علی اکبر مهرابی

For this purpose, according to Cochran's equation, from Hashtgerd-Taleghan asphalt road 26 km long and Hashtgerd-Taleghan dirt road 9 km long, road sedimentation was calculated with 17 and 11 samples, respectively, and finally, using statistical relationships, the erosion rate was calculated. And sedimentation was estimated in the entire route. By direct measurement of erosion, the total sediments remaining along the route were equal to 17259.32 tons per year, of which 6241.45 tons per year are related to the excavation wall and 11017.87 tons per year are related to the embankment wall. Using the WARSEM model, the total amount of sedimentation from asphalt and dirt roads was estimated as 15172.67 tons per year, equivalent to 52.14 tons per hectare per year, of which 9464.53 tons per year, equivalent to 48.03 tons. Per hectare per year, the contribution of the excavation wall and the embankment wall of the asphalt road is 14.5708 tons per year, which is equivalent to 22.63 tons per hectare per year, the contribution of the excavation wall and the embankment wall of the dirt road. The sensitivity of the WARSEM model for the standardized parameters for the asphalt road showed that the slope and geological factors are important factors in the sedimentation of the embankment wall and the height factor of the embankment wall is a very important parameter in the sedimentation of the embankment wall. The sensitivity of the model on the dirt road according to this score of the parameters was very close to each other.

The requirement of a comprehensive water law is the drafting and revision of laws and the scientific and legal regulation of water distribution laws. The idea of a comprehensive law is consistent in many countries to eliminate the fragmentation of laws. The comprehensive water law means the thematic examination of the laws and legal rules related to water, the realization of which requires spending a lot of time. Lack of water resources and drought, increase in population and excessive consumption of water, the existence of vague and unenforceable laws in the water sector are among the most important challenges of the country, and for the fair allocation and implementation of the correct management of the protection of water resources in watersheds, it is necessary to formulate a comprehensive water law. Failure to examine the legal position of environmental rights, as the cause of destruction of wetlands in Iran on the one hand and the indiscriminate use of river water on the other hand, causes various changes in the water flow regime and destruction of the river ecosystem and It has become wetlands and it shows the importance of drafting a comprehensive water law in Iran. The results of clarifying and drafting a comprehensive law will lead to an increase in social security and public welfare. Failure to pay attention to this type of research will lead to an increase in injustice, destruction of water and soil resources, loss of national rights and rights of people, and destruction of the environment. The purpose of the research is to examine the water laws in Iran in order to solve legal challenges and provide the basis for the development of the country's comprehensive water law.

Research materials and methods include collecting statistics and information on water laws and identifying and separating the main and secondary laws related to water, valid ruling laws from non-valid ruling and obsolete laws, and examining the thematic, conceptual relationship and analysis of water laws from a legal and structural point of view. An organization that includes the statistical population of all laws enacted during the legislative period from 1906 to 2021. In this research, a list of the main and secondary water laws, including valid and obsolete laws and expired, rejected and conflicting laws, was prepared in the form of tables and histograms, and based on the reference, ID number and date of approval, it was collected and analyzed from library and internet sources. It was conducted qualitatively in the form of theoretical framework, content analysis and conceptual model, and the parameters of the number of obsolete, conflicting, expired, repealed and valid ruling laws were quantitatively analyzed.

The research results show that out of 364 water-related laws, only 6.6% are in the form of statutes and about 21.7% are valid laws. 30% are related to protocols, agreements, conventions and contracts. 6.6 percent of the laws of the water sector are explicitly and implicitly repealed, 6% are expired and 29.1% of the existing laws are repealed, which can often be repealed during the revision process and will provide the basis for the development of the country's comprehensive water law.

The analysis of the questionnaire also shows that 95% of the respondents by choosing a very high option and 5% by choosing a high option consider it necessary to revise the comprehensive water law. Among the respondents, 89% believe that the drafting of the comprehensive water law has an effect on attracting people's participation in preserving water resources and watershed management. Therefore, the answer to most of the questions is affirming the necessity of developing a comprehensive water law.

Rangeland management is more difficult than other areas because the management of these areas includes integration and management of forage production, livestock production and forage utilization at one time and one place. Therefore, it is important to consider the various dimensions of the stakeholder groups in the management and long term planning of rangelands. This research was conducted with the aim of investigate the attitude of stakeholders towards rangeland apportion in three provinces of Lorestan, Markazi and Semnan. This included apportioning between and within utilization units and determining the boundaries of rangeland using common parlance, law, or both.

In order to collect data, levels were first considered for each of the variables. Then the data were collected using a a standardized questionnaire and analyzed using the chi-square test in SPSS software.

From the results of the frequency of the variables, it was found that from the point of view of the most of the respondents, the apportion between the utilization units has been done; While the apportion within the utilization units has not been done. In addition, in Lorestan and Central provinces, 68.90% and 68.35% of stakeholders, respectively, gave more importance to the legal in determining the boundaries of rangelands. But in Semnan province, 40.67% of the stakeholders have given more importance to custom. Also, the result showed that most stakeholders were satisfied with the apportion of utilization units between and within units. In Lorestan province there was a significant relationship between the job variable (P <0.01) and invasion to rangelands (P <0.05) with satisfaction with the apportion between utilization units, invasion to rangelands (P <0.05) with satisfaction with apportion of utilization units and education (P <0.05) and tendency to leave the job in custom or legal way in determining rangeland boundaries. Also in Markazi province, there was a statistically significant relationship between the variable of nomadic cooperative company (P <0.05) with the apportion between utilization units and in Semnan province between the variable of rangeland condition and the variable of apportion within utilization units (P <0.05).

According to the findings of this research, from the point of view of the stakeholders, the apportion utilization units is a problem in Iran, but in other countries, the apportion utilization units has not been a problem.Therefore, it is necessary to solve this problem based on local knowledge of the region. Because this leads to making unbiased decisions based on scientific and objective information. In addition, rangeland protection policies and measures can be improved based on the attitude of the stakeholders. In general, investigating the attitude of the stakeholders, in addition to providing important insights about the observations, understanding and interpretation of the social effects and ecological results of the destruction of rangelands, guarantees the support of the stakeholders in the long term.

The most important goal of watershed management is soil and water conservation, flood reduction, and vegetation enhancement. Analyzing and evaluating the performance of watershed management measures, like other development projects, seems necessary for their economic justification. In this study, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of watershed management measures in Manojan city, Kerman. Quantitative methods include double mass curve, flow continuity curve, and hydrological regime. Qualitative methods include face-to-face interviews and completing a questionnaire. Also, the economic evaluation of these projects was performed using two criteria of net present value (NPW or NPV) and profit to cost ratio (B/C). For this purpose, data related to rainfall and runoff in the years before and after the implementation of the place, and questionnaires were collected and analyzed using Excel and SPSS software. The results showed that the double mass curve shows the positive effect of watershed management on decreasing runoff rate and the current continuity curve shows the relaxation of the flow and the effect of these measures in reducing peak discharges. Qualitative results also indicate that 80.58% of people in the region believe that watershed management measures had positive effects and 19.42 no positive effects. According to NPW and B/C criteria, watershed management measures implemented in Manojan city have economic justification and have a positive economic impact. In general, the positive effectiveness of watershed management measures in soil and water protection in the study area has been confirmed qualitatively and quantitatively.

Poor participation and investment of natural resource users in cooperatives requires investigation. Effecting factors therefor, should be found and prioritized. Reference searches showed three major categories of factors: educational (extensional), economic and social factors. The case was taken into nine natural resources development cooperatives as a statistical population throughout the counties of Ardabil province.  The research followed a descriptive-survey methodology, and required information was garnered through field works and filling up a researcher-made questionnaire. Validity and reliability coefficients of the questions were confirmed by experts and Cronbachchr('39')s alpha of 0.86, respectively. Data were analyzed through proper statistical techniques. Comparing mean scores of subject-pertinent sections revealed that extension and economic factors were known as the most influential in Ardabil, Namin, Nir and Parsabad. Social issues however, were more important in the eyes of Ardabil, Nir, Khalkhal and Bilehsavar land users. Generally, variance between statistical populations of cities and research-affecting factors exhibited significant differences with a confidence level of 99%. Duncan test resykts showed that the highest value is given to social and participatory matters. For Bilehsavar and Nir cases however no significant differences was seen. According to the research results, it is proposed to work on social problems such as reforming behavior with the clientele, utilizing indigenous culture, reforming the negative mentality towards the cooperatives, raising awareness of the benefits of participation and investment, building trust among the people, etc., in the cooperatives, rather than education and extensional programs; this can attract the majority of beneficiaries to cooperatives and make them invest. The next steps in line with the priority of the provincial cities should address extensional and economic subdivisions, respectively, such as applied training, amending cooperatives’ charter, transferring executive projects to cooperatives, monetizing existing rural jobs.

Given the role of rangelands in soil conservation and soil fertility, strengthening the soil of rangelands could be achieved by range management plans (RMP). Therefore, in this research, 15 summer rangelands and 16 winter rangelands with RMP were investigated to determine the effects of range management plans on some soil properties. In each rangeland with RMP and in each vegetation type, three soil profiles were dug and soil samples were collected at two different depths. Beside each rangeland with a RMP, a rangeland with a same vegetation type and without RMP was selected for comparison and sampling was conducted. Organic matter, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus were measured in the laboratory. The data from two different range management types were analyzed in an independent sample T test using SPSS software. The results showed that, in summer rangelands, range management plans could increase the amount of some factors like phosphorus, nitrogen, and organic matter, while it had no significant impact on some other factors, including the amount of potassium and increasing the depth of horizon A. However, in the winter rangelands, the plans had no significant effect on strengthening the soil of rangelands and it seems that due to the slow changes of soil in arid areas, more time is needed to make significant changes in the soil.

Renewable natural resources are national capital and are of paramount importance in each country. Preservation and developing these resources is incumbent upon relevant institutions and all people especially the beneficiaries. In this regard, various approaches have been recommended for optimum use and sustainable preservation of natural resources especially rangelands among which co-management is highly emphasized. To pinpoint challenges and barriers before co-management, the integrated institution-beneficiaries network (institutions related to rangeland management and rangeland users) of Ghasr-e-Yaghoub village in Safashahr was analyzed applying social network analysis method. Results demonstrated that cohesion level among rangeland users and institutions related to rangeland and also network sustainability in the study area was moderate and Village Islamic Council and Jihad-e Keshavarzi (Agricultural Development Agency) were the two most influential institutions. In other words, they were core actors among all institutions. Therefore, reinforcement of cohesion among actors and recognizing key actors in different levels are necessary approaches for implementation of co-management action plan. Additionally, it helps natural resource managers for sustainable management of rangelands.

Development impact assessment is key to achieving a comprehensive planning aligned with land sustainability. In human and natural systems studies, changes can be simultaneously examined in two different systems. The purpose of this paper is to understand the effects of dam construction on land prices and land use change in nearby villages of Taleghan Dam. Descriptive - qualitative statistics were used in this research and library and field methods were used for collecting the required information. In order to specify the land value of the four villages of the area of the dam for four decaes, based on the prices of the year 1390, the land vlue formula was applied. Also, TM satellite images of 1379 and 1386 were used for pinpointing land use changes. The results of these studies indicate that dam construction in 1380s and 1390s increased land price significantly and changes in land price affected upon land use changes in nearby villages of dam and the price of land in the Zydasht village overlooking the dam increased dramatically.Based on the results of this research, it can be stated that the dynamics of the land use of the area was affected by land price that for achieving sustainability in the watershed, an effective law must be enforced to prevent land degradation and control land prices.

The concept of land use transition highlights that land use change is non-linear and is associated with other societal and biophysical system changes. Changes in human systems has resulted in changes in the natural system such as changes in land use. Land use change causes not only environmental factors like geography and topography are important, but social factors examined such as population growth or decline as well as changes in land use is a mix of economic, social and physical problems. Human societies and their environment, such as feedback, change, uncertainty and adaptation of interaction is social and biophysical changes associated with land use change is non-linear. Changes in human systems with natural systems, such as changes in land use will change. Landuse change causes not only environmental factors like geography and topography should not be involved in social factors such as population growth or decline as well as changes in land use is a mix of economic, social and physical problems. Migration impacts on economic activity seriously and may be initiate land use changes. this study was conducted To analyze the effects of Taleghan dam construction on developments in a human population and land use change analysis in a natural system,In general it can be suggested that in the years before the Taleghan dam, the area's population has been decreasing And pasture lands in the lower level of the population is in decline, but after the dam construction the lands become values in the area and seasonal population increases.

One of the conventional methods in identifying issues or making decisions in communities is considering the views of individuals of the community. The aim of this research is to determine the effective determinants of rangeland performance according to the views of range manager community in winter pastures of the Semnan province. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a multi-criteria/quantitative approach was employed for this research. Firstly, determinants of rangeland performance were grouped into human (economic and social) and natural (topographic conditions, climatology, geology and soils) criteria. Then, the major sub-criteria were identified based on interviews, existing experiences and literature review. Pairwise Comparison of all identified criteria and sub-criteria were conducted based on semi-structured questionnaire and interviews with 30 range managers. Finally, analysis of questionnaires was carried out using AHP method within Expert choice software. According to results, season, precipitation and private ownership seem to be the most important factors, respectively. However, research community had more disagreements regarding the natural criteria compared to human ones.

Lar national park is one of the best habitats for Wild Goat in the central Alborz Mountains, with a population of around 600 heads. There are about 289 nomadic families, spending one hundred days of the year (from late June until late August) in this area. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of this nomadic tribes and their cattle on habitat suitability of Wild Goat, before and after of their presence in the area, in spring and summer of 2010. In order to model habitat suitability for this species, a presence only layer was used as input to Ecological Niche Factor Analysis (ENFA) method in Biomapper software. Ecogeographic factors were also used as independent variables elevation, slope, aspect, geomorphological features, main roads, predators which consist of wolf and panther, presence point of nomadic tribes. Our results revealed that about twenty percent of the most suitable habitats will be lost, after nomads’ arrival to the area. Furthermore, the marginality index of the species will be increased; meaning that the population is pushed to marginal habitats and the species occupies narrow niche. These results emphasize the importance of regulation of grazing systems, as well as determining prohibited core zone within the national park, where grazing will be strictly forbidden during spring and summer.

Cooperation in pastoralism and indigenous knowledge of dairy management had been considered for many years in Iran and had been adapted with culture and environment of every region. This research had illustrated the analysis of indigenous knowledge and social cohesion in dairy management of grazing livestock in Ghasr e Yaghub village. Research method was a combination of filed studies، direct observation، and cooperative observation and organized interview. The results include functions of cooperative management system of “Ham Shiry” among rural women named “Shir Dan”، different dimensions of indigenous knowledge، mechanism of dairy management among women and related traditions and local cooperation. The results demonstrated that rural women in the study area had been created social institution based on local rules and in order to manage dairy products. This kind of associations had been rooted in indigenous knowledge and has a significant role to save and improve social cohesion and sustainability of economical characteristics of local inhabitants.

Providing of landing use maps and detecting of land capacity are required to manage of natural resources and environment and planning of land use. On the other hand, it is necessary to detect of the human deriving forces affecting land use change. In this research, we selected Seyed mohaleh and Drasara villages in Tonekabon city. First, were provided the land use maps in 1987 and 2008 by using TM and IRS Satellite images. Second, were investigated the human deriving forces affecting land use change through survey methods. According to results of this research can state that had been destroyed much percents of forests and added residential and agricultural lands in two villages. The most important of land use changes in two villages related to the economic problems (low income) and the economic loss of agricultural activities. Recently, the most important deterrent forces of land use changes are the property market downturn and land price that can prevent of severe changes in land use through the implementation of efficient land use law and supporting of farmers and gardeners in this region. Moreover, the most important indicators in the intensification of land use changes are being a tourist area, increasing of land price and unemployment.

Rangeland co-management emphasizes on rangeland stakeholders and analysis of social relationsamong them. Trust and collaboration relations, are two important social factors influencing rangelandco-management. This study aimed to analyze the trust and collaboration networks among rangeland stakeholders in Nariyan village, located in Taleghan Region Qualitative methods such as participatory observation and interview techniques were used to detect the target groups and evaluate the structure of livestock management in the study area. The structure of trust and collaboration networks among rangeland stakeholders were studied using some quantitative method such as network analysis approach. Three main indicators of social networks including density, centralization and reciprocity of all rangeland stakeholders network were evaluated. Also, Jacard correlation coefficient between trust and collaboration network was calculated based on QAP index and then a linear regression was produced between these two variables Results show the density level of bonding ties, social capital and social cohesion of sub-group No.1 was more than other studied groups. The centralization indicator of trust and collaboration networks based on ingoing and outgoing ties shows a scatter structure in these networks. Moreover, the reciprocity and sustainability level of sub- group No. 1 was more than other groups. The bonding of mutual trust and collaboration is more than bridging of them. The coefficient of determination results revealed that, 87 % of the collaboration changes may related to trust variable. In conclusion, the social network analysis enables rangeland managers to detect the challenges of rangeland co-management and assist them to achieve a comprehensive policy to overcome the challenges.

Agriculture sector is the main consumer of water in the world. In productive sectors like agriculture، water is considered as a valuable mediatory commodity or production input. Demand for agriculture water comes from consumers› (agriculture products›) behavior. This study aims to evaluate water use optimality in Pomegranate Arbors at the Charkhab village in the Yazd province. The data was randomly collected from 95 people of 153 beneficiaries in the study area. This study surveys water demand variations in the case of one percent change in water procurement expenses in Yazd. Elasticity estimation revealed that pomegranate producers› sensitivity to agriculture water price changes is high. To be specific، one percent increase in the price of agriculture water would decrease water demand by 24. 32 percent amongst pomegranate producers in Yazd. Production elasticity of water input was obtained 0. 0565 which is located in the third part of production region and means over-consumption of water by producers due to its low price. Given high demand for water in this arid area having appropriate polices in water pricing for optimal water consumption is needed.

Since last decades، there has been a growing interest in the human/social dimensions of natural resources governance especially the structure of social networks in achieving to successful co-management of natural resources. Network analysis as a suitable tool in optimum planning of the “network management” of rangeland in regional scale، can improve inter-organizational decision-making and coordination among key actors. Trust development and mutual relations among various actors is a key factor in policy of rangeland co-management issue. In this study، trust and collaboration networks between informal and formal institutions and rangeland users in co-management process have been investigated. Social network analysis as a quantitative method has been implicated in this research. The results of this study indicate that “Veterinary Office of Taleghan” and “Village Council” can play a key role in policy and planning of rangeland co-management which is related to higher density of trust and collaboration ties. Moreover، trust and collaboration networks among the Veterinary Office and rangeland users have more sustainability than these in related to other institutions. However، the sustainability of networks among all of institutions and rangeland users has low level. Statistical results show there is a high correlation (70%) between trust and collaboration networks and also 50% of collaboration changes are related to trust factor. Also، it can be state that lack of trust and collaboration between the Natural Resources Office and rangeland users is a key challenge for initiating of rangeland co-management. Finally، social network analysis helps manager and planner in detecting of the challenges of rangeland co-management and policy in tune with solving these challenges.

This is a descriptive-correlative study with the data gathered through 150 questionnaires distributed in a field study over the crop year of 2009-2010. Statistical sample includes all the range managers benefitting from range insurance in Fars province of Iran. The results from Spearman coefficient show that the number of the operators has a significant positive relation with the satisfaction of insurance، but the relation of compensation variable with that is not significant. In addition، the results from Mann-Whitney test indicate that the variables of willingness to make an insurance contract and satisfaction of insurance are significantly differed; and according to the results of Kruskal-Wallis test، the satisfaction of insurance has no significantly different relation with the variable of income acquisition means، but the variable of operator’s general problems is differed from that. Finally، it is suggested to reckon and assess the compensation properly as well as to pay the amount of it on-time.

Reducing unemployment and developing employment opportunities in rural and urban areas are among the main goals of development policies in many countries including Iran. Despite the allocation of different development budgets in recent years, the province has not developed well enough in comparison to other provinces and it is particularly more apparent in rural areas. The present study was a research project about rural development with an emphasis on employment and entrepreneurship. It was an applied research and a survey and the data was analyzed by SWOT method. The study findings indicated the presence of appropriate opportunities in rural areas, which have not been discovered and tapped yet and these provide possibilities for the development of job opportunities, economy and rural development.

Recently, the role of scale as one major restriction on nature recognition is hinted by many references. Accordingly, many experts attempt to explain it methodologically. On one hand, existing complex and complicated biological entities along with ambiguous methods and concepts of mechanical sciences measuring have caused the scale to remain as a crucial issue in ecology and environmental studies. On the other hand, emerging new technologies such as GIS and RS which access huge amount of data on the basis of scale, make fundamentally this issue as a significant subject of nature recognition, This methodological research is trying to explain the scale concept. Therefore, slope map as a principal element in environmental models, was chosen to assess the changes of outputs in terms of scale variety within Makhdum and Ahmadi Models, representative of environmental and watershed management models in Iran, respectively. For that reason, slope maps with two scales (25000 and 50000) and three pixel sizes (10, 20 and 50) were applied meanwhile, it is tried to obviate the misunderstanding which the scale was ignored by modeling process. So, four matrices were included and their changes were investigated by computation of covariance diagonal vector in each matrix. According to observational shifts that affected by scale and non scale factors while consideration of GIS and RS development, we concluded that the attitude of environmental models must be explained regarding scale concept. Also, the importance of new concepts related to scale (such as pixel size) and concerning the designing and planning phases have been emphasized.