سپیده سعیدی

Landscape visualization or a three-dimensional display of real world phenomena can be used as a subset of the broader context of geographical visualization to create links between past, present and future conditions and represent alternative scenarios; it could also represent exclusive data in such a way that enables people to be a part of the interactive decision-making process. This approach has an important communication role in the set of participation and decision-making and serves as a tool for environmental planning, a guide for prioritizing investments, and an incentive to apply strategic management (compared to passive management). This paper aims survey the role of 3D visualization in visual impact assessment and its role as a programming support system in urban planning and also as an appropriate tool in public consultation. Moreover introduced software in the final section could be used in different projects depending on their applications.

Urbanization which has been considered the main contributor to climatic problems in cities, not only changed the physical environment in cities, but also has affect the characteristics of local climate zone. This study aims to investigate the relationship between surface properties of Local Climate Zones (LCZ) extracted from satellite resolution images and Land Surface Temperatures (LST) in a semi-arid region. By employing the LCZ approach, the study seeks to understand how LCZs influence LSTs in this specific environmental context. This study consisted of four main steps: Image preprocessing, LST retrieval, LCZ map preparation and spatial analysis. In this way, the LCZ scheme was used to classify the study area based on two sets of built-up types and land-cover types. Google Earth was used to specify training areas under study and to define different LCZ types. The Split Window Algorithm (SWA) was used to retrieve LST from Landsat-8 TIRS. The results showed that the built type and the land-cover type behave like two independent sets of patterns in the study area. The build type set fluctuated in a higher LST range than the cover land set (forest, farmlands and bushes). By shedding light on the relationship between the surface properties of LCZs and LSTs, the study provides valuable insights into the factors influencing thermal dynamics in semi-arid environments. Armed with this knowledge, urban planners can develop more informed strategies and interventions aimed at mitigating heat-related challenges and improving overall urban livability.

Ecosystem cultural services are intangible benefits that people get from the environment and include aesthetic values, cultural identity, social relations, sense of place, recreation and tourism, knowledge and educational values. These services are directly related to human health and comfort. These services are derived from the link between people and their surroundings. According to the existing capacities in Alangdareh forest park, this park is considered as a huge cultural and ecological wealth, a capacity that can be used to attract tourists to this area and the fields of environmental protection and sustainable development of this area. He created a forest. The purpose of this study is to determine the most important criteria of cultural services in Alangdareh Forest Park. For this purpose, a questionnaire was compiled and distributed among 270 visitors, and the results were analyzed in SPSS software using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method. The results showed that among the 20 criteria of cultural services identified in this research, six criteria: the value of reducing the physical risk of physical injury, access to water, food and healthy air, inspiration and sense of place, cultural heritage, identity and value of place, recreational value - Recreation has the most important aesthetic value. The results of this research, while identifying the most important cultural services of Alangdareh Forest Park, can help planning experts and managers in the more accurate and informed development of cultural tourism services, and with the development of these services, it is necessary to attract more tourists to this area. provided the area.

Many hazardou s industrial activities, including gas transmission pipe lines, are expose d to damage cause d by natural hazard s. Record s show that a wide range of natural hazard s may affect the gas pipe line system. The purpose of this research is to determine the vulnerable parts of the gas feeding network in Golestan Province. This research was carried out in three steps: identification of hazards affecting the gas feeding network using the Delphi method, zonin g of hazards using the MCE method, and assessment of overlap between natural hazards’ zones and gas feeding network. For zoning land hazards based on the results of the Delphi process and available data, maps of earth quakes, floods, land subsidence, gully erosion, slope instability, land slides (general) were used. The result of hazard zoning showe that lands lides (22.3%), land subsidence (22%), slope instability (20%), gully erosion (17%), flood (11%), earthquake (8%) contributed to the areas with a high hazard ratin g covering a remarkable area of the province. The overlap between the hazard map and the gas feeding network show s that the highest amount of hazard s for the gas feeding network is cause d by land subsidence (50%), gully erosion (38%), slope instability (31.8%), landslide (31.6%), flood (31%) and earthquake (7%), respectively. These results indicate that the greatest hazard from natural hazard s affecting the gas feeding network originate s from land subsidence, and the least hazard that affects the gas feeding network is caused by earthquake.

Urbanization can affect land surface temperature (LST) on a global scale by changing the natural land forms. Reducing the consequences of climate changes, requires to develop a coherent land use/cover management plan that restricts unplanned urban expansion and increases green cover. The purpose of this study is to investigate how features and spatial patterns of urban areas and its surroundings affect the LST of Bojnord city. For this, a split-window algorithm (SWA) used for land surface temperature (LST) retrieval from Landsat 8 TIRS of 2021. Based on the results, the main centers of high heat emission in urban areas such as public facilities, car parks and industrial areas have higher LST (more than 38 °C) compared to urban green spaces (less than 36 °C)c, which are cooler parts of the city. Comparing the results with MODIS nighttime LST reveals the different behavior of LST in day and night in urban and non-urban areas. In this study, the difference between day and night LST was revealed using MODIS nighttime LST. The spatial autocorrelation result show the contrast of LST behavior in urban and peri-urban fabric in semi-arid regions. The presence of hot spots in permeable surface areas such as agricultural land and cold spots in impermeable areas indicate the opposite effect of urban heat island in such areas. Understanding the complex interactions of urban land uses and LST by considering regional climate patterns can help managers and urban planners to improve the quality of life in urban areas.

Societies nowadays encounter with a large number of environmental problems. Management of these problems requires involvement of a large number of people. Such issues can be solved using crowdsourcing methods which brings people together in a large network. Considering the fact that any development will affect land management, recent studies have given more attention to public participation in program management and problem solving. There are various approaches for effective land management that need overall community participation. In this regard, crowdsourcing methods have provided the possibility of public participation in decision making that help individuals to have an effective role in land management. People participating in this process can share their opinions, ideas, information, abilities and awareness through internet regardless of their physical location. The purpose of this study was to introduce crowdsourcing, its advantages and disadvantages, and some of crowdsourcing-based applications and their functions in land management. The results of this research based on the literature review showed the significant impact of public participation in decision making on environmental issues and performing proper management strategies. Such participation will help reduce costs and provide quick information and assistance.

Human-induced land use land cover changes have resulted in adverse impacts on the environment at various spatial and temporal scales. Land surface temperature (LST) is an important indicator associated with strong spatio-temporal variability in complex Earth Patterns. Remote sensing is the primary source for various types of thematic data critical to land analysis, including land use data and land surface temperature changes. In this study, first, to analyze the spatial-temporal land surface temperature changes, LST maps were prepared using Radiative Transfer Equation, Single Channel Algorithm, Split Window Algorithm and Two Mono Window Algorithm. Then the performance of Land Surface Temperature (LST) retrieval methods was evaluated. Land use and land cover maps were prepared to investigate the contribution and role of each land use class on the changes of the LST.  Also, the effects Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, Normalized Difference Built-up Index and elevation on LST variability were investigated. There was a positive correlation of LST with Normalized Difference Built-up Index and a negative correlation with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and elevation for all years. Spatio-temporal analysis shows a 6.64°C increase in LST from 1989 to 2021. The results clearly showed the moderating role of vegetation, regardless of its type, on LST. The findings of the present study serve as basic information for future studies to investigate the impact of different policies on LULC change in the region. Also, the obtained results reveal the importance of studying and examining the mentioned changes in order to achieve sustainable development.

Land surface temperature is a significant factor affecting thermal variation and balance in global studies. In the last two decades, the great necessity for LST data in environmental studies and land resource management activities has made the measurement of LST as a major scientific debate. Discovering the spatial heterogeneity of land surface temperature and analyzing the key factors and specific effective spatial relationships that are affected by time series have great importance in land management. The aim of this study is to analysis of land surface temperature driving factors and spatial heterogeneity using spatial regression models. To review this issue, daily LST maps were prepared by the radiative transfer equation method using Landsat 7 and 8 data for 2002, 2013, and 2021 years in Bojnord city. The analysis of land surface temperature in areas where barren lands prevail requires nighttime temperature data. Therefore, MODIS night LSTs were also prepared as auxiliary maps. Pearson correlation, spatial autocorrelation, ordinary least square, and geographically weighted regression models were used for data analysis. Then, the performance of the models was compared using the coefficient of determination and the Akaike information criterion. The results showed that the GWR approach had a better prediction accuracy and a better ability to describe spatial non-stationarity than the OLS approach. The spatial response of LST and different influencing variables from 2002 to 2021 showed that the development of green space plays an important role in modulating land surface temperatures. Since LST is influenced by various variables, including topography, climatic and atmospheric variables, and vegetation, therefore, understanding spatial relationships and analyzing the areas with high LST can be useful as a way forward in the planning strategies.

Landscape aesthetic value is one of the ecosystem services, which has many social and economic benefits for the society and the residents. Therefore, identifying the economic and cultural criteria affecting aesthetic values by considering the experts and stakeholders perspective in order to assess and evaluate the aesthetic value is very important. The purpose of this research is to identify economic and cultural criteria affecting aesthetic values regarding the experts’ perspective and to examine the role of these criteria by considering the residents view of five districts of Gorgan city. The Delphi method was used to identify these criteria and using a public questionnaire, the role of these criteria on increasing the aesthetic quality of the study area was investigated. According to the results of the Delphi method, nine factors, including the cultural and historical heritage in the region, the number of visitors of natural areas, the existence of man-made tourism areas, the level of people's attitude and knowledge towards environmental protection, infrastructure and welfare services, environmental quality, urban design, safety and security were recognized as the most important economic and cultural criteria affecting the aesthetic values of Gorgan city. The results of surveying of the selected economic and cultural criteria in the public questionnaire showed that, the desirability of the studied districts is decreasing from South Estrabad, Roshan Abad, Qoroq, North Estrabad to Angirab according to public attitudes. The results of this research showed that considering the stakeholders perspective along with the expert’s opinion to determine the economic and cultural criteria can encourage residents and managers to better protection of the aesthetic values of the region.

In today's era, human interventions have caused chaos in landscape patterns and degradation in landscape quality. Therefore, identifying landscape aesthetic beauty, and also fundamental planning and valuable areas, and proper planning and design in order to protect and promote the aesthetic value seem to be necessary and unavoidable. In this research, the aim is to investigate the performance of various experimental methods (multi-criteria evaluation using weighted linear combination), mathematical (logistic regression), and intelligent (neural network)) in estimating the suitability of the aesthetic value of Gorgan city. After theoretical studies and determination of effective criteria, mapping and standardization of the criteria were done and finally, the map of aesthetic-value suitability was prepared based on the methods of weighted linear combination, neural network, and logistic regression. In order to evaluate the performance of different methods and choose the optimal method, ground control points and ROC validation methods were used. The results showed that in the map resulting from the weighted linear combination method, a large part of the data was lost as a result of the linear combination of layers and weighting, and the neural network method with intelligent performance and the ability to combine and analyze non-linearly compared to the weighted linear combination method and also performing back and forth analysis compared to the logistic regression method, better separates the value of the studied area. According to the results of this research, it can be concluded that when there is little knowledge about the studied area and it is not possible to conduct field surveys to record valuable points of view, performing the weighted linear combination method can be a solution, but if it is possible to conduct field surveys to prepare a map of real educational samples as a dependent variable, more accurate results can be obtained with the help of the neural network method and logistic regression, more accurate results can be achieved, and in the meantime, the intelligent neural network method has a higher ability to distinguish the values of the environment image.

Paying attention to the landscape values will increase the credibility and value of its walking tracks. Regarding the importance of walking tracks in creating the sense of tranquility, security, and beauty for human beings, it is essential to preserve and improve the scenic beauty and quality of these routes. Recognition of effective criteria on landscape values is one of the important factors in tourist attraction that might lead to economic development of the region. Ziarat watershed basin with its beautiful landscapes is one of the most famous tourist destinations of Golestan province. The purpose of this study is to determine the most important criteria for selecting and prioritizing the routes which has been done using a questionnaire survey and principle components analysis method. The questionnaire was distributed among 388 visitors of the study area and the results were analyzed using SPSS software. The results showed that among 22 surveyed criteria in this study, 6 criteria including route length, diversity of vegetation density, cleanliness, texture diversity, directional signs and shape of the route (direct trails or complex trails) are more important criteria for visitors. The results of this research could be used to improve the route landscapes and their quality, attract more tourists, and provide a framework for selecting and classifying the routes.

Gentamicin (GM) is an antibiotic widely used against gram-negative infections. However, its clinical application is limited due to its nephrotoxicity. Oxidative stress plays an important role in the nephrotoxicity of gentamicin. Previous studies showed that Rosa canina L. (RC) fruits possess antioxidant, antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic effect. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effect of RC on GM-induced nephrotoxicity in rats. Thirty male Wistar rats were divided into five groups and treated as follows: Group 1 (control group) was treated by the oral administration of 1 ml normal saline, Group 2 was treated by a 100 mg/Kg (B.W) dose of GM intraperitoneally, Group 3 was treated by oral administration of 200 mg/Kg (B.W) of RC followed by a 100 mg/Kg (B.W) dose of GM intraperitoneally, Group 4 was treated by oral administration of 400 mg/Kg (B.W) RC followed by a 100 mg/Kg (B.W) of GM intraperitoneally, and Group 5 was treated by oral administration of 400 mg/Kg (B.W) of RC. The nephrotoxicity observed in each group was histopathologically evaluated by light microscopy and biochemically evaluated by measuring the levels of creatinine and urea in the blood serum. The relative weight of kidney in each gentamicin-treated animals in the group 2 was increased in comparison with those in the control group (p<0.05), however, the administration of RC extract decreased the kidney somatic index toward the normal level. While the animals treated with gentamicin showed significantly higher levels of serum urea and creatinine (p<0.001), simultaneous coadministration of GM with a high dose of RC (400 mg/Kg (B.W) ameliorated the biochemical indices of nephrotoxicity, showing the significant decrease in the levels of serum creatinine and urea. In addition, Histomorphological examination showed that the rats treated with GM suffered necrosis and desquamation of tubular epithelial cells, glomerular stasis and inflammatory cell infiltration in renal cortex, while simultaneous administration of RC and GM reduced those histologically damages. It could be concluded that the administration of RC showed a protective effect on the rat kidney by preventing renal damages induced by GM, therefore, the RC-based supplements could be proposed to minimize the GM-induced renal damages.

The level of human life has always been in progress with the development of science and human knowledge, but this growth has not been uniform in all areas and consequently different communities with different socio - economic development levels have been created. Using regional planning seems to be a necessity to reduce these inequalities. The goal of the present research is to assess and rank the socio – economic rural development level of Golestan Province townships. Entropy and TOPSIS methods were used to weight the criteria and prioritize the cities. Tweleve criteria in four main categories including population, transportation, welfare and healthcare were selected to measure the socio – economic rural development levels. The results showed that Gonbad Kavoos has the first rank with a coefficient of 0.92 and Bandar gaz has last rank with a coefficient of 0.12. After calculating the development rates, townships were divided into one of the high, medium, low and very low classes. Finally, sensitivity analysis with seven repetitions was implemented to ensure the consistency of the results. The results of this research can be used as a model to design proper growth and development plans for Golestan Province townships.

Urban landscape is one of the most important issues which has been given less attention in urban planning. Along with urban growth, the areas with high visual quality have been more threatened and consequently urban natural quality has declined. So it is essential try to maintain or even improve the landscape visual quality and to include this issue in urban planners’ agenda. The goal of this research is surveying urban growth and its effect on landscape visual quality in Gorgan Township of the Golestan Province of Iran. Landscape visual quality modeling was done MCE WLC method with 9 factors including gardens and agricultural lands, rivers, vegetation type diversity, toposhape diversity, vegetation density, building height and density, urban green space; squares, refuges, boulevards (as one layer) and archaeological sites. Urban growth was predicted using SLEUTH model by developing three different scenarios including historical, managed and restricted growth in beautiful patches. Urban growth ratio from 2010 to 2030 for the first and second scenarios are 2.17 and 2.04 and for the first and second sub models of the third scenario are 1.91 and 1.18 in order. So by correct implementation of urban growth policies, 323 ha in the second scenario and 2500 and 650 ha in the first and second sub models of the third scenario would be saved. It is possible to do any changes and also manage the future urban growth in this integrated model, so using this approach as a multi object and dynamic approach would be useful in landuse planning.

Archaeologists define the Proto-Elamite phenomenon by the appearance of Proto-Elamite writing, the first form of local writing in Iran on tablets in many cases together with specific types of other management tools and pottery, over a vast geographical territory across the Iranian plateau. Different explanations have been offered to account for this spread and the shift from a Mesopotamian-oriented culture during the earlier period (Late Uruk) to a predominantly Iranian-oriented culture during the late fourth and early third millennium BCE. However, up to now, most of these explanations have been concentrated on the recovered material culture from Fars in the southern part of the plateau and Khuzestan in the southwest. New discoveries from sites on the northern fringes of the plateau depict a fresh and more complete picture of this enigmatic phenomenon. The new excavations and surveys conducted in the settlements that contain the material culture of this horizon have significantly added to our knowledge about the formation and spreading processes of this horizon. Cultural material recently recovered from these sites have extended the Proto-Elamite territory even further, have changed our understanding of the relationships among them and the potential ways this cultural horizon was shaped and diffused. In this paper, we present some of the newly discovered evidence from these sites including but not limited to: Sofalin, Shoghali, Ozbaki, Gholi Darvish and compare them with our older understanding of the presence of this cultural horizon in the center and northern parts of the Iranian plateau.

Environmental degradation, increasing loss of natural resources and growing trend of various environmental pollution shows the critical status of environment. Lack of human awareness about the importance of environment makes this situation more critical. Children and teens are the major capital of a community. The attention rate of the officials in upgrading the level of environmental knowledge of this group could be a basis to estimate the environmental progress in different fields. This research was done by determining the effective socio- economic and individual parameters on the level of environmental knowledge and attitude of urban and rural secondary school students. Statistical society of this study was all sixth, seventh and eighth grade students of two educational regions of Qazvin and villages which were covered by these two educational regions. Using stratified random sampling, 721 students were tested by the questionnaire. Collected data were analyzed by SPSS using ANOVA and T test. The results showed significant differences between urban and rural student’s environmental knowledge and no significant difference between urban and rural students’ environmental attitude.
From 16 different individual and socio-economic parameters which were tested in this research; gender and type of school were effective on both environmental knowledge and attitude of urban and rural communities while the effects of the other parameters were different between these two communities and some other parameters had no effects. The results of this research could be useful in future decision making to increase environmental knowledge and attitude of the students.

This paper presents one way that landscape visual character can be captured using indicators derived from nine theory-based concepts related to landscape perception. The paper aims to establish links between landscape aesthetic theory and visual indicators, thus exploring what landscape indicators are really indicating. The steps from abstract visual concepts to measurable visual indicators are described, and links are made to theories of landscape preferences and perception. The focus of the paper is on the application of indicators, including a presentation of the possible data sources of the presented indicators. The paper includes a discussion on the selection of appropriate landscape indicators through a suggested filtering process. The ‘filtering’ will identify a suitable set of visual indicators for application within a specific project or landscape context. The relationships between the concepts and the ability of visual indicators to capture changes in landscape character and other issues related to interpretation are discussed

Nowadays, landscape would be regarded as one of the main elements of identity, existence, stability of the environment and a connector between the environment and its users. In this regard, landscape and its relationship with people perception are very momentous. Analysis of the relationships between visual quality and structural characteristics of landscape is an effective method in cognitive researches. In general, studies which are performed based on the aesthetic criteria of landscape not only are searching about the beauty or excellence of landscapes but also are looking for the user's aesthetic preferences. In this study the goal is to prioritize walking tracks of Ziarat basin from the point of cognitive and aesthetic value by using conceptual approach.
For this purpose, field survey of walking tracks was conducted to take photographs and mark the viewpoints. Finally a questionnaire survey was developed to investigate the landscape preference which ordinal classification was used in it. Questionnaires were distributed between 217 of visitors. Data which obtained from questionnaires were analyzed by using SPSS software.
Findings: The results showed that the walking tracks of the study area are totally different from the point of visual quality and due to visitor preference, Talambar walking tracks has attached the first priority and Sefid cheshmeh has attached the last priority.
Discussion and Counclusion: The results of this paper would lead to introduce preferable walking tracks and special view points and landscape of each walking tracks. The results could also help the managers to develop more beautiful trails, and to design and construct sightseeing places along the trails for visitors.

In general, landscape studies, conducted based on aesthetic criteria, do not seek to determine the aesthetic value but seek to extract aesthetic preferences of users. These studies have been performed in two different approaches. The first approach is based on measurable objective criteria and surveying the interaction between these criteria and the second one is based on recognition of the conceptual criteria from the point of observers view. The aim of this study is to identify the most important criteria affecting the landscape visual quality.
In this study, objective and subjective criteria of Ziarat basin, where is one of the tourism poles of Golestan province, were prioritized from the point of aesthetic value using the second approach. A questionnaire was developed and distributed among 100 visitors. Data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS software and the criteria were prioritized using ordinal classification.
From total of 23 objective and subjective criteria which were surveyed in this study, the first 5 criteria with the highest score were: pristine area, cleanliness of environment, waterfall visibility, visibility of diverse point and color diversity of a landscape. These 5 criteria could be introduced as the most effective criteria on scenic value of the study area.
The subjective criteria introduced in this study could be used as a perfect series of effective criteria which affect the perception of visitors in the other regions too; however, selection of objective criteria for evaluating the visual quality would be different according to geographical location, climatic and topographic characteristics of the area.

Main trend of ecotourism is nature and its beauties; so finding the beautiful landscapes and evaluating aesthetic values of the area would be considered as one of the principles of recreational planning. Scenic beauty is a major component of every encounter with the natural environment in tourism and recreation activities. Visual elements of landscape not only present aesthetical values but also verify the mutual relationships of these values in cultural, economic and biological dimensions. The perceived aesthetic value of landscape is beyond identifying processes of physical and biological signs on the landscape and virtually is a perceptional process originated from visual aesthetic exchanges between the observer and geographic space. This perception is a process through which sensory information can be detected and classified into meaningful structures. The aesthetic appreciation of a landscape as it is perceived by humans has been a subject of theory development in various disciplines. With the development of land use planning, and its requirement for environmental data on which to base land use decisions, came an increased desire to elaborate valid means to quantify the scenic characteristics of landscapes. Due to the fact that visual sense has the highest amount of influence on the quality of individuals’ recreational experience, visual quality assessment seems to be essential. Integration of GIS beside field surveys has provided more sophisticated decision support tools for solving complex management problems such as evaluating the scenic value considered as a non-quantifiable source in the recent past. Most studies have been conducted to assess the landscape visual quality in Iran is based on subjective approach and there is no references about objective assessment. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to evaluate the visual quality of landscapes to single out more valuable landscapes.
Since the main trend of ecotourism is nature and its beauties so finding beautiful landscapes and evaluating aesthetic values of the area would be considered as one of the principles of recreational planning. Special geographic position, climate diversity, special topographic and geomorphologic statuses are considered as unique potentials of ecotourism. Given that, Ziarat watershed which is one of the tourism poles of the Golestan province in Iran and comprises the above mentioned characteristics was selected as the study area to assess and model the aesthetic value of its walking tracks using an objective approach as it named logistic regression method.
Regression model is a statistical model which explained the relationship between a phenomenon (the dependent variable) and some of its elements (independent variables) based on a defined set of observed data. Logistic regression model is a special type of regression model which independent variable in it is Boolean and attaches only zero or one. The main assumption of regression logistic is that the possibility of which the dependent variable attaches the one score (a positive response) is followed by a logistic curve and this amount would be calculated using the equation (1):Equation (1): p(Y=1/X)=(exp∑▒BX)/(1笚∑▒BX)
According to the above equation:P: Is the probability in which the dependent variable attaches One score.
X: Is the independent variables
B: Is the coefficients of the independent variables
This logarithmic change caused that the predicted possibility was in the range of 0 to 1.
Accuracy assessment of regression model:Accuracy assessment of regression model will be calculated using Pseudo-R2 and ROC indices. Pseudo-R2 will be examined the fitness of the model based up on the rate of the possibility as it followed (equation 2):Equation (2): Pseudo- R2 =1-( log(likelihood)/ log(Lo))
If Pseudo- R2 were higher than 0.2 , it would be regarded as a good fitness of model in spatial studies.
In summary, the main steps of this research are as it follows:Identifying effective criteria on scenic values of the study area (independent variables)
Marking the most beautiful points of the study area (dependent variable)
Mapping independent variables
Standardization of independent variables
Running the regression model
Accuracy assessment of regression model
Discussion of After data collection and mapping the factors affecting the aesthetic value of the study area, these criteria were standardized between 0-255. Finally eight criteria including tree type, vegetation density, diversity of vegetation density, ecotone of tree type, viewshed layer for waterfalls, peaks and rivers along the walking tracks and visibility of points with higher diversity were inserted in the model as independent variables. As mentioned in previous part, dependent variable is a Boolean layer including beautiful and non-beautiful point of the study area. Finally, after the implementation of the model, each variable with respect to their impact on the aesthetic value, has allocated separated regression weight as it shown in table 1.
Table 1. Regression coefficient assigned to each criterion
Independent variable Regression coefficient
Tree type 0.00113912
Vegetation density 0.01807187
Diversity of vegetation density 0.01763468
Ecotone of tree type
Waterfall viewshed -0.00324110
0.08655779
Peak’s viewshed 0.00562768
River’s viewshed 0.00970483
High diversity point viewshed 0.01256638
Intercept -7.2442
The results of regression model (coefficients) shows that the ecoton of tree type has an inverse relationship with aesthetic value and by increasing the ecotone value, the aesthetic value will be decreased While other parameters have a direct relationship with aesthetic value.
The model was validated using Pseudo-R2 and ROC indices. The estimated value of Pseudo- R2 for this model was equal to 0.4129, and this amount was higher than 0.2 which represented the good fitness of model. Validating by ROC confirmed the results of the model too, ROC index was equal to 0.875.
Fig (1) shows the prediction map of the model. This map has predicted aesthetic value of the study area using the independent variables.
Fig (1): Prediction map of the aesthetic value using logistic regression model
In order to determine the importance of each independent variable, we tried to remove each of variables from the regression equation and examined its impact of each criterion (fig 2). The indices of river and the visibility of high diverse point were the most effective criteria.
Fig (2): The elimination effect of each independent variable on model’s validity
The development of measuring aesthetic/environmental quality has made progress over the last years. In addition, it is possible to create statistically reliable maps to predict visual quality of environment. The process is relatively efficient and effective. Planners, designers, and citizens can measure the perceived effects of spatial treatments and can assess the perceived impact of various proposals and plans. The represented approach in this research is one more tool in a toolbox of expert and statistical measures to understand the impacts proposals and plans may have upon the environment. The proposed approach (not with the same criteria as each region can differ in terms of their biophysical characteristics) can be conducted in other similar geographic regions to evaluate and rank the scenic beauty of landscapes.
The results showed that the zones which have had more aesthetic value often has been located in central region, eastern and western ridge and south part of the study area. Validating the regression model by Pseudo-R2 and ROC indexes showed the high capability of model to determine the areas which have the high aesthetic quality. The results of this research can

Tourism is now one of the most important economic, social and cultural issues. Development of ecotourism as one of the most attractive type of tourism could have had remarkable environmental impacts in addition to its economic, social and cultural effects. These effects would have had destructive impacts on many aspects of human and natural environment if not carefully considered, and do not develop preventive measures in the form of guidelines, standards and continuous evaluations and would have caused instability in environment and consequently in ecotourism. However, ecotourism as an appropriate tool could have had a global or regional role in sustainable tourism. Unfortunately, ecotourism now is not properly managed and is defined in a way that is far from the standards which are discussed in this paper to achieve sustainable success. For example, community participation and satisfaction of native people in tourism activities is one of the necessities to achieve the goals of sustainable tourism. On the other hand, adopted tourism policies not only should have pay attention to the marketing and the number of visitors but also should considered to the visitors experience quality and the region integrity. The purpose of this article is to explain, interpret and differentiate the concepts of tourism and ecotourism and develop some of the required principles and policies to achieve the sustainable tourism using ecotourism.

Recent literature paid high attention to scenic evaluation of natural landscapes. The individual perception, due to the perceptual characteristics of landscape, is different from one to another and this is what called as “aesthetic preferences” in this study. These perceptions are different from one to other as a result of landscapes diversity and based on the shape, color, texture, rhythm, suitability, balance, symmetry, order, direction and continuity. The aim of this research was to identify the objective and subjective criteria which are effective on the scenic beauty perception of landscapes.
This is a reviewing research which is done by librarian method and using the existing documents. In this paper, related components and variables have been surveyed by investigating landscape elements.
land use planners usually assess the scenic value of landscapes using the objective and subjective approaches. At the first approach, landscape visual quality is defined by physical and biological values of landscape such as diversity of toposhape, vegetation cover, water features and man-made features and in the second approach is defined according to the individual vision, perception and feeling.
This paper is presented a list of objective and subjective criteria which are effective on scenic value of a landscape and the role of each criterion in the preference of a landscape is expressed. Final conclusions showed that spatial expansion of a landscapes without proper aesthetic impact assessments will endanger the high valuable tourism natural resources, therefore recognizing of objective and subjective factors seems to be necessary for proper assessment. Aesthetic quality should not be considered as the only inherent characteristic of an object but also the differentiation of mind and nature would make it easier to honor the role of emotions in estimation of landscape aesthetic preferences, actually aesthetic analyzing can be examined by a degree of objectivity based on public preferences. The combination of objective and subjective approaches could be used as a comprehensive method to assess the aesthetic quality of a landscape. Regarding that the visual sense has the most impact on the quality of recreational experience of individuals so assessing the aesthetic and visual quality of a landscape should be regarded as a fundamental part in land use planning and management projects.

Visualization technologies are powerful tools for communicating the scientific outcomes of environmental planning models between the researchers and public participants. A common problem of landscape and environmental planning is that projects are rarely presented in a coherent and stimulating manner. Laypersons are usually overwhelmed by abstract, graphically sparse mapping and are unable to translate this information into landscape images. One of the solutions of this problem is benefit from improvements of 3D visualization technologies. Recently Integration of GIS and three-dimensional visualization technology has been introduced in urban planning and landscape design, so this paper attempts to explain some of the principles and basic concepts in this regard. This paper is generally presented in two parts: the first part expresses the importance of 3D visualization of spatial data and compares different capabilities of 3D making in CAD and GIS softwares, and it has also been referred to some of the problems and solutions of developing 3D GIS softwares. In the second part, some of the three-dimensional systems are introduced and explained. This represented paper is trying to reveal the power of 3D GIS in creating interaction between planners, managers and the general audience

Perception of aesthetic concept is one of the most important and required issues in designing recreational areas. Methods of aesthetic evaluation divide into two distinct parts: community perception evaluation and expert evaluation. In expert evaluation methode, valuation is based on visual concepts and objective beauty of landscape through scientific methods, but in community perception evaluation, evaluation is based on the sense experience, values and cognition of the individuals. The goal of this paper is objective assessment of landscape aesthetic values in Ziarat watershed basin using artificial neural network through multi-layer perceptron method. Mapping and standardization of criteria were done after reviewing the available documents, determining the effective criteria and generating the relevant layers for the study. Then, the suitability map of aesthetic values was obtained using the MLP model. The probability image created during the process was used to assess the accuracy through ROC. The ROC index was calculated at 0.875 which endorsed the accuracy of the model. Our experience shows that artificial neural network method is an appropriate tool for landscape aesthetic values modeling in the study area. The results of this model could eventually ease site selection process for recreational areas in more beautiful places.

Recent literature attaches high importance to scenic evaluation of natural landscapes. Scenic beauty evaluation techniques often use parameters derived from photographs or collected in situ data via field assessment and questionnaires. Such techniques are relatively costly and time consuming. Park managers and recreational planners require spatial tools and techniques that are fast، flexible and repeatable in order to extract predictable spatial data from scenic resources. As it is impossible or very hard to measure all essential parameters directly، the use of spatial data and Geographic Information System for the assessment and modeling of visual quality of landscapes has become inevitable. This paper develops a spatial method for evaluation of scenic attractiveness of landscapes using geographic information systems (GIS). At first the effective criteria were chosen according to characteristics of study area then these criteria were weighted using AHP. In the next step criteria were combined using Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) method to reveal the suitability of scenic beauty. Eventually، for land zoning according to scenic value، the module of Zonal Land Suitability (ZLS) was applied and the walking tracks of Talambar، Chomazchal، Zeble، Mazookesh، The first waterfall of Ziarat and Sardansar were being suggested as more beautiful walking tracks.