پیمان کریمی سلطانی

Today Over the past few decades, the growth of urban societies and population growth have led to the spread of distorted cities into separate regions with its original texture and its development towards agricultural land and its surroundings. This unplanned development leads to land use changes in the periphery of the city. In the past few decades, the city of Qorveh has encountered with the development of urban and peri-urban settlements, which caused changes in the land use of the city of Qorveh and its surrounding areas. Analysis of land use change in Qorveh city can be effective in planning for future development of the city. Therefore, to attempted to estimate and determine land use change trends, Landsat satellite images with TM, ETM and OLI sensors were used for the three time periods of 1986, 2000 and 2018. These images were categorized, validated and detected by the Neural Network method to five floors; urban lands, arable lands, dry lands, water zones and Bayer lands. Finally, Markov Autoclave was used to calculate land use changes in Qorveh city for 2031. The results indicate that, continued land use change would result in the degradation of agricultural land use.

Katlekhour Cave near Garmab (Zanjan) and Saholan Cave in southeast Mahabad, two Iranian tourist caves, attract a large number of tourists annually. Indiscriminate entry and higher number of tourists into the fragile and sensitive environment of the caves increase the concentration of carbon dioxide and disturb the chemical equilibrium inside the cave and it also has devastating effects, like erosion and corrosion, on Karst forms inside the cave. Therefore, this paper attempts to investigate the annual dissolution rate of cave forms by simulating and reconstructing climatic conditions inside a controlled laboratory environment.

To achieve the objectives of the study, data on temperature, relative humidity and CO2 content within the caves in question during two 15-day periods in February due to low number of tourists and April due to high tourist presence inside the caves were collected using triple tool of temperature, humidity, and Co2 gauge model (AZ 77535). Next, by simulating the same conditions in a controlled laboratory environment, the amount of annual dissolution of the forms inside the caves was calculated using weighting method.

The amount of dissolution and scaling of forms is 0.9445 g / year for Katlekhour and 2.20 g / year for Saholan Cave. Of this amount, 0.7661 g is 81.12% of total dissolution for Katlekhour Cave and 1.6991 g is 84.45% for Saholan Cave are attributed to tourists’ presence.

Maximum presence of tourists in Katlekhour and Saholan Caves caused the micro-climates in which the increased level of the concentration of de-carbohydrate increases the temperature of cave and decreases the moisture. As a result of these changes, the formation process of karstic shapes within the caves is disrupted, resulting in the destruction and shattering of the forms.

The presence of tourists in the tourist- attracting caves has led to changes in the values of climatic elements in the caves, such as temperature and the percentage of relative humidity, as well as carbon dioxide concentration. Increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide resulting from the presence of tourists decreases the PH level of the environment and forms an acidic environment. Formation of an acidic environment inside the caves will give rise to dissolution and sheeting of the karstic structures within them. In order to investigate these changes, we selected the caves of Katale Khor and Saholan as two examples of caves of the country that are attracting a large number of tourists. In order to compare and investigate the influence of tourist on climate changing and carbon dioxide concentrations in caves, we collected data in February due to the low number of tourists and April due to the high presence of tourists inside the caves, by means of a three-purpose device for measuring temperature, humidity and CO2 (AZ 77535). Comparative findings regarding two months of February and April suggest that in both caves in April, as the number of tourists inside the caves increases, the concentration of carbon dioxide and the temperature have increased and the percentage of relative humidity has decreased. For example, in both caves the average of the highest carbon dioxide concentration in April is found in low altitude halls with its value 1508 PPM in Saholan cave and 1248 PPM in Katale Khor cave. The percentage of relative humidity is decreased in low altitude halls in the Saholan Cave by 2.5% and in the Kotal Khor Cave by 1.2%.

Caves, as important underground geosites, are considered among sensitive and fragile geomorphological structures (Mokhtari, 2015). The process of breathing in and out by the visitors causes a high accumulation of CO2 in the caves. Entering a great number of visitors into the caves increases the concentration of CO2. The more the time and presence of the visitors in the caves, the higher the accumulation and concentration of CO2 (Maleki et al, 2015). In this study, the Saholan Cave, as the second largest water cave, and the Katale Khor Cave, as the second popular tourist cave in Iran, that annually host a great number of visitors, were examined for changes in climate elements.

The data related to the concentration of CO2, temperature and relative humidity in maximum and minimum times for visitors’ presence was gathered. Considering changes in temperature, relative humidity and CO2 concentration in the halls and chambers of various sizes, and also for improving the accuracy, the space inside the caves were classed in three categories of low-height (height of ceiling between 0-2 meters from the surface of the ground), average-height (height of celling between 2-5meters), and very high (5 meters or more). Data collecting was done using a three-purpose device for measuring temperature, humidity and CO2 (AZ 77535) during two fifteen-day periods, was carried out, at the same time with, the minimum traffic of tourists in the caves (the Saholan and Katale Khor caves) in February and maximum tourist presence in the caves in April. Data collecting was done on a daily basis three times a day in the morning (before visitors’ arrival), at noon and night (after visitors’ departure) in both caves.
Discussion and

The data analysis showed that the presence of visitors in the cave during spring coincided with maximum walking of the visitors, increases CO2 concentration inside the halls, and the highest amount happens in small halls. Altogether, peak points registered for CO2 in different areas were exactly correspondent with days with highest number of visitors. Regarding the temperature, the range of changes showed an increasing trend from the morning until the night, and high temperatures in the corridors were correspondent with days with high numbers of visitors inside the caves. In the case of relative humidity percentage, there were times with a drop and decrease in humidity, that were exactly correspondent with maximum presence and high number of visitors inside the caves. Overall, relative humidity percentage inside the caves did not show much fluctuation.

Changing in climate elements inside the caves can produced following ramifications: corrosion of carbonate formations inside the cave. Impact on visitors’ health.. Maximum entering of the visitors into the caves creates sub-climates that according to the found results can increase CO2 concentration and cave temperature, and decrease the relative humidity. As a result of these changes, the process of karst formations inside the caves will be disrupted, and in some cases might cause destruction and fraction of these formations. Gradual destruction of amazing and well-shaped karst formations inside the caves slowly destroys and desolates the caves, and on the other hand disturbing the balance inside the cave and unleashing little amount of energy might upset the whole ecosystem of the cave. Thus, this phenomenon can endanger the condition of tourist caves of the country including Saholan and Katale Khor caves .
Keywords: Cave, Tourist, Saholan cave, Katale khor cave.

As the most tourist attracting water cave in the country, Ali Sadr cave, located in Hamadan-Kabdtar Ahang, attracts thousands of internal and external tourists each year. It is considered as one of the most well-known caves in the world not only for its beauty but also for the numerous tourists it attracts. As a matter of fact more than 12000 people visit the cave during warm seasons, especially on holidays and weekends. Due to a lot of breathings, simultaneous entrance of tons of visitors into the cave makes the carbon dioxide concentration increase. Mixing with relatively high humidity which is saturated or near to be saturated, they make an acid environment inside the cave, especially in the roof including a lot of gaps and tracks. This phenomenon leads to corrosion and shelling out the secondary shapes available inside the cave namely stalactites, stalagmites and curtains. The present study aims at finding the role of visitors in corrosion and shelling out the secondary shapes in Ali Sadr Cave based on the Weight method. Therefore, the related data such as temperature, relative humidity and the cave carbon dioxide are gathered in order to simulate the cave climate in controlled laboratory conditions.
In order to gather the related data to the role of visitors in climate elements variation and available Carbone dioxide inside the cave, the cave space is divided into two experimental region (visitors moving location) and controlled region (forbidden and uncleansed regions). Moreover, the tunnels, channels and lobbies are divided into three regions called low, middle, and high statures to increase the accuracy of data gathering and also considering different carbon dioxide concentrations in the channels and lobbies with different dimensions. The data were gathered by applying Co2 detector system type AZ77535 during a 30-day period in summer (at the time of maximum visitors’ entrance to the cave) and another 30-day period in fall (at the time of minimum visitors’ entrance to the cave). As the average data for Carbone dioxide, relative humidity, temperature and visitors portion in the data concentration increase and decrease were determined, the inside climate of the cave was simulated in the controlled laboratory condition. After precise determining of physical and chemical features, the disk stone samples, taken from three regions inside the cave, were tested in three glass chambers with different cycles during 60 days based on the numerical minimum, average and maximum of obtained carbon dioxide. The numbers were the result of a 60-day data gathering and the simulation of temperature and relative humidity in the experimental region inside the cave. After removing the samples from the glass chambers and determining exact physical properties, the solving and corrosion rates were obtained separately for natural and human influential factors based on weight method.
Result and The findings reveal that the amount of the dissolution and lamination of the secondary shapes inside the Ali Sadr Cave is 0.078 G/cm3 annually that 0.060 G/cm3 of this amount equals to 77% of the total annual dissolution of the tourists portion. The results of the variance analysis of the taken carbon dioxide from the inside of the cave show that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the experimental areas in the summer simultaneously with the presence of the maximum number of visitors in different hours has significant differences. However, these dioxide concentration differences are not significant in the salons and corridors with different height. In other words, the size and height of the corridors are not regarded so important in the caves visited by a large number of tourists, for the concentration of carbon dioxide is the same through the cave. As a matter of fact, the dissolution and destruction of the cave walls and shapes happen in the same rate and amount.
One of the most important phenomena which attracts thousands of tourists into the caves annually is the secondary interesting and fascinating shapes. The more gradual destruction of these wonderful shapes, the more decrease in the number of the tourists. In fact, the investment and advertisement which aims at increasing the number of the tourists not only can have a negative effect on the long run, but also can decrease the number of the visitors as a result of secondary shapes destruction in the cave. In the long run, this process will have significant effects on destroying the secondary Karst shapes inside the cave leading to decrease the stability of the tourism industry in this area.