integrating the maps of the prone areas, the final development plan of the ecotourism was developed. In addition, tourism reception capacity has been evaluated and measured in two dimensions, physical and effective reception capacity.

In order to achieve sustainable development, it is necessary to describe and evaluate the state of the environment and resources prior to any planning. The importance of land evaluation is that if the land does not have the potential ecologically appropriate for a particular land use, the implementation of that plan will not only improve the condition of the area but will also result in greater environmental degradation. Since tourism is closely related to the environment, assessing the environmental potential in this area, if properly implemented, will modify plans and prevent failure in the development of the tourism industry, as well as unpredictable environmental degradation. Reduces and prevents it. To this end, it is inevitable to conduct preparatory studies in any type of land use, including ecotourism. One of the most important stages of ecotourism preparation is determining the ecological potential of the land for tourism development. Evaluating the ecological potential of tourism development involves predicting or measuring the quality of land for the establishment and expansion of recreational land uses and determining its management needs. In addition, tolerable capacity is one of the methods used to estimate the amount of permitted activity in tourism areas. In other words, the concept of Sustainable Capacity was used as one of the methods of control and monitoring of destination land in order to optimize and adjust the threshold of acceptable environmental changes in the host areas. The capacity of the board at the ecosystem level is the level or extent at which a process or environmental variable within a given ecosystem can be changed without the structure and function of that ecosystem going beyond acceptable limits. Therefore, in this study tourism reception capacity has been evaluated and measured in two dimensions of physical and effective reception capacity. Physical reception capacity is the maximum number of visitors who can be physically present at a given location and time. Actual board capacity is the maximum number of visitors to a resort that, given the limiting factors resulting from the specific conditions of that location and the impact of these factors on the physical board capacity, are permitted to visit that place.

Based on the results of the study, the study area has ecological potential for natural tourism development, so that the zones are very suitable and capable of tourism development of 1764 km. 3316 km of the area are zones that are in good condition for tourism development. The average tourism development capability is 20% of the area. Also 2260 km with poor capability and 1403 km with no capability for tourism development. The results of calculating the actual tourism reception capacity in the region indicate the acceptability of 8894 tourists in the study area.

Trend of vegetation in typology scale has remained uncertain especially in arid ecosystems. Therefore, we aimed to asses two vegetation indices including as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI). Trends and their rates of indices in vegetation types were analyzed by the Mann–Kendall test and Theil–Sen trend estimator. To this end, first we determined the typologies maps of Sirjan Plain catchment based on field operations then, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) monthly data with the spatial resolution as 250 m × 250 m from 2000 to 2019 were organized into the NDVI and EVI time series to investigate the trend. The results showed that some vegetation types which had not a distinct trend, were random and time-independent however, the Alhagi camelorum type demonstrated the EVI and NDVI annual increase by 0.0009 and 0.0011 year-1 respectively. The other types that changed dimensionally associated with stochastically, had different slopes of increase according to Theil–Sen estimate. The most increased rate of the NDVI was attributed to Artemisia sieberi- Amygdalus lycioides- Ebenus stellata type (0.0015 year-1) whereas, for the EVI Artemisia aucheri-Astragalus parrowianus, Zygophyllum eurypterum- Artemisia sieberi- Astragalus arbusculinus, Dendrostellera lessertii-Noaea minuta, Artemisia sieberi- Zygophyllum eurypterum and Cornulaca monacantha-Salsola orientalis types were increased by 0.0008 year-1. Of note, sudden NDVI and EVI changes (out of confidence level of Theil–Sen estimate) were observed for majority of types especially in 2008 and 2017. More investigations on environmental data and human activity in the mentioned years affecting as turbulator of majority of types, are recommend.

Mining is considered one of the dimensions of development that human activities affect ecosystems. In land sustainable management (LSM), ecosystem changes that occur in areas during mining -as one of the appropriate measures to determine the ecological vulnerability- is very important. In the present study, based on ecological sustainability, environmental degradation model of Tabas city were evaluated and classified. In this regard, a set of environmental factors including topography, vegetation, climate, groundwater, soil, and geology data layers were prepared using satellite images and stationary data. According to the results, environmental factors of topographic, precipitation, and vegetation have the highest sensitivity, respectively. According to studies, mines accounted for 15.3 percent of the study area. Most exploratory mines were classified in a semi-sensitive class. Soil and geological (edaphic) factors with the highest ecological limitation were more diverse than other factors in this region. Accordingly, due to the high sensitivity of the soil and the possibility of erosion, especially in areas with low vegetation or barren lands in eastern and southwestern areas that have more vulnerable, should be less priority in mining activities.

 In the present era, planners are required to adopt appropriate policies for the proper deployment of land uses in the form of principles of sustainable land management. In this regard, the necessity of locating site of major commercial centers is to a great extent considered as one of the influencing factors on cities economic success.

Shopping auto mall centers require proper site selection in order to prevent the dispersion of their service centers due to the widespread provision of services and the growing need of citizens for cars. Therefore, the present study aimed to locate the construction site of an auto mall shopping center in Gaz-e-Borkhar.

The research method is based on spatial data analysis based on comparative studies and field evaluations. The selected criteria included access to services and communication ways, hazards in terms of privacy and flooding, landscape and climate form whose digital layers were prepared based on spatial maps and data, and were analyzed in ArcGIS software environment. To determine the relative weight of the parameters, quantitative analysis was performed and prioritized by pairwise comparison. Finally, by combining the layers based on their weights through weighted means method, the zoning map of the area was prepared for optimal regions to create a shopping auto mall center.

The results of the research categorized the study area into five zones ranging from very appropriate to very inappropriate to construct a shopping auto mall center. Zones 1 to 3 due to low land use, and Zone 4 due to intersection with the agricultural lands were not ranked as optimal. But, the 5th zone (very suitable) because of the intersection with the residential areas and the existing aqueducts, was classified into 4 sites from south to southeast of Gaz-e- Borkhar. Respectively, Site 1 was very desirable (82.593 hectares), Site 2 strongly desirable (56.359 hectares), Site 3 desirable (21.158 hectares) and Site 4 with low desirability (11.346 hectares) were prioritized, respectively, as suitable places for constructing a shopping auto mall center. The first place (site 1) has the highest function and performance.

The present study has presented a spatial graphical representation of  Gaz-e-Borkhar city in the form of capable zones for constructing a shopping auto mall center that can be a comprehensive guide and scientific document for managers and planners to make the constructive decisions and to implement developmental policies.

Evapotranspiration is one of the most important parts of the water cycle (Boegh and Soegaard 2004). Precise prediction of actual evapotranspiration () is essential for various fields, such as agriculture, water resource management, irrigation planning and plant growth modeling. Therefore, accurate determination of actual evapotranspiration has always been a major concern of experts in these fields. Due to the limited number of weather stations and the fact that collecting ground information is both time consuming and expensive, remote sensing and satellite imagerycan be a suitable tool in determination of actual evapotranspiration (Brisco et al., 2014). Satellite productions are usually divided into images with low, medium and high spatial resolution (Rao et al., 2017). Surface energy balance is a method usually used in combination withremotely sensed spatial data for estimation. Information collected from various sources, such as remotely sensedimageries and meteorological data, are used in this method. The present studyinvestigatesspatial distribution on different scales (from field- to regional-) using remotely sensed imagerieswithdifferent spatial and temporal resolution. TheSurface Energy Balance System (SEBS) is one of the most important methods used for the estimation of in remotely sensed images (Ochege et al., 2019). This model needs thermal maps produced using satellite images. Daily maps produced with RS are usually very large, and their pixelsize is usually so large that it can provide the spatial diversity found in the basins with respect to the errors (Mahour et al., 2017).

In order to estimate the actual evapotranspirationin satellite images collected from Zayanderud basin,the effects of Co-Kriging downscaling of surface temperature (LST) were investigated in June 2017 using two different methods.To reach this aim, we first applied a co-kriging downscaling method to a low-power LST product collected from MODIS at 1000 meters. Then based on the results and using the SEBS system, the daily  was obtained from images with average spatial resolution (250 m).In the second method, map produced usinghigh resoultion satellite imageswas downscaled to medium resolution (250 m). For both methods, 250 m resolutionMODIS NDVI products were used as co-variables.Then, validation was performed using Landsat-8 imagery, and land surface temperature was extracted from its thermal bands. SEBS algorithm was used to determine in Landsat 8 30-meter resolutionimagery. Accuracy of measurements wasexamined based on a comparison between down scaledLST and maps (250 meterresolution).

In the present study, mean LST equals 3/312 K (SD = 1.74) and average daily equals 12.5 mm / day (SD = 0.86). In the downscaling phase, the relationship between LST parameters and and vegetation index(as a co-variable)was investigated.Moreover, to investigate the relation betweenhigh resolution variables and NDVI, we re-sampled LST and   variables from a 1000 mresolution to 250 mresolution.In250 mresolution, there is a negative linear relation (r=-0.85) between LST and NDVI, but the relation betweenand NDVI is positive (r = 0.80). Thus, lower LST (> 305k) indicates more vegetation (NDVI >0.3) inthe region, while higher LST results in lower NDVI or lack of vegetation. As a result, more vegetation can be observed in regions with higher(12 mm/day). Results indicated that the difference between average  downscaled-SEBS (12.56 mm/day) and reference  (13.11 mm/day) is negligible. The RMSE between the reference and the downscaled  equaled 1.66 mm/day (r = 0.73), and RMSE between the reference LST and the downscaled LST equaled4.36 K (r = 0.78). Thus,values obtained from two downscaling methods were similar, but the  obtained from downscaled LST showed a higher spatial variation. Therefore, LST has greatly influenced the production of maps using remotely sensing images, and Co-Kriging downscaling has been useful for providing daily  maps with intermediate spatial resolution.

Evapotranspiration downscaling using the co-kriging method is not significantly different from the SEBS product and the results are similar. The results of -SEBS method isalso acceptable, but the  derived from the SEBS algorithm is more variable due to the LST downscaling.

Site selection of future urban development is one of the most complex geographic decisions that is considered as optimal location determination in the field of land adaptation analysis. This process assesses the physical fitness and socioeconomic and social equilibrium so that urban dynamic has the least impact on nature and minimum environmental tensions. Purpose of this research is to model the future development of Shahr-e-Kord based on comparison of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Weighted Mean (WM) methods for analyzing land adaptation.

For this purpose, first, digital layers of elevation, slope, aspect, lithology, distance from fault and earthquake focus, density and distance from stream, temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind speed mean, maximum speed of dominant wind and frosty days, density and distance from routes, distance from health centers, hospitals, services and offices, higher education, elementary and secondary education, protected area, urban green space, and land use type were prepared. Then, to determine the relative weight of the parameters, they were analyzed using quantitative analysis and prioritized by pairwise comparison. Finally, by combining the layers based on their weights, using AHP and WM methods, they prepared a zoning map of the region.

Results showed that area of 128.72 and 184.74 km2 (31.6 and 55.22%) of the total study area, respectively, in AHP and WM methods has high to very high suitable for future development of Shahr-e-Kord. These zones are extending substantially to the central and northern parts of study area.

Although observance of ascending order of accuracy assessment index from very low to very high suitability zones in AHP confirms its results, but the results are reasonably due to the high accuracy of WM in prediction of high and very high suitability zones, as well as uniformity and their concentration in land suitability map.

Mining is one of the most effective human activities to change the situation in the region, particularly in arid area. The human demand for minerals and energy resources under the ground has made mining and exploration operations inevitable. Mining is one of the common human behaviors with numerous outcomes for the ecosystem along with serious environmental and ecological consequences in natural ecosystems such as desert areas, leading to positive and negative changes in these areas.

In this study, it has been sought to assess the ecological vulnerability of mining areas of Tabas using environmental degradation model. The current applied research methodology is based on spatial data analysis and spatial analysis tools in ArcGIS software environment. In this regard, altitude, direction and slope maps were extracted from ASTER, while NDVI map was extracted from MODIS to determine vegetation vulnerability. In the next step, necessary corrections, drawings and analyses were performed. Isothermal maps were used to produce climatic maps for the temperature factor and the border and coastal zone stations were considered for the precipitation factor. Soil maps were obtained from soil map files, while geological maps were taken from geological map files at a scale of 1:100000 and groundwater maps were used from baseline data of regional water stations. To quantify environmental degradation phenomena, severity and degree of ecosystem vulnerability, an environmental degradation model is developed. This model is one of the methods of modeling system analysis, introduced for the conditions of Iran.

The results of the analysis and summarization of the data from the study area elevation map show that the highest level is related to Class 1 and less than 1000 m (66%) and the second level is Class 2 with 28.77% of the study area is located. As more than 94% of the area is covered by one or two vulnerabilities. Therefore, the ecological factor of elevation in the region is not very sensitive. While regarding the factor of slope, 45.69% of the area was in the vulnerability codes of 2 and 3. Moreover, considering the geographic direction, over 47% of the area had high ecologic vulnerability and was placed in code of 3, while 86.55% of the area with a depth of less than 10 cm was in code5 regarding the factor of soil. In addition, 71.71% of the area was in vulnerability codes of 3, 4 and 5 regarding geological factors and 100% of the area was put in vulnerability code of 1 with average annual temperature of over 15 degrees Celsius for the factor of temperature. Regarding precipitation, 99.47% of the area had the vulnerability code of 8, while vegetation and low NDVI indicator of the area led to a vulnerability code of 4. Most of the area is located in the first class of EC (387-771 microseconds) with a vulnerability code 1. This code covers about half of the area. Finally, 99% and 98% of the area were assigned vulnerability codes of1, 2 and 3 considering the depth and quality of underground water, respectively. The scope of ecologic vulnerability in the overall area under study, 62.21% of the area was in vulnerability code of 2, and 30.36% in vulnerability code of 3. Accordingly, 11.6% of the area under study which covered 679579.9 acres was exploited for mining, out of which 658047.6 acres were located in vulnerable and semi-vulnerable ecologic areas with vulnerability codes of 2 and 3.

In the present study, soil and geological factors have the most ecological limitations. In this area, due to the high sensitivity of the soil, the possibility of erosion is high and special attention should be paid to soil erosion during the environmental management process. Particularly in areas with low vegetation or barren land, there is a wide range of restrictions. In addition, the vulnerability of these areas increases with decreasing vegetation density. The percentage of vegetation in the eastern and southwestern districts of Tabas is higher and with a sensitive vulnerability class. The southern areas of the city are more resistant than the north, but are scattered and scattered. So, ecological restrictions are expected to increase in the western and central parts of Tabas County due to the low density of vegetation. So there will be more destruction and erosion. Obviously, urgent decisions to protect sensitive areas to prevent damage to land during extraction and operation are essential. Therefore, the mining areas in Tabas County need special management attention. The mine exploitation area comprises 62% of the study area, most of which is located in sensitive and semi-sensitive classes with vulnerability codes 2 and 3. Also, soil and geological factors with the highest ecological limitation are more diverse than other factors in the region. Therefore, due to the high sensitivity of the soil and the possibility of erosion, especially in areas with low vegetation cover or desolate areas (eastern and southwestern areas) as if are most vulnerable, special attention should be paid to erosion during the mining process.

 Knowing type and percentage of each land use and land cover are considered to be a fundamental need for understanding and managing an area. Given the ever-increasing changes in land use, managers and experts need to be aware of past changes and developments. This is because, policy making and solving existing problems require detecting changes and determining the trend of changes over time. Satellite data is one of the quickest and least expensive methods available based on which researchers can produce different land use map. In this regard, Landsat Satellite imageries are one of the most important data sources used to study different types of land use and land cover changes, such as deforestation, agricultural expansion and urban growth. Extracting information from satellite imagery through classification is one of the most widely used methods. One of the most important applications of remote sensing data is for investigating and discovering changes in phenomena with a spatial-temporal nature (i.e. phenomena whose position and status changes over time). In fact, change detection is the process of identifying and determining the type and extent of land cover or land use in a given period of time based on remote sensing images. The present study seeks to monitor land use changes in Shahr-e Kord during the period of 1985 to 2017, and to prepare land use maps of the area using Landsat satellite imageries. 

In the present study, satellite imageries received from TM, ETM+, and OLI sensors of Landsat satellites in 1985, 2000, 2015, and 2017 were extracted from the United States Geological Survey (www.usgs.gov) and analyzed using different remote sensing software and geographical information systems like ENVI 4.7 and ArcGIS 10.4. In order to produce land use changes map, error correction was first performed. Then, images were processed using supervised classification method and maximum likelihood algorithm, which based on previous studies have a higher accuracy compared to other algorithms. In order to classify land use/land covers, a training sample was produced for  each land use based on field observations, topographic maps (1:25000) produced by Iran National Cartographic Center, Google Earth imageries, and visual study of the imageries. Then, classification results were corrected using auxiliary data, visual interpretation, experiential knowledge, and GIS techniques. Prior familiarity with the region, visual study of imageries, previous experience and field operations revealed that following land uses exist in the region and are detachable on the images as well: a) urban, b) agricultural, c) industrial, d) meadow, e) airport, and c) other land uses (including pasture, rocky areas and areas without any specific land cover). Confusion or error matrix –including overall accuracy, producer’s accuracy, user accuracy and kappa coefficient- was also used to evaluate the accuracy of the classification. Also, urban land use changes were monitored using image differentiation functions.

After production of land use maps based on imageries received in 1985, 2000, 2015, and 2017, area of the six land cover classes was obtained. Results indicate that during these four periods (1985 to 2000), urban, industrial, agricultural and airport land uses have increased to 13, 111.7, 5.2 and 3.4 km2 (1.26, 10.16, 0.51 and 0.4 % increase) respectively, while meadows and other land uses have faced a decreasing trend. In other words, it can be concluded that most changes during this 15-year period occurred in meadows and other land uses. Since development of the airport have resulted in destruction of a large part of meadows, this land use have faced more severe changes. Land use changes from 1985 to 2017 indicate that 7.8 km2 of agricultural lands were transformed into urban land use, 1.4 km2 to industrial land use, 1.08 km2 to airport and 7.7 km2 to other land uses. Also, 20.5 km2 of other land uses were transformed into urban land use, 203.1 km2 to agricultural land use, 0.03 km2 to dried meadows, 0.17 km2 to airport and 14.5 km2 to industrial land use. 2.8 km2 of meadows were also transformed into agricultural land use, 0.05 km2 to industrial land use and 2.04 km2 to airport. During this period, urban and industrial land uses have remained unchanged. 

Generally, results indicate that urban, industrial and agricultural land uses have developed over time, and these land uses have always had a positive increasing trend. While meadows and other land uses have had a decreasing and negative trend. This is due to the construction of Shahr-e Kord Airport, uncontrolled exploitations, digging wells and drought phenomena, which have led to a decrease in the level of water in aquifers and destruction of natural ecosystem in this region. In this way, previous meadows have turned into the source of intense dust generation in the city, which is a sign of desertification and ecosystem destruction. Due to drought and water scarcity in recent years, new deep wells have been dug with the aim of supplying water. This have occurred despite the critical condition of the meadows, and thus, have resulted in repeated protests by farmers and livestock farmers. Dramatic decrease in other land uses, including pastures, can also be attributed to recent droughts in Iran and intense dust generation. Increased population, increased human pressure on natural resources and also development of agricultural lands are among other causes of the present situation. Based on existing maps and satellite imageries, Shahr-e Kord is developing towards North and North West. In some areas, this development has occurred in pastures. Therefore, due to very high population density in the region which is still increasing, and also ongoing migration of villagers to the city, supplying appropriate accommodation and occupation for this population requires finding new suitable locations for urban and industrial development of the city. This development process should happen with correct management and according to the goals of sustainable development.

Dust storms as one of the environmental hazards of the arid regions of the globe, including the southern, southwestern, eastern and central parts of Iran, has caused many environmental problems that confirm the need for studying and crisis managing its in scientific and executive congresses. Therefore, the present study attempts to evaluate the effects of climate elements on temperature, precipitation, humidity, evapotranspiration and vegetation index on the frequency of dust storms in Yazd province during the period of 5 years (2009-2014).

So, after determining the synoptic stations of the area, the dust data were extracted based on the code of the present weather phenomena and the values of the climatic elements. In the next step, their spatial zonation was determined through the interpolation method. Then, using the MODIS images, EVI index data were calculated according to the principle of time matching. Finally, a variety of simple and multiple regression models were fitted to estimate the occurrence frequency of dust, and the most appropriate relationships with higher preference values were reported.

The results showed that there was a significant relationship between the total dust with evapotranspiration and relative humidity with a R square of 0.973 and 0.614 and the standard deviation of 24.104 and 92.477 at sig. level of 99% and 95%. Also, there is the maximum significant relation between external dust with evapotranspiration and relative humidity with a R square 0.968 and 0.621, and the standard deviation was estimated to be 0.173 and 75.427 at sig. level of 99% and 95%, respectively. Internal dusts with evapotranspiration and maximum temperature with a R square of 0.770 and 0.377 and standard deviation of 15.1751 and 64.22 have a significant relationship with sig. level of 95%. The results of the total, external and internal dust storms with climatic elements and vegetation cover showed a significant correlation with the R square of 0.994, 0.988 and 0.956 and the standard error of estimation of 18.13713, 24.2555551 and 10.49989 at sig. level of 99% and 95%, respectively, which indicates the systematic function of climatic elements and vegetation cover in the occurrence of dust.

Iran is frequently exposed to local and synoptically dust storm due to the geographical location of Iran. In recent years, dust storm frequencies and intensities have been increased significantly in Iran and especially in Isfahan Province, seriously disrupting human life and affecting the quality of life. This phenomenon is particularly increased in the spring and summer. Climate factors play an important role in dust storms. In this research, spatiotemporal changes of climate factors and dust storms were studied. Therefore, we analyzed climate factors (precipitation, temperature, wind speed and humidity) and dust storms frequency during 1992 to 2016. Poisson regression model was used for statistical modeling of temporal and spatial variations of dust and climatic parameters. According to the models, there was conformity between the results and the predicted values throughout the months. In addition, the results showed that wind speed played a major role in the occurrence of dust storms and had the highest coefficient. The results also showed that most of the dusty days are in the spring and then in the eastern part of the province, which is related to the local centers in the eastern part of the province and summer winds.

Drought and its effects is one of the world's major concerns. As one of the countries in the dry belt of the earth, Iran has always been and is facing environmental issues and natural hazards caused by drought. Therefore, this study aimed to monitor the aridity in Sistan and Baluchestan using remote sensing data and geographic information system techniques for over a period of 15 years (2015-2000). In this regard, the MODIS satellite images from 2000 to 2015 were analyzed by applying the yearly Precipitation Condition Index (PCI) and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). Then, the drought changes were evaluated using supervised classification method and difference images. The results showed that the years 2007 and 2001 with an area of 157383.06 and 306.05 km2 had the highest and lowest levels of precipitation, and also with an area of 49511.1 and 69233.83 km2 had the minimum and maximum level of drought, respectively. The most severity change of drought has been in time for the 2002-2001 period and the place also belong to parts of Khash, Iranshahr and Sarbaz who takes 194302.93 km2 of the province. Finally, the general trend of changes in precipitation and drought is decreasing and increasing, respectively, requiring the major planning of resources conservation and risk and crisis management to rehabilitate and maintain the ecosystem of arid regions.

Desirable spatial distribution of landuses, in the planning and management of landuse, is one of the fundamental parameters for the realization of sustainable development. In present era, due to population growth and technological advancement, the phenomenon of land degradation is taking place and expanding in form of conversion a large part of land with use of forest and pasture land to residential and industrial areas. Therefore, present study uses remote sensing and GIS data to monitor landuse change in Mobarakeh during the period of 30 years (1985-2015).

To achieve goals, Landsat satellite images, MSS and OLI sensors from 1985 and 2015 were used. Thus, after preprocessing steps including the radiometric and atmospheric correction, band stack, mosaic images and separating the study area, the images were classified using maximum likelihood method and landuse map was prepared at two time intervals. Then, variation type of each landuse was estimated using image difference method over the period 1985 to 2015 and their area was calculated.

Results showed that area of industrial land which was 9.16 km2 in 1985, was increased to 20.33 km2 in 2015. During this period, area of agriculture, range and forest lands have been reduced 38.75, 18 and 1.45 km2 (5.09, 2.37 and 0.19%) respectively, and extent of industrial, urban, degraded and barren lands have been expanded 11.17, 9.46, 16.14 and 7.1 km2 (1.47, 1.24, 2.12 and 0.93%) respectively.

landuse changes from agriculture and rangeland to industryial and residential lands at the 7.46% during the three decades from 1985 to 2015 has led to more intense exploitation from ecosystem resources and ultimately caused instability in Mobarakeh. Therefore, in order to apply correct environment management in this area, it is necessary to restrict any action, such as landuse change, so that it does not result to more severe ecosystem degradation.

About one quarter of world’s deserts are covered with quick sands, whereby, sand fields are the most common landforms. The movements of the sand fields are considered as a threat to the roads, natural resources, urban areas, agriculture and infrastructure.Factors such aspoverty of vegetation, increasing of drought due to global warming have led to the dynamic of sand fields with different speeds in manydirections that threat the transportation, health, economic and human activities. Thus, the spatial-temporal monitoring of sand fields dynamic behavior and identifying their directions of development are of great importancein the management of dry regions and conservation of natural resources. Therefore, the aim of this research is the Multi-temporal monitoring of sand field dynamic behavior in the west of Damghanplaya from 1972 to 2016, in the form of three 15-year period through data and remote sensing methods. Damghanplaya Basin with an area of 18070.918 km2issituated between Toroud-ChahShirin Horst and the Alborz Mountains with an elevation of 2319 and 3884 meters respectively. Its general slope is towards the center of Damghan desert with an elevation of 1028m. Damghan playa is a tectonic-sedimentary hole, which is presently influenced by different geomorphic and climatic morphogenetic processes. Because of the vegetation and precipitation shortage,the wind morphogenetic systems dominate other processes. Thus, several types of wind erosion landforms can be observed in this region. The study area is the western erg of Damghanplaya with an area of 71.155 Km2 which is situated in Damghan Basin in the north of Iran’s great central desert. The region is located between latitudes 35° 51´ to 35° 58´ N and longitudes 54° 13´ to 54° 25´ E. This is an applied research and its methodology is a combination of remote sensing analyses. In this regard, topographic maps with a scale of 1: 25,000, geological maps with a scale of 1: 100,000 and Google Earth’s satellite images were used first to determine the position of the study area. Then, spatial database was completed through receiving Landsat satellite images during the period 1972 to 2016. Sinceseveral series of remote sensing satellite images belonging to multiple time periods are needed for monitoring the dynamic behavior of the sand field, four series of Landsat satellite images, MSS, TM , ETM+  and OLI  sensors related to  three 15 year periods of 1972,1987, 2002 and 2016 respectively, were used in this research. The aforementioned images were obtained from the Landsat satellite archive on the American geological organization website (http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/). Then,color combinations, IHS transformation, and supervised classification of Maximum Likelihood methods were used to enhance the spatial area of the sand field, and the method of images difference and the calculation of the changing classes level  were used to examine the type and trend of the changes..
Findings and Results: The results show that the maximum and minimum area of the sand filed are observed in 2002 and 2016 with an area of 92.2641 and 49.2803 km2 respectively. The results of change detection show that there are three types of changes including increasing, decreasing, and no-changes. As it can be observed,the maximum area of the classes of change belongs to the no change class that the periods of 1972 to 1987 and 2002 to 2016 with the amounts of 58.3506 and 48.2841 km2 respectively,have the highest and lowest areas, while, the minimum area of ​​the classes of change belongs to the class of incremental changes that the periods of 1987 to 2002 and 2002 to 2016 have the highest and lowest areas with the amounts of 38.2833 and 1.0359 km2 respectively. The maximum and minimum areas of decreasing class of changes belong to the periods of 2002 to 2016 and 1987 to 2002 with the amounts of 43.9829 and 14.2693 km2 respectively. In this regard, the no-change and increasing change classes with the standard deviation of 5.0445 and 19.4699 respectively, have the minimum and maximum range of changes during the entire period of 44 years.
The results obtained fromstudying thetemporal trend of changes indicate the existence of a decreasing trend in the no-change and increasing change classes, and also the existence of an increasing trend in the class of decreasing changes.Descending trend of no-change class is uniform and continuous. In contrast, the trend ofincreasing and decreasing classes of changehas a periodic jump in the second time period (1987-2002), but their overall trend is almost uniform.
Discussion and Conclusion: Western erg of Damghanplaya has decreased by approximately 6.7225 km2 in 1987 compared to 1972. Most of this reduction has occurred in the southwestern and eastern parts of the sand field. The southwestern contraction of the erg is in accordance with the pediment and the sand harvesting area, the causes ofwhich are the sand transfer by local winds blowing from the southwest to the northeast, as well as the formation of the desert pavementfacies. In contrast, the eastern contraction of the erg is due to the increase in moisture content from the Haj Aligholiplaya and the increase in humidity caused by agricultural lands adjacent to the erg. In the second period, the trend was completely reversed and the sand field was expanded in 2002 by approximately 17.3659 and 24.0885 km2in 2002 compared to the years 1972 and 1987 respectively. This period is considered to be the most risky periods in terms of environmental hazards. In this period, major spatial expansion of the erg has taken place to the east and especially to the northeast. This expansion can be due to the increased drought severity and the continuation of dry periods and the release ofthe agricultural lands in some cases. In the third period, the situation has improved and the dynamic of sand has reduced, so that the extent of sand field has decreased in 2016 by 25.6178, 18.8952 and 42.9837 km2compared to the years 1972, 1987 and 2002 respectively, which represents the negative balance in the erg. In other words, the amount of the sand entering the erg is far less than that of the sand going out. In terms of location, the contraction of this period on the margins of the ergextends continuously and almost uniformly, but the largest contraction isobserved in the eastern, northeastern and southwestern parts. This decrease is due to the implementation of desert greening plans in the form of quick sands stabilization projects by planting Haloxylon. This indicates the positive and successfulfunction and role of desert greening projects. Also, due to the favorable natural and climatic conditions, the species of Haloxylon has been able to regenerate naturally in the area under cultivation. This has had a positive impact on the stabilization of  quick sands and the reduction of erg changes.

Skiing is one of the branches of sport tourism in winter sports sector. This kind of tourism today has become a special trend in the mountainous regions of developed countries and is known as the "white gold", which has a great contribution to the economy of the local communities of these countries. From a global point of view, ski tourism has become an industry, but the industry is now threatened by changes in climate change. The results of general atmospheric circulation models indicate a rise in temperature and a decrease in summer rainfall in Europe (Kaviani et al., 1995: 41). As global warming continues, some of the tourist destinations of skiing will be faced with the risk of decreasing in amount of snow and consequently loss of tourist's numbers. Therefore in such a situation, planning should be aimed at selecting the most suitable places for the construction of ski resorts with the least problem in terms of snowfall and other required parameters and the choice is made in principle and accurately. One of the problems that ski tourism in Iran faces is the installation of ski facilities and ski resorts in unsuitable places. specifying proper location for the construction of sports places and facilities in order to exploiting them optimally and efficiently in the present and future, is important that not paying attention to this issue in many cases leads to a lack of proper use of those places as well as spending too many to build them. One of the useful solutions in selecting and determining suitable sites for the construction of winter sports facilities and ski resorts is the using GIS.
Therefore, in this study, the software was used to locate proper areas for construction of ski resorts. This is an applied research. The research tool was a researcher-made questionnaire in which reliability was confirmed by calculating the incompatibility rate. The sample population of the study is 20 experts from the physical education and cultural heritage organizations of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province who respond to the questionnaire and have performed paired comparisons. In this research, the identification of suitable areas for the construction of a ski resort was carried out by weighting the criteria using the network analysis process and Super decision software. The network analysis process considers each issue and problem as a network of criteria, sub-criteria, and options. All elements in a network can, in any case, be linked together. In other words, in a network, feedback and interconnection between clusters are possible. Mapping is done by the ARC GIS software. In this regard, the most important measures affecting the locating of the ski resort were studied, which combination of these standards with the experimental knowledge of experts in the field of sports, identifies the proper locations for skiing. Sports tourism in our country is not well- developed and there is no systematic program for sport tourism marketing and despite the huge costs of the physical education organization, the National Olympic Committee, federations and other relevant institutions for conducting national and international sporting events, the great benefits of tourism development resulting from these events cannot be used, and there is always a loss of opportunities in this area. Assessing the environmental capability and determining the potential power and allocating appropriate proportions to it is a method that can provide a logical and sustainable adaptation between the natural power of the environment, the needs of communities and human activities in space. In this way, while protecting biodiversity, sustainable productivity of the land can be achieved. Optimal locating attempts to help decision-makers and planners by regulating indicators and factors influencing decision making and finding logical solutions in order to choose appropriate places to carry out activities. In locating, it is trying to set various parameters in relation to each other. In the present study, in order to identify suitable areas for the construction of a ski resort using the history of the research, interviews which have been made with the experts, three main criteria and eight sub-criteria have been obtained. It should be noted that due to the lack of snowflake network density in the country, the number of snow and frost days and the amount of precipitation have been used. . After obtaining criteria and sub-criteria, the indices were weighed using ANP technique and by combining the results with the layers generated in ArcGIS software, the final map of the suitable areas for skiing in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province was produced. In the study, after compiling the indices, the final score of each element was calculated using the ANP technique. In the next step, drawings were drawn and, by combining the weights obtained in the layers, the areas susceptible to the construction of the ski resort were located. In the study, after obtaining the indices, the final score of each element was calculated using the ANP technique. In the next step, needed maps were drawn and, by combining the weights obtained in the layers, the suitable areas for the construction of the ski resort were located. . According to the findings, about 12.9 percent of the province's area has the necessary conditions for the construction of a ski resort with an area of 1632.5 square kilometers, the main part of which is located in Koohrang city, the current most famous resort of Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari province; Chelgaird, is also located in this area. The specified level is considered appropriate in terms of technical conditions, which are considered as necessary indicators. If the research findings are combined with empirical knowledge of experts, the best places in the province for the construction of ski resorts will be located