mojtaba arasteh

Urbanization is a widespread phenomenon worldwide, especially in developing countries, and it has an irreversible effect on the environment and land use. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and understand urban growth patterns to guide future urban growth patterns toward sustainable development through appropriate spatial policies. According to this need, the present study aims to calculate the urban growth rate and identify the growth patterns and the resulting changes in the urban landscape pattern in Shiraz metropolitan in the period from 2001 to 2023. Using Landsat satellite images, satellite image classification maps were obtained in 2001, 2013, and 2023. After that, to increase the accuracy of measuring the growth patterns of Shiraz metropolitan, from the combination of 4 spatial criteria of urban expansion intensity index, Shannon entropy, landscape indices, and landscape expansion index, in general, and sub-scales (in 8 geographical directions and 2 km distances from the center) was used. The results showed that the growth pattern of Shiraz metropolitan is scattered and has intensified over time. It was also found that the growth rate and pattern of Shiraz metropolitan areas are different in each direction and distance. The urban expansion intensity index showed that the highest speed of expansion in these 22 years was related to the south, southwest, and northwest regions. Shannon's entropy and landscape indices showed that the northwest and south regions have the highest amount of dispersion. Finally, the landscape expansion index identified the dominant pattern of urban growth in Shiraz metropolitan as the edge expansion pattern. It was found that the highest percentage of outlying expansion also occurred in the south and northwest regions.

Participation of citizens in the process of urban management has a significant impact on the promotion of social capital, the effectiveness of executive policies of urban managers and the protection of the rights freedoms and also interests of citizens. The participation of citizens is significantly important; because with its application, different aspects of legitimacy, justice, effectiveness in policy making and implementation and protection of internal interests can be provided. The purpose of this research is to identify and prioritize factors affecting people's participation in the urban management of Bushehr. The methodology of this research is based on correlational research and quantitative techniques. The research case sample includes two traditional neighborhoods in Bushehr city consist of Sangi and Shekari district. The statistical population includes 200 residents of these neighborhoods (100 people per neighborhood) were selected as a sample. After the field survey and completing the questionnaires, the data were entered into SPSS software and analyzed with exploratory factor analysis and multivariate linear regression models. According to the findings, 23 indicators of participation with urban management can be categorized into 5 factors: "citizenship power", "participation effectiveness", "participation justice", "service participation", "beneficial participation", which in total, they explain 60% of the variance of local people's participation. The regression model also shows that the factors "justice in participation", "citizenship power" and "service participation" respectively have the greatest effect on the participation of neighborhood residents. From the comparison of the situation of the two neighborhoods, it can be seen that Sangi neighborhood has a better situation (0.18851) than Shekari neighborhood (- 0.19422) in terms of participation. At the end, based on the coefficient of influence of the factors in the regression analysis, the strategy for promoting the factors in Bushehr city has been explained.

Today, por ts are regarded as the entry and exit gates of every country, and their proper performance and high efficiency can play a very decisive role in the prosperity of the economy and changes in the spatial structure of cities and hinterland areas. To have one of the important factors in the evaluation of ports is their geographical location, equipment and performance, which indicates the difference in the level of efficiency, productivity and development of ports and, by nature, cities and hinterland areas. The purpose of this research is to identify, analyze and level, capacity, facilities and capabilities of the coastal ports of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman. The research method used in this research is descriptive-analytical using documentary sources and reliable internet sites. In order to rank the criteria and sub-criteria, the BWM model has been used, and the MABAC model is used to rank the development level of the ports. After a general review and comparison of the criteria and sub-criteria, among the coastal ports of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman located in the Middle East region, 20 ports of Bushehr, Asalouye, Chabahar, Shahid Rajaei, Shahid Bahonar, Shahid Haqqani, Dammam, Doha, Hamad, Muscat, Rashid, Jabal-Ali, Al-Hamriya, Manama, Mina Salman, Sitra, Shoaiba, Shoveikh, Doha and Al-Ahmadi were selected for the purpose of conducting research. The findings of the research show that Jabal-Ali port, as the largest port in the Middle East and the world in the city of Dubai, is at the first level of development among the 20 compared ports, in terms of the criteria and sub-criteria examined; Therefore, it can be said that despite the fact that Rashid Port is considered as the oldest port in Dubai, Jabal Ali Port has been affected by internal factors such as oil revenues and government strategies and external factors during the last two decades. Like the regional and global forces such as container construction, it has the highest level of development. This issue has been able to affect the development of commercial, recreational and oil port infrastructures on the coast of Dubai metropolis.

Regional transportation, especially between port-hinterland, plays an important role in the economic prosperity of the country and the efficiency of the supply chain of commudities. Due to the functional and geographical differences between the hinterlands, the impact of the performance of each port on the post-coastal regional development is different leading to the diversity of different types of spatial structure in the port areas. Due to this fact, many researchers who are working in various scientific fields focus on the analyzing the relations between ports and hinterland areas and explaining the changes occurred in the spatial structure of these areas. The purpose of this research is to systematic review of researches in this field and to classify the structure and content analysis of prominent articles during period of 1997 to 2022. All of articles downloaded from Scopus database and analyzed by VOSviewer software. A comparison of the results of this research shows that in terms of specialization and distribution of journals, “The Journal of Transport Geography” is one of the main attractive journals for the researchers of spatial geography of ports. In terms of the geographical scale of the studies, most of the researches in this field have investigated the spatial structure of port-hinterland as a national scale. In addition, the geographical areas are mostly focused on the East and Southeast Asia.In terms of spatial structure typology, two types of analysis have been proposed and used in the selected articles. The first type is morphological analysis of the port-hinterland structure. The components used in this type of analysis include the objective components of the spatial structure (center, corridor, and land use area); the second type is the functional analysis of the port-hinterland structure, in which it often includes the intangible components of space (interaction, regularity and spatial territory). The results of this research show that the set of theories of port-hinterlandcan be summarized in seven thematic axes: Relations between the hinterland, port and foreland; Regional development of ports; Dry and inland ports; Port-city interface; Connections between ports and corridors; Competition between ports and forelands; and Function of ports. Finally, by reviewing the methods and techniques used in the articles, we can find four approaches of positivism, neo-positivism, relationalism and criticism in the philosophical-historical evolution of the port-hinterlamd articles.

During the last century, ports of Persian Gulf become the most important storage, refining and transportation of crude oil, oil derivation, petrochemical products and also, business activities. Nowadays, due to functional diversity between ports, the impact of port activities on the development of urban spaces will be different, and this issue leads to structural differences of port cities. The purpose of this research is to identify the key variables affecting the relations and spatial structure of port-city in Dubai as the most thriving and successful port-city in the Persian Gulf. This research is based on deductive reasoning and carried out by analysis of cross effects with secondary data (results of other prominent articles) and also primary data (questionnaire). sampling method is based on purposive sampling and Micmac software was used to analyze the data. Output of Micmac software shows the position of the instability of the system. Therefore, the position of each variables in the conceptual model can be categorized to driver, linkage, dependent, and autonomous factors. The research findings indicate 4 variables (like as “income, cost and investmnets in port-city”) can be introduced as a driver factor, 5 variables (like as “advanced multimodal transportation in the port”) can be introduced as a linkage factor, 6 variables (like as “quality of living environment and desirable city”) can be introduced as a dependent factor, 3 variables (like as “environmental protection and sustainable development of the city-port”) can be introduced as an autonomous factor. The rapid development of Dubai can be explained by the purposeful distribution of revenues from trade and tourism

Recently the terms "governance" and "good governance" are being increasingly used in development literature. The concept of "governance" is not new. It is as old as human civilization. Simply put "governance" means: the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented). Nowadays, countries claiming democracy are trying to achieve sustainable urban development by applying a new approach called good urban governance. Good governance relates to the political and institutional processes and outcomes that are necessary to achieve the goals of development. The true test of 'good' governance is the degree to which it delivers on the promise of human rights: civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. The present study tries to analyze the situation of urban management in Iran (Shiraz) based on the issues of good urban governance. The research method is descriptive-analytical and based on documentary studies and field survey. The variables of good urban governance (consisting of 19 variables) were extracted from previous articles and they were used to design questionnaire questions. In this research quantitative and analytical model are used include exploratory factor analysis and multivariate linear regression. The process of selecting samples is purposeful and systematic, and the sample community was selected from among the regular visitors to the secretariat of the architecture and urban planning department of Shiraz municipality. Based on statistical principles and concepts, the number of samples is considered equal to 200 people. In the following, the data obtained from the questionnaires have been entered into the SPSS software. The output of the factor analysis model of good governance in Shiraz shows that it depends on improving the factors of "institutional capacity of organization", "transparency", "efficiency and effectiveness", "public acceptance", "citizenship" and "participation". Findings of this study show a considerable part of good urban governance factors and indicators have significant similarities with each other. But one of the differences that can be seen in this research with similar researches is the emphasis of this research on an important factor under the title of " institutional capacity of organization" in order to apply the concepts and criteria of good urban governance in the structure of local, regional and national governments. This factor emphasizes the important point that with the creation of institutional capacity in the society and the strengthening of non-governmental organizations, the two-way connection between the people and officials, which are the two main pillars of local management and urban development, has been accelerated other Governance factors. The main output of this study indicates that the two factors of "efficiency and effectiveness" and "transparency" play the most important role in achieving good urban governance. Also, in the case of Shiraz Municipality as the main body in the management of this city, the greatest challenge and distance to achieve good governance can be seen in the factor of "citizenship" and "institutional capacity of organization". In the following, some prominent suggestions are presented in order to promote good governance in the city of Shiraz: Changing the attitude of local managers towards city management as a dynamic, continuous process that requires the alignment of the interests of different groups; Facilitating people's presence and participation in city affairs and communication with managers; Increasing the sense of place and belonging through citizen participation in activities such as beautifying the environment; Citizenship education and familiarizing citizens with the concept of citizenship rights.

- COVID-19 has revealed gaps in health management along with a high rate of infectious diseases in informal settlements.
- We focused on three components and eight indicators of resilience to evaluate the performance of NGOs in the control of the COVID-19 outbreak.
- The vulnerability of informal settlements in the city of Urmia, Iran to COVID-19 was based mainly on economic-livelihood components.

In recent years, the global crisis of the coronavirus pandemic has placed cities and urban management in difficult conditions. Plenty of evidence and research emphasizes that the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 was severer in informal settlements due to the low quantitative and qualitative characteristics of these areas. These settlements are always encountered with many problems such as poverty and unemployment, lack of security and various social damages, socio-economic injustice, health-environmental problems, and lack of concern from the municipality. Furthermore, people living in these settlements face greater risks due to the high population density, improper waste management and low-quality drainage systems, and very poor health conditions and high rates of transmission of infectious diseases. In recent years, therefore, it has turned into one of the most important challenges for urban managers in these areas to examine the ways to address and control the spread of this pandemic disease and increase the resilience of informal settlements against it. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the promotion of the resilience of informal settlements in Urmia against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plenty of research investigates various indicators of resilience. This research is focused mainly on the explanation of the components and indicators of social resilience. Based on the theoretical framework, the three main components of social resilience include the socio-cultural, socio-economic, and environmental-physical components. In the following, the effective indicators for promotion of societal resilience in informal settlements are explained.
Elimination of the panic caused by problems. When a crisis occurs, residents of an informal settlement should not feel that they are alone, and it is necessary for government institutions and NGOs to support them.
Increase in the level of knowledge. Through a rise in the level of knowledge and information of the residents of informal settlements, appropriate conditions can be provided to control crises and increase their resilience.
Provision of education to everyone. In many cases, the conditions required for facing a crisis can be provided with inclusive, targeted education, especially upon social, economic, physical, and health crises.
Enhancement of participation. An important achievement of NGOs is to enhance public participation and increase social capital, which can establish a powerful link between the society and government.
Enhancement of coordination between people and executive institutions. A specific effective role of NGOs is to function as an intermediary between the government and society.
Financial and subsistence aid. The social, economic, physical, and health crises that occur in an informal settlement often lead to severer poverty and deprivation, where many families need direct financial and subsistence aid.
Employment. Assisting administrative bodies, NGOs are considered as appropriate trustees for the implementation of job preparation, vocational training, entrepreneurship, and marketing and creation of a business environment.
Public health. Through improvement of public health in an informal settlement, the quality of the environment can be raised, and the spread of infectious and pandemic diseases can be reduced.
The quality of the environment. The quality of the residential environments in these settlements is often low, and many citizens living in these areas do not have proper access to services, facilities, infrastructures, and public spaces.

This is a descriptive-analytical study with a quantitative approach. The research population includes all NGOs in the city of Urmia, Iran that are active in the field of countering COVID-19. The simple random sampling method was adopted using a lottery. The data were analyzed using descriptive mean statistics and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Friedman tests in SPSS.

The results demonstrate that the activity of NGOs to improve the resilience of informal settlements in Urmia against COVID-19 in the socio-cultural component is above average, with a score of 3.66. Moreover, the economic-livelihood component exhibits an average of 2.95, which is equivalent to average and below, and the environmental-physical component shows an average of 3.11, which is evaluated as a moderate score.
Hence, it can be stated that the NGOs in Urmia have failed to provide a balanced, coordinated, fair approach with respect to the socio-cultural, economic-livelihood, and environmental-physical components due to the lack of coherence and integrated management in the face of unexpected crises such as the COVID-19 disease. The similarity of this research to others lies in the unified, integrated, coordinated management of government and local institutions upon crisis. Moreover, most researchers emphasize the management authority and social power of NGOs. Generally, it should be stated that NGOs must be equipped with effective financial, support, and educational tools in order to increase the resilience level of the residents of the settlements against crises. They should be strengthened to facilitate institutions’ provision of financial services, economic empowerment, and job creation.

Overall, we conclude that NGOs have performed appropriate activities to improve the resilience of informal settlements in Urmia against the COVID-19 disease. However, their performance has been different in a comparative analysis of components and indicators. The results of the Friedman test on the indicators demonstrates that the NGOs in the informal settlements of Urmia have exhibited effective activities on most socio-cultural and environmental-physical indicators (such as essential skills against COVID-19, provision of sanitary products, prioritization of disadvantaged people, encouragement of the benefactors to help the poor, disinfection of the environment, and encouragement of residents to help clean their neighborhoods). However, most economic indicators have failed to function effectively. Finally, we suggest that NGOs focus on attraction of financial and economic support from the governmental institutions, because this study shows that this pandemic disease has the most tangible impact on the economy of residents of informal settlements. It is also necessary to pay particular attention to provision of incentives and financial support packages to protect the health and economic and social security of people living in these settlements.

Today, ports, as a communication bridge for the exchange of goods, play an important role in sea and land transport in creating integration in the post-colonial regions and establishing balance in the supply chain. In fact, each port has a different geographical location, equipment and function, and this has led to increased inequality in the development of ports and, by nature, cities and regions. The purpose of this study is to evaluate, identify and analyze the geographical facilities and capabilities of the ports of Bushehr province in order to develop the backward regions of this province. The research method in this research is descriptive-analytical using documentary sources, library. In order to weight and rank the criteria and sub-criteria, fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS models have been used. After a general review and comparison of criteria and sub-criteria, six ports of Bushehr, Assaluyeh, Kangan, Genaveh, Dayyer and Deylam in this province were selected from among the ports of Bushehr province which are located in the Persian Gulf. Findings show that Assaluyeh port is among the five ports compared in terms of criteria and sub-criteria in the first place. Therefore, it was selected as the most suitable port in the development of the southern regions of Bushehr province.

Nature-based tourism as one of the types of tourism can play an important role in the sustainable development of regions and also have important effects on improving the physical and mental health of tourists. Bandar Lengeh County has several natural capacities such as unique sandy, rocky and coral beaches, numerous islands, salt domes and unique mountain landscapes that indicate the proper capacity of this county for the development of nature-based tourism. However, it's potential and actual capacities have not yet been used effectively. The aim of this study is to determine the strategies for the development of sustainable tourism with an emphasis on nature-based tourism in the western region of Bandar Lengeh County. For this purpose, first, the internal factors (strength and weakness) and external (opportunity and threat) were determined using SWOT technique and the opinion of experts and then based on them, the strategies for developing nature-based tourism in the region have been identified, Finally, the strategies were ranked using the quantitative strategic planning matrix (QSPM) technique. The results show that strategies such as providing nature-based tourism equipment and facilities on the region's coasts, providing equipment for water sports and recreation on the region's coasts, and guiding tourists from Fars province, Kish island and the Persian Gulf countries to the region are more important in order than other strategies. The findings of this study can be considered by managers, decision-makers and planners in order to plan and develop nature-based tourism and subsequently achieve sustainable development in this region.

Many studies in the field of mental health suggest that the ordinary state of mind is significantly lacking mental awareness. It means that humans spend most of their time immersing themselves in memories or dreaming future. The concept of mindfulness is a topic that has become a concern of researchers in psychologyin recent years. The short definition of mindfulness is the awareness of current experience, its acceptance, and enjoyment. Despite the extensive research in the field of the psychological concept of mindfulness, the lack of mindfulness problems during the perception of the physical environment has been less discussed. In this regard, the main purpose of the present study is to present a model of mindfulness in urban natural recreational spaces. The operational purpose of this research is to prioritize the criteria of mindfulness in order to evaluate other similar environments and improve the quality of such spaces.

In line with the defined objectives, the authors of the present study planned a non-probable (purposive) sampling of pedestrians in the two natural recreational spaces of Tabriz: El Goli and Oun ibn Ali. The authors sampled 93 cases in the first space and 57 cases in the second space (total  150 cases). In the next step, by focusing on the context of the interviews, the necessary codes were extracted. These codes were then transformed into 6 main categories and 18 subcategories to make the model of mindfulness in the natural recreational spaces. The validity of the model was confirmed by the confirmatory factor analysis technique in LISREL software. Finally, the AHP technique was used to prioritize the categories and subcategories. The rating process was based on the relative frequency of categories in the interviews and average scores of thirteen native experts in the field of architecture and urban planning.

To obtain the categories and subcategories of mindfulness in the naturalenvironment, two questions were asked: 1) Why do you choose this natural environment for hiking or leisure and the overall enjoyment of the present?; and 2) What qualities or features of this natural environment have made you attracted to it? The findings of the present study indicate that six main categories including ‘feeling of relaxation’, ‘vitality and vivacity’, ‘beauty of nature’, ‘spirituality and the possibility of discovering the environment’, ‘intimacy of space’, and ‘greatness and glory of the space’ are the most important factors in attracting pedestrians and motivating them to mindful thinking about natural environments. Each of these categories also includes several subcategories. Factors such as the ‘possibility of avoidance of concerns’, ‘possibility of moving and water landscape’, ‘quality of nature and green space’, and ‘possibility of walking’ are important sub-categories that play a significant role in raising the awareness of citizens. Such factors form the model of mindfulness in Tabriz’s natural recreation areas. It is worth mentioning that the validity and reliability of the model were confirmed by the convergent construct validity technique and composite reliability technique, respectively. Also, the fitness of the suggested model for the second-level confirmatory factor analysis and first-level confirmatory factor analysis was confirmed in the 95% confidence level.

The results of the present study show that ‘the feeling of relaxation’ is the most effective criterion to induce a sense of mindfulness and pleasure in the present time. Other criteria are as follows: ‘beauty of nature’, ‘intimacy of space’, ‘greatness and glory of the space’, ‘vitality and vivacity’, and finally ‘spirituality and the possibility of discovering the environment’. It should be noted that the criteria and sub-criteria extracted from the mindfulness model are not only used to evaluate the quality of other natural environments but can also help planners, designers, and executors of natural landscapes to enhance their projects.

Nature-based tourism is responsible for travel to natural areas and seeks to preserve the environment and welfare of local communities. In general, this type of tourism can play an important role in the economic development of the regions. In order to take advantage of the benefits of tourism, one of the primary and basic steps in nature-based tourism planning is identifying capabilities, determining capacity and ranking areas for the development of this type of tourism. Lorestan province is known as one of the high-potential regions in the field of nature-based tourism in Iran, whose capacities have not been well used. The purpose of this study is to first identify and determine the criteria and indicators for ranking nature-based tourism capacities based on previous research and their localization and then their use in ranking the capacity of nature-oriented tourism in the county of the eastern region of Lorestan province. Finally, several solutions have been proposed to improve the spatial structure of nature-oriented tourism in the study area.

This research is applied and its approach is descriptive-analytical. The data required for this research have been collected by documentary and field methods (questionnaire). Criteria and indicators required for ranking the studied counties have been obtained by reviewing the literature in domestic and foreign research and the opinion of local experts. The best-worst technique has been used to weigh the selected criteria (Rezaei, 2015). The best and worst criteria have been determined by 15 experts and by comparing the criteria according to Saatychr('39')s 1-9 scales and then the final weight of the 12 selected criteria from the expertschr('39') point of view has been calculated using Lingo software. Finally, ARAS multi-criteria decision making method was used to rank the nature-based tourism capacity of the counties in the study area. This technique is one of the multi-criteria decision making techniques that was first proposed by Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas  and Zenonas Turskis in 2010.

The results obtained from the weighting of the selected criteria show that the number of nature-oriented tourist attractions (0.235), altitude (0.092) and protected areas (0.077) are ranked first to third. Accommodation centers (0.077), safety (0.072), tourism growth rate (0.070), quality of communication routes (0.067), distance from health centers (0.066), existence of relief groups (0.063), different methods of transportation (0.061), distance of attractions from the city (0.048), the size of cities (0.042) and distance of attractions from cultural centers (0.030) are in the next ranks, respectively. Also, the results obtained from using the ARAS method show that the counties of Khorramabad (0.616), Aligudarz (0.544) and Boroujerd (0.500), Dorud (0.450) and Azna (0.406) are in the first to fifth ranks respectively in terms of nature-based tourism capacity.

The purpose of this study was to rank the counties in the eastern region of Lorestan province and to determine the tourism routes and to present the proposed special organization for the development of this region based on nature-based tourism. For this purpose, a number of domestic and foreign researches in the field of nature-oriented tourism were reviewed and the criteria were extracted for ranking the nature-based tourism capacity of the study area. The weight of the criteria was determined by using the paired comparison method and best-worst technique using Lingo software. Then, using one of the multi-criteria decision-making methods) ARAS), the eastern counties of Lorestan province were ranked based on the capacity of nature-based tourism. The results show that Khorramabad, Aligudarz and Boroujerd counties were in higher ranks, respectively. The counties of Dorud and Azna were in the lower ranks, respectively, due to the weakness of their public tourism infrastructure, despite having numerous and unique nature-based attractions. Overall, the results of this study can provide a better understanding of the nature-based tourism, capabilities of this region for planners, decision makers and stakeholders and private investors (domestic and foreign). Providing infrastructure, facilities and equipment are essential in order to optimally exploit the potential of nature-based tourism in the region and also play a more effective role in regional development.

Security is one of the most basic human needs that has a special position in peace and increasing the quality of life of citizens. For this reason, paying attention to the security of citizens is always one of the basic priorities of urban management. The purpose of this study is to prioritize the areas of Ardabil in terms of factors and variables of urban security and propose strategies to improve security in these areas.

The reasoning strategy of this research is deductive and its approach is quantitative. Documentary data of this research have been obtained from valid scientific-research sources and field data through questionnaire tools and application of experts' opinions. DEMATEL models, Network Analysis process and TOPSIS have also been used to analyze the research data.

Based on the theoretical framework of this study, ten criteria were extracted from valid domestic and foreign research sources to assess urban security in Ardabil, which are: resident participation, development of cultural and social spaces, definition of economic stimulus projects, increasing the clarity and readability of urban spaces, mixing of uses, standard population and settlement densities, providing optimal lighting of urban spaces at night, preventing the release of barren and ruined lands, coordinated and integrated management and setting environmental design criteria. Findings show that districts 3 and 4 in Ardabil have a higher priority in order to apply the criteria for improving urban security than other areas of the city.

A summary of the opinions and views of local experts shows the need to apply the three criteria of development of cultural and social spaces, providing optimal lighting of urban spaces and coordinated and integrated management of urban security in Ardabil more than other criteria. In this regard, two practical proposals are proposed to reduce the level of insecurity in these areas: development of cultural, social and educational institutions in insecure neighborhoods; establishment of an institution in charge of urban security and operational planning and environmental design in order to prevent crime.

Nature-based sports tourism as one of the types of tourism can play an important role in the development of the regions and have an important impact on promoting the physical and mental health of tourists. This type of tourism has great compatibility with sustainable development strategies at the regional level. Lorestan province has numerous natural capacities such as unique mountains and waterfalls, numerous rivers and lakes with unique ecosystems due to its position in the Zagros Mountains. Therefore, this province can be considered as one of the most important hubs for nature-based sports tourism in the country; however, the potential and actual capacity of the province has not yet been used effectively in the field of nature-based sports tourism. The purpose of this study is to determine the capacity and ranking of tourism routes in the province based on nature-based sports tourism. For this purpose, the required criteria and indicators were first extracted from previous research and then localized for Lorestan province according to experts' opinion. The weight of the criteria has been determined based on the experts' opinion and by using the best-worst method (BWM) in LINGO software, then tourism routes based on the capacity of nature-based sports tourism is ranked using EDAS method. Findings show that Khorramabad-Aligodarz, Khorramabad-Dorood, Khorramabad-Boroujerd routes are in the first to third rank , and Khorramabad-Kohdasht, Khorramabad-Delfan, Khorramabad-Poldokhtar, Khorramabad-Azna, Khorramabad-Doureh and Khorramabad–Selseleh routes are respectively ranked next.

Security is one of the main components of citizens' presence in public places. Whereas women are more exposed to social threats, ensuring the security of urban spaces is of more importance for the presence of this group in these places. The present study is aimed at assessing the security of public spaces in zone 1 of Shiraz city for women.  

The present research is of descriptive-analytical type and the tool used for data processing is factor analysis in SPSS. A survey method has been used to collect data in the research. The indicators cited in the research have also been extracted through reviewing valid research documents. The statistical population of the study is pedestrian women in two benchmark urban areas in zone 1 of Shiraz. The sampling was implemented using Cochran method and systematic sampling method, and the total number of samples reached 150 cases.

Results of the present study indicate that the security of public places in zone 1, from the women's perspective in physical, functional and semantic dimensions is low; while in terms of social dimension, the level of security of these places is moderate. The results of factor analysis also indicate that in total, out of 27 indicators extracted, 5 important factors which highly contribute to promoting  women's security feeling  could be emphasized: creating the necessary background and infrastructure for the presence of women without any concerns (with specific value  of 2.493); quality of public place (with a specific value of 1.927); appropriate environmental design to prevent crime (with a specific value of 1.687); intimacy and friendliness  of the environment (with a special value of 1.437) and the independence of women to participate in public space (with a special value of 1.330). Combination of these factors indicates the conditions that may provide the required platform and ground for the security of women in the public places of Shiraz. Altogether, promoting women's security feeling in the urban spaces of Shiraz requires benefitting from several macro strategies such as designing a security-oriented environment, increasing spatial readability and providing the desired lighting of urban places. The feasibility of any of the aforesaid strategies requires the implementation and deployment of operational strategies aligned with these strategies

Ports in most parts of the world have a great role to play in creating an integrity between the prosperous of the regions and the balancing of the supply chain (production, distribution, and consumption). The article is to analyze the spatial interaction between southern ports of Iran and local-regional hinterlands and to explain the role of ports in shaping the spatial structure. For this purpose, the method of network analysis of commodity flows is used during the period of 1996, 2006, 2015. The findings of the research indicate that southern Iran's ports are often the importer of consumer goods in the population centers located in regional hinterlands and, at best, have been exporting energy sources and raw materials. While urban centers located in local hinterlands do not play an effective role in the production and delivery of goods to ports, they are often dependent on the regional center (Shiraz) to meet their consumption needs. Although the process of spatial inequality has been moving towards greater balance over the past two decades, the development of medium-sized ports and local nodes in the contiguous hinterlands and forelands, led to a balanced monocentric spatial structure in this region.

In recent decades, in a large number of developing countries, spatial inequalities have been a growing trend, as new forms of regional imbalance are emerging in the context of these countries. In fact, the growth of inequality between cores and peripheral regions has led to the rise of inequality, even nationally. In Iran, especially in the second half of the century, the spatial structure of the country has been heavily influenced by changes in the use of oil resources and its increasing exports. As a result, the capital (Tehran) has been steadily growing at the center of political, economic and social power, and its growth has continued to this day. This has made other peripheral areas increasingly dependent on the capital. It is clear that nodes, corridors, and flows are the basic elements of the spatial structure of a territory. Therefore, the relationship between seaports and hinterlands, due to the intensity of existing interactions, play an important role in shaping the spatial structure of a country. Southern ports in Iran seem to have played a double role in increasing power and concentration in the capital in recent years, but also have added to the severity of spatial inequality in peripheral regions. The basic statistical data and preliminary observations confirm the claim that the most deprived and most undeveloped areas of the country are located in the local hinterlands of the southern ports. This research intends to explore the levels of development and spatial inequality of the national and regional scales in Iran, focusing on the study of ports relations and hinterlands by employing social network analysis and evaluating of related indicators that have been extracted by UCINET and Gephi software. Accordingly, quantitative data (based on commodity flows between nodes) during the period 1996 to 2015 have been collected and analyzed based on the positivism paradigm framework. The findings of this research show that some social network analysis indicators (such as Network Transivity & Density, Weighted & Betweenness centrality, Core-Periphery, Community-levels, and Hubs-Authorities) emphasize that both the two cities of Tehran and Bandar Abbas have been in the first interacting and exchanging commodity flows during these two decades. other peripheral centers are also at the second level with significant differences (including Isfahan, Mashhad, Shiraz, and Ahwaz). However, cities such as Kerman, Zahedan, and Jahrom, while in the past centuries have been considered as strong logistic hubs for the southern ports, have had a good boom in the local hinterlands of ports; in recent years have not had a proper level and position in the network of spatial interactions. In other words, the results of this study indicate that the local southern hinterlands of the country, in spite of the proximity to the main southern ports of the country, and the huge capacity of development in the storage, processing, and distribution of goods, are suffering the growing spatial inequality compared with other national and regional hinterlands. Overall, according to these findings, we can name this spatial structure as a Constellation Centralized Structure.

This article explores the relation of Iranian ports with their surrounding regions from the geopolitical-spatial perspective since 6th century BC. Content analysis of historical data obtained from written, pictorial and secondary sources is the method used to achieve this aim. The results denote that the geopolitical-spatial evolution of Iranian ports and the surrounding regions can be classified into three general eras: in the first era (from 6th to 15th century), with the domination of the most powerful Iranian states on both sides of the Persian Gulf, the geopolitical-spatial of Iran often had foreland-oriented structure with mutual interaction of ports and hinterlands especially up to regional scale. In the second era (from 16th to 19th century) which coincided with the arrival of powerful foreign forces in the Persian Gulf, the rulers implemented a geopolitical policy: the protection of mainland with the aim of territorial integrity maintenance. So, in this era hinterland-oriented spatial structure was formed based on the interaction in local, regional and national levels. Also, the geospatial scheme of the country was founded on the basis of endogenous activities and integration political power. In the third era and with the exploration of oil (beginning of the 20th century till now), production, trade and distribution system of the country has undergone radical changes and along with formation of powerful world capitalist system, it has become subject to political and economic changes of this system. Directing capital flow to the capital and obtaining such development policies as growth pole, spatial structure of the country has tended towards corridor- polarized pattern. This pattern has led to the poleoriented hinterland spatial structure based on single-product (oil) export. In other words, in the country has tended towards corridor- polarized pattern. This pattern has led to the poleoriented hinterland spatial structure based on single-product (oil) export. In other words, in this era, the political, spatial and economical geography relied on the political and economic decisions that were concentrated in the capital. Accordingly, spatial planning in the local-regional hinterland about habitats, activities and distribution of services depended on the capital decisions in the national hinterland.

Investigation on modern history of urban planning in Iran shows that there are three approaches in the subject under “Modernism and Westernism”, “Traditionalism and anti-Westernism”, and “Adopt and Adapt”. Proponents of the first approach believe in encouraging methods to use the external concepts. The second, is the idea about cultural and religious values, thereby everything with nontraditional orientation is rejected. In the third approach the thinkers believe that if the parts of tradition are synthesized by modernity, culture and religion can adapt themselves with the development. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the adaptation of traditional urban design patterns of Islamic-Iranian cities in incompatible district of new Iranian cities (spontaneous settlements) and to focus on the application of the third approach in the current situation of Iranian cities. On this basis, the method of comparative analysis has been applied to survey the differences and similarities between historical districts and spontaneous settlements. Studies show that there are rather similarities among physical - spatial parameters (such as structural and environmental criteria) between the two types of districts; because both of these residential districts formed as organic structures that are unstable against unexpected risks and earthquake. However, there are the differences between these two types of districts in organized and formed periods. Despite historical districts that have been consolidated and organized during hundreds of years, spontaneous urban textures formed quickly and without any plan and planning. Meanwhile, the historical districts have usually integrated townscapes and unique materials such as clay, bricks or stone, while this character (integrated townscape and unique materials) never have been seen in the spontaneous settlements. There are similarities in economic and socio- cultural characteristics between residents in the two the types of districts. The residents living in poor economic condition, but under a very strong socio-capital and traditional beliefs; There can be seen several socio-cultural and particularly religious characteristics in people of historical residential districts that are similar with the spontaneous residential places, such as “strong relationship among families, friends”, “hospitality”, “mutual relationship among family members”, strong religious beliefs and the needs for privacy and security. However, these communities are different in some principles such as quality of life and spatial and physical qualities especially in favorable and beautiful urban landscapes. So it can be extracted and adopted excellent principles from traditional and historical districts and adapt them to the inappropriate modern urban districts. With regard to the existence of these similarities, we explain applicable principles of the spatial characteristics and designing quality in the historical district of Yazd to apply in Baghshater District in Tehran as a spontaneous settlement. Findings show that we can use several solutions to reconstruct this zone included: 1) land readjustment as the suitable solution in Baghshater District with regard to the familial residential pattern in historical zone of Yazd such as Fahadan District. 2) Focusing on the traditional concept of mutual relationship in residential houses. 3) Emphasizing on the hierarchy of The entrances and exits of the residential units.

The cities with warm & dry climate in Iran، has always been accompanied by condensed physical texture and main elements such as mosques، markets، plazas and water reservoirs. The water reservoir is the element that it has been usually seen in cities with warm & dry or humid climates. Many of the researchers have studied only the details and appearance of water reservoirs and have not surveyed the role of this element in spatial structure of historical cities. The aim of this study is to survey the role of water reservoirs in spatial structure of historical cities in Iran. As regards the wide ranges of these similar cities are in Iran، this study specifically focused on two cities of Yazd and Lar. The methodology of this study is comparative analysis based on Library resources and field observations. Research findings show that although water reservoirs have a physical presence in urban spaces of Yazd and Lar city، but the impact of this element is more in spatial structure of Lar city. Locating in central zone of every neighborhood، water reservoirs have formed a radial network and stellar structure of roads and accessibilities. Also the orientation of residential units has changed according to the central location of water reservoir in every neighborhood. While water reservoirs in the city of Yazd do not have much impact in shaping the basic structure and in addition، the space around the water reservoirs do not associated with other public spaces.

One of the most problematic parts of Yazd is the ancient fabric of this city. The studies indicate that abandoned and dilapidated spaces of Yazd form about 17.5% of the area in this city. The continuous growth of such spaces will cause irreparable damages to the priceless cultural heritage of our country. The aim of this research is selecting the best approach based on logical rules to recreate the derelict spaces abandoned in the ancient part of Yazd. The methodology is based on combining QSPM technique and Fuzzy logic. The use of Fuzzy logic with the aim of enjoying the expert's ideas from different organizations, that each in turn can accelerate the improvement process of Yazd, can play an influential role in decision-making and selection of the best approach by urban planners. The final results of this research denote that among four main approaches identified for the improvement of abandoned spaces, it seems that the union of existing lands in abandoned spaces and constructing sustainable residential units, being economically affordable for new residents, can be the most appropriate approach for the development of ancient fabrics of Yazd. Appropriate implementation of this approach will not only wipe out the derelict and ruined parts of the city, but also it can draw lots of people and population to it and help promoting the social life of this area.

Nowadays، sustainable urban development has become a major concern in residential neighborhood planning. To this end، smart growth theory، as a theory of urban planning، has defined against the urban sprawl and growth of suburban houses and neighborhoods. In fact، Smart Growth focuses on compact development and defines new policies in urban planning to reconstruct central zone of the cities. The city of Yazd has faced remarkable urban sprawl in recent decades. This problem is one of the main factors to destruct gardens and the surrounding farmlands. Moreover، it decreases the quality of the residential environment in the city center. According to the importance of protecting green spaces، especially in the desert cities، and the need to preserve and restore the historic district of Yazd، residential planning can prepare sustainable development in this district. The aim of this study purpose is site selection for residential complexes in the central zone of Yazd which is based on sustainable development criteria. Hypothesis of the research is: “brown fields and unused spaces in the historical zone، which are in vicinity of main streets، have more potential to develop sustainable residential complexes”. Research of the study is based on analytical and explorative methods for site selection using ANP technique. Accordingly، this paper، at first، surveys the history and importance of locating in urban planning، then، explains the features of sustainable housing planning considering the available practices and theories. Site selection process is an action that analyzes potential of adequate land for specific applications in a region or district. Indicators used in site selection are different in various positions، but all have a certain range. Most site selection theories try to define the influencing factors on deployment of space activities in urban spaces by using different techniques. The point that should be noted about the site selection theory and structure of the city is that all are based on the principles of market mechanisms. There are two main factors in determining any kind of site selection، or any type of urban land uses، social and economic welfare. On the basis of these factors، six criteria، compatibility، comfort، performance، utility، health and safety standards، urban land use is defined. On a global scale، in terms of theory and practice، the principles and criteria for sustainable urban development can be discussed and analyzed within the scale of neighborhoods and residential environment. Findings of this study show that، there are generally four major factors for site selection of sustainable residential complex in cities، social and cultural، environmentalphysical، public services and economical-Legal. These factors are divided into several sub-criteria under certain conditions. Social-cultural factor is divided into four criteria of “social activities and playing areas for children”، “accessibility to CBD and public spaces in the city”، “safety، security and tranquility of neighborhood،” and” social compatible neighborhoods”. Environmental-physical factor is also considered in four sub-criteria: “necessary spaces for crisis management”، “providing green space،” “beautiful landscape” and “appropriate space for parking”. Furthermore، public services factor is classified into three groups (sub-criteria): “access to essential and major shopping centers”، “access to educational and cultural center” and “access to street”. Finally، legal–economical factor is divided into two sub-criteria: “affordable land and housing” and “legal condition of the land”. Findings of the study also show that the biggest problem affecting un-sustainability of housing and inhabitants is inadequate access to services in central zone of Yazd (public services factor). Other factors in the order of priority are social-cultural، environmental– physical- and legal–economical. It shows that this factor must be considered as the most important factor in site selection and ensuring sustainability of housing in this area. The surveys show (based on the interviews) that “accessibility to street” criterion among other sub criteria of public services is the most important problem of the residents in central and historical zone of Yazd. Other problems can be mentioned such as: absence or scarcity of public space (especially open space for children’s entertainment and playing)، lack of security، safety and tranquility in the neighborhoods of the historical zone and shortage of green space. The final findings of the investigation prove validity of the proposed hypothesis. Calculations، based on the ANP method، show that، even though there are 13 factors for site selection of sustainable residential complexes، only five factors are more important. These factors are “proximity to city center and public spaces،” “access to a roadway”، “access to major shopping centers”، “affordable land”، and “lack or low land rights “. Finally، among the 18 suitable lands selected for development purpose، an appropriate location was chosen using the ANP method. This space، in accordance with the hypothesis، has less economic and legal problems، in comparison with the rest، because of proximity to the main street service center.

City of Yazd has experienced various forms of expansion and development in recent years. In general, various forms of urban expansion and development in the city of Yazd can be divided into three areas: the inner area ()central-historical zone)(, the middle area development occurred in the late Qajar and Pahlavi I and II eras)(and the peripheral area development in the last 40 years)(. These three areas generally include different physical-environmental characteristics that can form their own environmental quality. The purpose of this study is explaining the factors effecting on the living environment quality as well as the satisfaction of the residents. There for, the main factors that can affect the environmental quality have been, identified and the quality of residential environment has been evaluated in each area. The methodology of the study is based on Analytical – Exploratory method, using factors and cluster analysis technique. The research hypothesis stated as follows: “the quality of residential environment and satisfaction of residents in the inner city of Yazd are the worst among the other parts of the city, while they are better in the peripheral”. To achieve the factors affecting the quality of residential environment, 28 indicators have been defined. For evaluation and analyzing these indicators, first of all two neighborhoods were selected from each area for applying a multi-stage sampling technique and a simple random sampling method has been used too. Then a number of samples have been selected for the field research and interview, based on simple random sampling (proportional allocation) of the total households in each neighborhood. Dispersion of the selected samples covered the entire neighborhood area. Findings of the study showed that the indicators of the quality of residential environment and satisfaction could be divided into five factors, including (with the order of importance) “qualitative – quantitative potentials of living environment”, “easy movement and displacement”, “quality of public space”, “access to essential services” and “social – economical diversity of residents”. In fact, it could be said that the mentioned factors had important key roles in increasing satisfaction of the citizens of Yazd city. Cluster analysis of the data showed that ()among three areas of Yazd city- inner, middle and outer areas)(, the inner or central historical zone faced the lowest satisfaction of residents from environment quality point of view, and the middle zone faced the most satisfaction. Furthermore, the rate of outer zone of the city is between inner and middle section. Indeed, the conflict between current needs of residents and physical conditions of the historical zone is the main reason that satisfaction of the residents in this zone has been at the lowest level. While the middle zone of the city satisfies its residents because of the environment quality, through a rational and slow growth, adapting traditional criteria and efficient plan and design. Accessibility of the middle zone of the city to the existing services and facilities available in the CBD has been the most important factor in increasing people’s satisfaction, making it the best and most suitable area as a residential environment. However, the rate of resident’s satisfaction in the outer zone of the city has been less than the middle zone, because of its inaccessibility to the services.

Yazd is one of the most famous cities in Iran, and perhaps in the world, because of its special characteristic in urban design and architecture. Historical district of this city, according to the city’s cultural background and based on its climate features, is an example of specific structure and compact form of a city. While the form of development in the past was interactive with the climate and environment conditions, today, the development pattern of Yazd is converted to dispersal mode and unbalanced growth pattern; this pattern have made lots of urban form in different zone of the city. The purpose of this paper is to investigate construction density with respect to population density, distance to central business district, to the sub-centers, population density, land price, urban block area and cost of public transition in Yazd. Multiple regression analysis is used as the research method. Simple sampling method is used To select districts. So, at first, six district selected (Fahadan and Sheikhdad as central districts; Sare’dorah and Maskan’o’shahrsazi as middle districts; Azadshahr and Safa’eeye as outer and developing districts). After selecting the sample districts, the sample size from each settlement had to be identified. Stratified random sampling (Proportional allocation) is used to do this process and totally, 72 sample extract and study for this research.Construction density is seen as a dependent variable (Because the principle is that wherever physical development has occurred, the construction density increases) and the others as independent variables of the analysis. According to the results of the analysis, construction density of the neighborhoods is a function of distance to central business district, distance to the sub-centers, urban block area and price of land (with negative correlation coefficient) and population density (with positive correlation coefficient). There is no relationship between the construction density and cost of public transition. So, it can be interpreted that construction density increases by reducing the distance to the city center. This fact lonely explains the spread of physical structure in city of Yazd. Also, the negative correlation coefficient between construction density and istance to the sub-centers shows the distributing of compact districts in sprawl urban areas. The positive correlation coefficient between construction density and population density hows that somewhere population density increases, the construction density increases too. As considering that the average area of city block from the center to the periphery increases in city of Yazd, it can be said that the construction density decreases from center to periphery.The negative correlation coefficient between construction density and land price is one of the Interesting and distinctive results in this study. This finding shows that if the city spreads in periphery lands, the land prices in this area will increased. On the other hand, land demand in the periphery of Yazd is promoting and Residents of the city of Yazd, in contrast with intensive development in the past time, are now more willingness to live in detached houses. It is the sign of the increasing occurrence of urban sprawl in Yazd.