فصلنامه محیط شناسی
سال سی و هشتم شماره 2 (پیاپی 62، تابستان 1391)

Land use planning is the process of allocating different land uses and activities to the special land units. By considering the role of industries in development, employment and environment, in this paper industrial and especially intensive energy industries’ planning was considered as a multi objective optimization problem. Although, during the last decades linear programming was used for solving this problem, recent researches trends to use evolutionary algorithms. NSGA-II method has been used in this paper. In this paper Isfahan province has been considered as the case study area. Isfahan, because of its geographical location and infrastructural facilities has been one of the industrial poles. Various data such as main roads, railroads, mines, power transmission lines, gas transmission lines, rivers, faults, lakes, city regions, sensitive ecological areas have been used as factor maps to locate industrial site. In this paper, some steps have been taken to utilize NSGA-II:Define environmental constraints: with the consideration of the environmental rules, unsuitable areas were removed from the case study. Some buffers around roads, forests, rivers, faults and conservation areas were created. Therefore, these areas were removed from the next steps.Encode candidate solutions: For each pixel a number as index was assigned that formed the chromosomes of our problem.Initial population: Initial population is created randomly from indexes. In this paper we considered 25 solutions as the initial population. Each individual corresponds to one candidate solution (decision alternatives).Fitness functions: In this study, minimized distance (dc) from population centers was considered as social objective and maximized distance from water resources (dw), forests (df) and protected natural areas (dp) was considered as environmental objective. In this paper real coded decision variable, simulation binary crossover and polynomial mutation were used. NSGA-II in different generations was run and optimum results were obtained in 1000th generation. Most of the selected areas are located in Khor, Anarak and Niasar districts.After obtaining the results of NSGA-II based on both social and environmental objectives, economical objective was used to determine the priority of each selected locations to allocate to iron, aluminum and cement industries (Figure 1).For Iron and steel industry: Economic objective~ Min ((1/25.91)*dr + (1/21.17)*dm + (1/40.87)*de + (1/12.05)*dg),

Perhaps one of the great causes of migrations of Aryan tribes, five thousand years ago, from the territory of northern Asia, Iran, India and Europe which caused great changes in human life and civilizations was to reach new pastures. Since human food supply is mainly from agriculture and animal husbandry, and water resources, land, livestock and pasture are limited, providing food products from these resources needs proper use and scientific attention to these resources and to maximize the utilization and maintenance of them. Natural resources have an important status in social and economic development of the world. Unfortunately, in many countries especially in developing countries, increasing population, rapid urbanization, lack of knowledge about importance of natural resources along with inappropriate planning resulted in rapid degradation of forests and rangelands.Rural energy is generally recognized as an important element of rural socio-economic development, not as an end in itself, but through the demand for the services made possible through energy inputs, such as potable water pumping, extension of the day by lighting and cooking. As a general trend, an increasing energy demand-both in quantity and quality is highly correlated with socio-economic development. Yet, the rural populations of many developing countries have been excluded from most of the benefits of economic development and the transition to better (quality) energy services. Renewable energy is considered to be a basis for sustainable energy supply systems. Population growth, key incidents and movements in the development of sustainable energy technology, different available forms of renewable energies and today's economic crisis have led to the introduction of renewable energy as a clean option that can have major rules in our common future. The main purpose of this study was assessing the role of solar energy in protecting pastures in dry region (Case Study of the South Khorasan Province), and the specific goals are:1-Assessing the tendency and satisfaction with solar energy2-Identifying the rural attributes in order to protect pasturage and extension using solar power3-Assessing the information of rural people about the importance of pasturage, solar energy and the Carbon Sequestration Project

Population growth has increased the pressure on natural areas and the inappropriate utilization of lands and land use changes have caused different reactions of ecosystems. Human activities such as vegetation destruction and inappropriate agricultural techniques change the natural mechanisms. Land use change is one of the main factors of changes in the ecological systems, which influences on biodiversity and climate. To preserve natural environment, environmental planning should be based on the land sustainable development. Land use change may occur by factors such as drought, fire, flood, volcanic activity and human activities such as livestock grazing, urban development and agricultural lands development There are researches which concluded that urban development and soil erosion has increased change in central Apennine in Italy from 1954 to 1985 due to land use changes. Also Other researchers have investigated the tourism land use of the forestry landscape in the Serra San Bruno district using GIS. These researches concluded that a general plan in the urban and rural environments with tourism proposes would contribute to nature protection. Land use changes in mountainous forests were investigated in other studies. Results showed that the areas under agricultural actiities have been decreased by 6%, forest areas have been increased by 8.15%, pastures have been decreased by 3.51%, and residential homes have been increased by 1.36% during 1945 to 1994. In another research, land use changes in Tange Sorkh basin in Shiraz was investigated using satellite images The results showed that the forest areas have been decreased from 29.8% to 28.3% and the pastures areas have been reduced from 36.9% to 26.8% within seven years. In the present research, land use determination and landscape analysis have been carried out for Sivar village, considering the unique landscape and special biodiversity of this village using RS and GIS. This research will help to have a suitable regional planning and natural resources conservation of study area and it can recover the land uses development considering environmental factors.

The atmospheric CO2 has increased by population increase and fuel utilization and land use changing. Thus, CO2 increased from 288 ppm to 387 ppm during 1850-1998. Atmospheric CO2 should decrease and sequester in different forms. Carbon sequestration is changing atmospheric CO2 to organic carbon by plants and soil. Hence, carbon sequestration by plants and soil is the easiest and cheapest way for pollution reduction. Carbon sequestration potential is different in different biological forms of plants. Rangelands are among the most important ecosystems that have high capacity for carbon sequestration. This study investigates the plant forms ability for carbon sequestration in Miankaleh rangelands.The study area is located in north and northeast of Behshahr, which is surrounded by the Caspian Sea (north), Ashooradeh (east), Gorgan gulf (south) and Zaghmarz (west). This region has an area of about 14000 ha. The mean annual temperature and rainfall are 17°C and 1700mm, respectively.At first, plants types were determined and dominant species were identified in each type. The number and sizes of plots were obtained by statistical and minimal area methods in each type, respectively. Organic carbon of the upper and lower organs of the dominant species was calculated by burning method in laboratory. The soil sampling was carried out for OC, EC, pH, texture, and bulk density with plant sampling. The total carbon sequestrated from plant organs in each plot and hectare were calculated by organic carbon conversion coefficient multiplies plant biomass. Also, the soil carbon sequestration value was determined by 10000*OC*Bulk density*soil depth formula. Finally, the data was analyzed by the analysis of variance and mean comparison (Duncan test) method. Significant differences between the soil parameters under species canopy and out of this condition were determined by t-Test. The relation between plant cover and soil parameters was obtained by a step by step regression in SPSS 16 Software.

The protection of environment, in which the present as well as the future generations have a right to flourish social existence, is regarded as a public duty in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Economic and other activities which inevitably involve pollution of the environment or cause irreparable damage to it are therefore forbidden. To protect environment, as the related rules provide, some areas in Iran that have environmentally prominent aspects are recognized as protected areas to prevent the mankind to encroach in these areas. These areas are subject to special rules and regulations that are provided in the form of environmental protection and conservation rules, hunting law, etc. Increasing population and industrial development in Iran which are not based on sustainable development, has led to environmental challenges including natural habitats destruction, environmental pollution, uncontrolled hunting and consequently resulting in soil erosion, soil nutrient deficiency, destruction of virgin forests that are a few million years old, animals and plants extinction, decreasing surface and ground water resources, waste of surface water due to pollution etc. These problems actually endanger the physical and social welfare in the community. This research aims to recognize strengths and weaknesses of management in these areas and present the relevant legal strategies, studying environmental status of the areas protected in Zanjan Province. It covers two protected areas and one wild life shelter, studying legal status of the areas and legal and executive challenges. This research follows a practical purpose, because decision makers, planners and senior and middle managers involved in environmental issues may use the results obtained. The study tries to analyze judgments issued by courts, using current references in the field of recognition of environmental status of the protected areas in Zanjan Province. It also studies legal status of the area by using field method and visiting places and surveying current files from 2006 to 2010 to obtain applied suggestions for applying optimal management in the above-mentioned areas.

In recent years, increasing population, vehicles and industrial growth have caused air pollution that is initiated many environmental problems and damaged public health. In Tehran metropolis, increasing machine life and human activities on one hand and extreme topographic conditions and natural factors on the other hand has led the city to be the most polluted city of the world. Due to the necessity of preventing and reducing risks of air pollution, acquiring good knowledge of various aspects of this issue is very important.To check the air quality in different regions, pollution data collected in air pollution stations are required. Air pollution data are needed for studies and decisions about reducing and controlling it. According to the construction of new stations, the precise locating of them is very important. For better and more realistic monitoring of air pollution, the stations must be distributed exactly and evenly. Thus, one of the important considerations in implementing an air pollution control system is selecting the suitable locations for stations.To determine the appropriate places for the construction of new stations, appropriate measures and models are specified. WSM (Weighted Sum Method), ELECTRE (Elimination and Choice Translating Reality) and PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations) are three popular models of decision making methods. In this paper, these 3 methods are used to optimally locate air pollution stations. For this purpose, 20 new locations were initially proposed in Tehran. Thereafter, governing factors layer, such as population density, distance to nearby stations, distance to trees, building walls and streets, are prepared. Priorities of stations are estimated based on the three methods. Thus, to provide a unique ranking for the methods, the triple consolidating methods (simple average, Borda and Copland) were exercised. Finally, to compare the validity of results, air quality maps were generated.

Annually, approximately 400 million tons of wastes have been produced by Iran livestock industry (cattle and poultry) and agriculture sector. This means that an integrated waste management system is really necessary. In the past few decades, large amounts of animal manure and slurries have been produced by animal breeding sector as well as wet organic waste streams, which represents a constant pollution risk with a potential negative impact on the environment, if not managed optimally. When untreated or poorly managed, animal manure becomes a major source of air and water pollution. Nutrient leaching, mainly nitrogen, phosphorus and ammonia evaporation and pathogen contamination are some of the major threats. Animal production sector is responsible for 18% of the overall green house gas emissions. Anaerobic co-digestion of organic matters results in waste stabilization as well as in biogas production. This gas usually contains more than 50% of methane. Therefore, it can be used as a bio-fuel in power generation systems to produce heat and energy. Other Benefits of the anaerobic digestion of animal manure are pathogen reduction through sanitation, improved fertilization efficiency, less nuisance from odors, flies, etc. The feasibility of methane production from poultry manure was studied in the present paper. Thereafter, the effect of loading and temperature on the anaerobic digestion of the mixture of poultry manure and wheat straw was investigated in mesophilic semi-continuously fed digester.

Large quantities of sludge are produced in biological wastewater treatment.This kind of sludge or biosolids are very putrescible. The primary sludge being produced in primary sedimentation tank is very putrescible, odorous, and grey, from which 60 -70 percent is volatile solids. The secondary sludge being produced in primary sedimentation tank is brown, odourless and highly microbial containing 70-80 percent volatile solids. The sludge with these properties has problems not less than domestic wastewater. Therefore, the sludge should be stabilized for safe utilization and disposal in environment.In large wastewater treatment plants high quantities of sludge are produced. Therefore, prior to disposal, solids must be processed for dewatering and reduction of its volatile solids. The processes prior to sludge disposal are thickening, dewatering and stabilization. Dewatering of sludge is reducing transfer and disposal costs. Typical methods for dewatering are filtering, centrifuge and drying sludge bed. At the present time, sludge undergoes many important technical challenges and about 50% of the investments and operation costs are associated with sludge treatment. Usually for the stabilization of sludge, biological digestion processes are used. The digestion methods could be aerobic or anaerobic process. The anaerobic digestion has been studied many years ago and was used for sludge stabilization. This process includes degradation of organic and inorganic compounds in the absence of molecular oxygen. The main application of stabilization process is thickening of sludge from wastewater treatment plants and treatment of industrial wastes. The anaerobic process is a standard technique for sludge stabilization. With regard to the limitation in hydrolysis phase, anaerobic degradation of sludge is a very slow process. This process requires a high fermentative microorganism mass with typical detention time of more than 20 days for sludge digestion. The rate of degradation of organic compounds is in the range of 50 to 60%. Investigation showed that for a better sludge hydrolysis, the following processes is suggested: 1) Chemical solubilisation, 2) thermal pre-treatment, 3) mechanical sludge degradation, and 4) ultrasonic cell degradation.Some advantages of ultrasound pre-treatment of sludge are as below:- Low cost and efficient operation compared to other pre-treatment processes.- Complete process automation.- Potential to control filamentous bulking and foaming in the digester.- Better digester stability.- Improved volatile solid destruction.- Better sludge dewatering ability.- Improved sludge quality.The Usage of ultrasonic process for pollutant degradation in water and wastewater treatment was an advanced oxidation process, which is developed as an efficient technology in different fields of environmental engineering science in order to protect the environment from pollutants and as a key technology for future in the world.

According to the fact that almost all forms of mechanical dewatering needs foreign specific technology, special efforts were concentrated to optimize the use of drying beds.The main disadvantage of sludge drying beds is their large land requirement. This will limit the use of conventional drying beds to areas where sufficient land is available. To optimize and facilitate the operation of sludge dewatering beds, some assumptions are considered in this study that their purpose is to compare the technical characteristics of effluent and the retention time of sludge cake on the bed with control pilot.In this study, the capability of natural substances in replacement of the sandy layer platforms by changing drainage layer's thickness has been investigated. Also, at second step with no change in the thickness of sandy drainage layer, the use of this material on the sludge drying bed has been studied. Natural substances must be used for applying research hypothesis. One of the basic conditions in creating the best habitat for microorganisms in the production of high quality compost is carbon to nitrogen ratio. Microorganisms need carbon resources to supply energy and new cells materials and also, nitrogen resources for protein production. Thus, paying attention to the ratio of carbon to nitrogen in the compost material and the process of preparation is necessary. Therefore, one of the most important parameters in compost preparation from swage sludge is the C/N ratio in the output unit of sludge dewatering. The use of materials with high carbon such as straw, wood chips and sawdust in sludge dewatering process can increase C/N ratio in the sludge cake. In this study, cross bed drying doesnt affect studies; thus, cylindrical pilot is used to simulate a drying bed. Important points in preparing pilots are recommended to be the height of bed and desirable gradated constituent materials. Three pilots were made for this research. One of the pilots was produced as a control pilot with regard to the characteristics of the conventional drying beds and the two others were prepared and established with changes in their structure based on the research assumptions.For simulation of test beds, sand and gravel features recommended in references were used. The properties of sand used for pilot preparation were approved with sieve analysis in soil mechanics laboratory.For easy access to the output of aerobic digester, the pilots were set beside the sludge drying beds in a treatment plant of Tehran city after preparation.Aerobic stabilized sludge was discharged in 20 cm height at pilots and sampling was done with special containers. The effluent sampling was carried out after 3 hours from the time of discharge of sludge on the platforms and tests were performed before 6 hours. Drying process was studied by sampling and moisture measurement of sludge cakes from control and test beds in the future days.

Environmental assessment gives an overall view of the system, which helps managers for decision-making. One of these assessments is the river water quality zoning. There are different methods, which can be used for this purpose, such as Horton method, NSFWQI method, and modified NSFWQI method. However, some defects are revealed, such as lack of clear border between classes, the uncertainty in the quality criteria, the vagueness or fuzziness in the output values and not considering water usage. The need for an advanced classification method based on fuzzy theory has been recognized for a long time. Fuzzy Comprehensive Assessment or simply FCA, use fuzzy set theory to assess objects, in which the uncertainty involved in this process are explained via membership functions.Weight determination has always been concerned in zoning methods. One of the most popular methods which have been used with FCA is information entropy. In this case, each parameter in each station has a unique weight coefficient.

Considering the increased use of fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture in recent decades and increasing risks of diseases and environmental hazards in human societies, the standards of remaining pesticides in food and agricultural products are required to be considered. In this study, residues of Chlorpyrifos (C8H11Cl3NO3P S) and Diazinon in apple in the Damavand region were evaluated. The increase in the world population and the lack of food resources have caused agricultural methods producing more food to be developed. The increasing use of fertilizer products and pesticides reduce the damage caused by diseases, weeds and plant pests. However, it makes the residue of pesticides in agricultural products increase. It is important to use pesticides correctly. Obtaining the compliance period of pesticides has causes people to stay healthy. Nevertheless, sometimes it is not respected. Therefore, it seems that reviewing pesticide residues in apple fruit in Damavand region is essential. Climatic diversity in the city of Damavand has provided the possibility of producing and promoting many kinds of fruits. The amount of land horticulture in this city is 9575 ha. Apple gardens area is about 7100 hectares. Peaches and nectarine gardens area is 797 hectares; cherry, 480 hectares; and walnut, 550 hectares; There are 508 ha of greenhouse areas.

One of the most important characteristics of pathogenic bacteria which influenced water resources is their survival ability under natural condition. Most of the bacteria can not survive more than 60 days after being excreted from living bodies, unless minimum optimized condition is provided for them, because environmental conditions are unfavorable for bacteria. The survival of bacteria in soil depends on several factors including bacterial species, competition with other microorganisms, type of manure and its application style, soil moisture, soil temperature, nutrient availability, soil aeration and its soluble salts, soil pH and texture and some other factors. Extractions of soil saturation paste with salinity higher than 25 dS m-1 have adverse effect on microorganism activity. Researches showed that rapid passage of water through soil profile caused severe changes in osmotic pressure of soil solution, which has high effects on microorganism survival. Given that soil moisture is the main affecting factor on bacterial survival, appropriate soil moisture for bacterial survival is nearly 75% to 100% of field capacity (FC). Under this limitation condition aerobic and anaerobic bacteria are active. Although many studies have been conducted on survival of bacteria, little is known about the bacteria survival in Iran and the data are scanty. Considering that there are 28 million hectares of gypsiferous soils in Iran and approximately 65% of soils in Iran are calcareous, it seems that the role of calcium carbonate and calcium sulfate on control and survival of bacteria to reach the surface and subsurface water is important. Hence, in this study, by keeping temperature and moisture in optimum conditions, the effects of these compounds on the survival of E. coli have been investigated at different times. Materials and methodsIn this study, the effects of CaCO3 and CaSO4 compounds on Escherichia coli survival under constant moisture and temperature condition were evaluated. Using CaCO3, CaSO4 and fine sand particles with 0.01mm diameter, two types of mixtures of 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% levels were prepared. FC extents of mixtures were measured using pressure plate device. Prepared mixtures were sterilized at 121ºC for 15 minutes. Water volumes were added to reach to the FC extent. Extraction of manure was diluted in 1:20 proportion using distilled water. One ml water was added to mixtures containing 4.8×105 CFU of E. coli. In order to maintain competitive conditions with other microorganisms the prepared mixtures were incubated at 28ºC. After 2.5, 5, 10 and 15 hours incubated samples were collected for further analyses. Thereafter, 0.1 ml amount of each extracted samples were added to the plates containing Eosin Methylene Blue (EMB) medium. The plates were incubated for 18-24 hours at 37ºC, and bacterial CFU were counted using colony counter. This experiment was carried out in a randomized block design by three replicates and the data were analyzed using SAS software.

Intra-city natural structures have always had a key role in creating sustainable urban green spaces; natural structures such as river-valleys, hillsides, lakes and forests, guarantee the endurance, Sustainability and longevity of the natural quality of city. On the other hand, they are considered as tourism targets, which also make them vulnerable for tourism damages. In Tehran, the river-valleys have been the target of recreational activities for ages, according to their desirable climate and abundance of running water. Darband river- valley is one of the natural treasures of Tehran, which has been damaged according to the city growth and the ignorance of its environmental, historical and functional values.Therefore, the present paper aims to identify the typical behavioral characters of tourists in Darband river-valley and to study design solutions to decrease the damages caused by their incompatible behaviors to the nature. Darband River originates from Tochal Mountain, where Osun River meets Abshar Dogholu and makes Darband River. It is 4723 meters long and the valley has a desirable climate all over the year.Every-day life sociology or Ethnographical methodology is studying human behaviors and their relationship with surrounding environment. Behaviors refer to all physical observable moves, or an activity which connects human beings with the environment. In other words, behavior is a response to a motivation from the environment in a given situation.This methodology concentrates on simple activities Which occur during the day, in different places such as walking individually or in group of friends or family, looking around, talking, shopping, etc.Observation is one of the common methods of behavioral studies. In this research, users’ behaviors have been observed by taking pictures of people all along the river-valley path (Figure 1).

Nowadays, landscape is considered as one of the most important and vital components in environmental identity recognition and also as a tool in connecting environment and its inhabitants. The most significant case in the past decades is the connection between landscape and its inhabitants through biological, physical and also perceptional and behavioral approaches. Among the mentioned approaches, landscape and its connection with people’s perception is valued with great importance. Although human's connection with its surrounding is achieved through different senses, still more than 80 percents of its connection is achieved by observing. Therefore, landscape observation and its perception by human, plays an important role in the environmental recognition and perception and also determining whether a landscape is aesthetically appropriate or not. Nowadays, the aim for assessing visual quality of landscape is to define and determine certain criteria and factors that can be used for conservation, rehabilitation and renovation of landscapes as well as determining whether a landscape is aesthetically appropriate or not. By this way, landscapes with aesthetic values are conserved and the rest are amended. Because of university departments’ permanent connection with their users and also their great role and influence on the quality of life and mental health, they are considered to have great importance. Because of the daily development and vast extension of building structures and spaces in the University of Sistan and Baloochestan, yearly increase in the number of students and also being located in the arid and semi arid region of Iran on one hand, and the importance in providing desirable visual qualities in order to promote and improve the quality of environment and education for students on the other hand, this university is a suitable case study for this research. In this research, it is tried to provide reasonable suggestions and strategies by using quality sort method and participatory planning and design approach in order to develop and extend visual qualities for the mentioned site and also identify landscapes with unique characters. MethodsIn this research, after compiling theoretical bases, assembling required information and site surveys, site zoning is fulfilled through using satellite images, aerial view photos, existing condition maps and analyzed information achieved through studying various spaces and activities in the site. Parts with more similarity in usage, space and activities are considered as one zone. Through this, the site is divided into 3 zones which are educational (zone 1), residential (zone 2) and Auxiliary (zone 3).The quality sort method is used in this research. Q methodology is a way of extracting and describing subjective viewpoints. It assumes that subjectivity is structured and it combines qualitative and quantitative analysis to provide a systematic and rigorous means of objectively describing human subjectivity. Q methodology allows respondents to model their viewpoints in response to a sample set of stimuli, which can be statements or images.