جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « مدل سازی معادلات ساختاری » در نشریات گروه « جغرافیا »

With the occurrence of the industrial revolution, apart from any change in the world, the population experienced significant growth. This increase in population, and subsequent urban expansion caused numerous environmental, social and economic crises to the urban system, which resulted in a decrease in the quality of urban life and psycho-psychological consequences. In order to respond to these problems, several ideas were raised; one of them was the idea of the biophilic city. Biophilic City with emphasis the relationship with nature refers to its essential role in physical and mental health. In this city, the relationship between society and nature is very clear. A city can be considered biophilic where, in addition to communicating with nature, there are citizens who love nature and are diligent in preserving and developing it. Therefore, biophilic citizens can be considered a fundamental concept in the heart of the “Biophile City”. A citizen who performs biophilic affairs. It is clear that citizens have many distinctions based on some demographic variables such as age, education, income and so on. Hence,  identifying their differences and similarities is fundamental to a comprehensive strategy and planning. This study is important because Khaf, like most cities in Iran, follows a warm and dry climate. Along with this climatic background, the multiplicity of mines and industries has linked the lives of the citizens of this city with numerous physical and mental diseases. This is where the city as a place of gathering, commerce, and, most importantly, a human habitat, it requires clean air, clean water and a lively environment. Implementation of biophilic principles can create a healthy environment based on nature for residents. The five general objectives pursued in this study are:Comparative Evaluation of Citizens' Biophilic Activities and Attitudes with the Standard Value of the Local Model of Biophilic City; Assessing the Impact of Urban Infrastructure on Citizens' Activities and Attitudes ; Evaluating the Correlation between Population Characteristics and Biophilic Activities; Evaluation of the Correlation between Population Characteristics and Biophilic Knowledge and Attitude; Exploratory Analysis of Effective Dimensions on Identification of Biophilic Citizen.

The present study is a  descriptive-analytic study, and also, in terms of purpose, it is an applied study in which data collection is in  library-survey. The theoretical framework of the research was first developed. Then, by interviewing (the experts of the municipality and the environment department of Khaf)  and studying the documents, data and information in these organizations, the initial evaluation of urban infrastructure and other related items became biophilic city. Then, using the questionnaire method, the evaluation of the components affecting the explanation of the biophilic citizen model was measured. Considering the lack of familiarity of citizens with the concept of a biophilic city and the lack of explanation and interpretation of the concept of a biophilic citizen, a coefficient of error of 0.08 was applied in Cochran's formula. Therefore, the sample size was 150 and for better generalization, 30 questionnaires surplus to  the initial number of distributions. There were 180 questionnaires. Pearson statistical analysis and structural equation modeling in Amos Graphic software are the dominant evaluation methods in this study.

Realizing this concept requires the cooperation of institutions and media with each other. On the other hand, it was found that demographic jaggies affect biophilic activities and attitudes and knowledge. The components of "biophilic infrastructure" and "biophilic institutions and organizations", such as "population characteristics", affect two components of  "biophilic activities" and "biophilic knowledge and attitude". In contrast, they are not affected by any components.  At the end of the study، it was also revealed that demographic characteristics such as age, gender, education, etc. There is a positive   and meaningful relationship with biophilic activities. The analysis of this relationship shows that the characteristics of the population as an independent entity have a great impact on "biophilic activities" and "biophilic attitudes and awareness", and citizens have different activities and knowledge and attitude in terms of age, education, marital status, gender and socioeconomic characteristics. In the right of time,  what increases or decreases the activities and the attitude and awareness of citizens towards biophilic activities is their demographic characteristics. Also, the more awareness and attitude of citizens towards the concept of biophilic citizens, their biophilic activities will increase.

Naturalism, life-saving and environmental protection are the necessities and fundamental concepts in the biophilic city. Biophilic is a city that considers nature first in its design, planning, and management. Khaf is involved in green space  development with problems such as water shortage and bad climate, which has caused the city's lack of green space. The issue of increasing age and education and effect on the increase of biophilic activities can be considered as one of the opportunities of Khaf. Because the city has faced an increase in the number of students and educated people in recent years, and by putting together people and indigenous citizens who have a long history of living in Khaf, effective measures can be taken to realize the biophilic city. The socioeconomic situation of individuals also has a direct impact on the presence of green spaces. This concept can have various reasons, including that this group of citizens have more time for rest and recreation, and generally fewer worries create more opportunities for them to spend in green spaces. Paying attention to the concept of a biophilic city can be one of the policies of the development of Khaf. The city has faced the phenomenon of migration in recent years. Perhaps the climate, along with economic issues, is one of the most important reasons. The crowd knew the exit. In this way, the biophilic city strategy in the development of Khaf can improve the climate and prevent the migration of citizens، especially educated people, who are the capital needed for the city for development. In order to realize the concept of biophilic citizen in Khaf, the following measures are proposed:Developing a biophilic citizen strategic plan for Khaf city;Adoption of laws supporting the development of the intellectual and physical structures of the city of Khaf and the preparation of guidelines for  the development of the intellectual and physical structures of the biophilic city; Using the capacity of media to educate and expand the concept of a biophilic citizen; Providing an executive plan to preserve and expand urban green spaces in accordance with water and climate constraints with a biophilic approach;
Holding educational workshops for students to raise awareness about the duties of biophilic citizens.

In the current situation, it becomes more necessary to pay attention to social and economic sustainability, taking into account the challenges and bottlenecks facing developing countries, and in the meantime, rural areas are facing many problems. A significant share of rural instabilities goes back to socio-economic instability, which, in addition to deteriorating employment, income, inequality of opportunity, access to services, basic needs, and the like, also has negative feedback on environmental sustainability. Due to these instabilities, rural areas are experiencing consequences such as urban-rural inequalities, population evacuation, migration, and environmental degradation. Economic sustainability and social sustainability are two inseparable components because individual welfare is not separate from the welfare of society, and the existence of social cohesion, empathy, and tolerance leads to the creation of space in which people feel more responsible and believe that a fairer distribution of resources plays a key role in the long-term survival of society.

The type of research is applied and descriptive-analytical in terms of its nature and method. Inferential statistical methods (one-sample t) and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data. The statistical population of this research uses spatial analysis in GIS for sampling (Using the adjacent layers raster to the province's permanent rivers, settlement density, rural population density, distance from the road, distance from the nearest cities, the province's land layer, slope, and height and their overlap in the final raster and placing the whole province in 3 classes are high, middle, low. Out of 378 villages with more than 20 households, 37 villages were selected as a sample, and 250 questionnaires were calculated and randomly completed by the villagers in 2020-2021.

Numerical mean analysis obtained from the calculation of components affecting socio-economic sustainability in rural areas was obtained among the respondents using questionnaire data. To investigate this issue, a single-sample t-test was used, in which the component of social participation with an average of 3.1646 was higher than the average (3). Also, the analysis of research data with the structural equation modeling approach in PLS software includes the study of model fit in three parts as measurement model, structural model, and general model. Measurement models show the relationship between each hidden variable and its indicators. The reliability and validity of the variables are checked to evaluate the measurement models. After testing the measurement models, it is necessary to evaluate the structural model of the research that shows the relationships between the variables. For this purpose, are examined the coefficient of determination (R2) and the predictive power of Stone and Geiser (Q2). After evaluating the measurement and structural models of the research, the fit of the overall model is examined. The GOF criterion is used to evaluate the fit of the overall model. Finally, the results show that according to the results of t and the significance of path coefficients in PLS software, social stability has a more important role in creating overall stability than economic stability.

Structural analysis of components affecting socio-economic sustainability in order to identify, strengthen, and develop socio-economic factors affecting sustainability in the study area was the main purpose of this study. In terms of components and factors affecting the socio-economic stability of the study area, the results of the one-sample t-test showed that the component of social capital (social participation factor) has the greatest impact on social sustainability in the study area and in terms of economic stability except for the rural investment factor, other factors are in a weak position. The results obtained from estimating the structural equation modeling of fit indices have good validity and reliability. Also, the results of the structural equation modeling technique (in three parts as measurement model, structural model, and general model) showed that social capital has a greater impact on social stability than social welfare. Also, the economic justice component has the most significant impact on regional economic stability.

The aim of the current research is to model the environmental quality of tourist attractions on the satisfaction of tourists in Zanjan city. The research method is a descriptive-analytical type that was carried out by a survey method. The statistical population of the research is the tourists of Zanjan city in 2021. In order to determine the number of research samples, due to the unknown number of statistical population, the required number of samples was 350 questionnaires. In order to analyze the data, the statistical test of factor analysis, single-sample T-test was used in EXCEL software, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used in Amos Graphics software environment. by using the factor analysis test in order to evaluate the environmental quality of tourist attractions in Zanjan city; Seven factors of environmental quality were identified Also, selected indicators on tourist satisfaction were extracted from the model of Akama and Kiti 2003 (a model based on the Seroqual model). The results of the level of satisfaction with the environmental quality of tourist attractions, with the value (2.64) are in an unfavorable situation and below the average level. The correlation coefficient between the latent variables and manifest variables of the measurement model through the second-order structural equations of the environmental quality of tourist attractions shows that the latent factors and variables identified in the research have been able to account for 68% of the variance of the effects of the environmental quality components of tourist attractions on Explain the satisfaction of tourists and the factor of economic and social dynamics has the highest factor load with a relative importance and an influence coefficient of 0.80. The final results of the structural equation model show that the environmental quality of the tourist attractions in the study area has low impact to the extent of 0.31 on the satisfaction of tourists and among the hidden factors of environmental quality; The factor of certain tourism services with an impact factor of 0.83 and the factor of urban public services with 0.80 had the highest role and relative importance which indicates the predominance of physical programs and 5-year economic-social development programs of the country regarding the environmental quality of tourist attractions. Achieving the desired situation requires the development of specific criteria in the area of Zanjan tourist attractions, the scope of intervention and the design of nearby buildings according to specific criteria with the coordination and participation of all relevant ministries and institutions with sufficient legal and executive requirements.

The aim of this study was to design an environmental planning model for blown sand mitigation in Sistan and Baluchestan railway tracks and stations among three-step approach. To begin, interviews were conducted with 16 university experts, managers and senior experts of railway facilities and environmental organization about blown sand mitigation in Iran. The data were coded and 77 components were identified in the form of 21 categories. Then the research model was designed and the hypotheses were identified based on the grounded theory (GT). Secondly, structural equation modeling (SEM) using Amos software was performed to fit the model. Next, interpretive structural modeling (ISM) was applied in order to prioritize, communicate and sequence between the components. The priorities of the influential components of the environmental planning model for blown sand mitigation in Sistan and Baluchestan railway tracks and stations were classified into six levels based on the expert opinions. Among them, two indicators of identification the existing conditions and the requirements for blown sand mitigation in railway tracks and stations and the goal setting for them based on their existential mission were proposed as the most effective levels. Finally, removing legal obstacles and formulating policies compatible with the environment and considering the long-term, medium-term and short-term planning of stabilization of blown sands based on executive power in order to determine applicable goals in policy priorities were proposed as solutions for controlling blown sand hazards along the Sistan and Baluchestan railway.

the current research was conducted to analyze and investigate the impact of livelihood assets on the sustainability of rural women's livelihood in Gachsaran City. Analysis and investigation of the effect of the effective factors on the livelihood of the rural women in Gachsaran City. The statistical population of the research included 500 rural women randomly in Gachsaran City, of which 139 were selected and surveyed by simple random method. The data collection tool was a questionnaire. The validity of the research tool was confirmed by the professors of the University of Tehran's promotion and development department and subject experts, and its reliability was calculated and confirmed using Cronbach's alpha test during the distribution of 30 questionnaires in the pre-test stage. LISREL 8.8 and SPSS 26 software were used to perform statistical tests. Also, to investigate the impact of livelihood assets on the sustainability of rural women's livelihood, it was done using the structural equation modeling method with the help of Lisrel 8.8 software. The results showed that the independent variables studied (five capitals) were able to explain 60.13 percent of the variance of the dependent variable, i.e. sustainable livelihood of rural women in Gachsaran City. Also, the goodness of fit indices showed that the structural model of the research has a good and acceptable fit. In addition, the human capital index (λ = 0.61) was assigned the first importance and priority for measuring the sustainable livelihood of rural women. Based on this, among the solutions to improve the livelihood of rural women are: 1) Organizations and other planning and policy-making officials pay due attention to the activities of rural women and improve the field of improving their livelihood according to the existing conditions. 2) In order to help poor and vulnerable rural women and families, they can act by providing appropriate financial assistance, such as setting up rural micro-funds.

In the present century, with the advent of new and intelligent technologies in the field of information and communication technology in Tehran metropolis, many changes have taken place in the life of urban dwellers and its quality, and this has attracted the attention of many thinkers to the concept of "quality of smart life". The result is a review and presentation of effective dimensions and indicators in measuring it in Tehran metropolis. Given the importance of the quality of life factor in the urban planning system, attention to the concept of intelligence and the expansion of its impact on this factor is increasingly discussed. The purpose of this study is to achieve a structural model, the order of importance and impact factor of dimensions and quality indicators of smart urban life through structural equations with partial least squares (PLS) approach in the metropolis of Tehran. Districts one, six and nineteen of Tehran Municipality have been selected as the statistical population and the size of the statistical population is four hundred people. Based on the results, all seven dimensions of research have a significant relationship with the quality of intelligent urban life to measure and evaluate it. Also, in order to express the importance of these dimensions in different regions, the factor of cohesion and social participation in region one, public education in region six and the factor of resource consumption and environment in the nineteenth region of Tehran have the highest rank. It can be said that the development of cities and communities is strongly influenced by the increasing development of information and communication technology in different parts of the world, but this issue should not ignore the differences and demands of different people.

The most important aspect of nature-oriented tourists’ behaviors is paying attention to environmental sustainability. Much environmental research in the field of tourism has focused on the roles of values, attitudes, beliefs, and norms in shaping environmental behavior. In this study, according to the theory adopted by the majority of psychologists concerning the effect of attitude on behavior, it was used as an intermediate variable for explaining the relationship between knowledge and tourists’ environmental behaviors in the tourist areas of Tehran. This research was applied in terms of purpose and a descriptive survey in terms of data collection method. To conduct it, a researcher-made questionnaire with 75 variables was prepared and adjusted. Its reliability was confirmed by a Cronbach's alpha of 0.939 and its validity was formally confirmed. The statistical population included the tourists referring to 5 mountain tourism areas of Tehran. To estimate the sample size of 302 people from an unknown community, Cochran's formula was used. The study area included 5 mountain tourism areas of Tehran. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The analytical results of the behavioral models of the nature-oriented tourists showed a positive and significant relationship between attitude and environmental behavior and also between attitude and environmental knowledge with the factor loads of 0.68 and 0.82 at the significant level of less than 0.05, respectively. Also, the tourists’ environmental behaviors were studied based on their educational levels. According to the results, the tourists’ environmental behaviors depended on their levels of education. Thus, it could be stated that the existence of a cognitive analysis system called “tourist environmental knowledge” in combination with an emotional system would lead to the formation of their environmental attitudes, which could act as a basis for improving and optimizing their behaviors in the tourism destinations.

Tourism has special effects in rural areas and due to the nature of tourism activity and its close interaction with various economic, social and cultural activities, its effects can be very varied and widespread, and in particular have a profound impact on the environment of the host communities. Therefore, the overall objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of rural tourism on regional development (Case study: Azarshahr Ghadamgah). The purpose of this study is applied and in terms of nature and method descriptive-analytical and survey type. The statistical population of this study includes all tourists, locals and experts involved in Ghadamgah site. According to Cochran formula, the sample size was 384 persons and the sampling method was selected by available random sampling. One-sample t-test, one-sample t-test, Pearson correlation test, and structural equation modeling were used to test the hypotheses using Smart-PLS software. The results show that rural tourism has a positive and significant effect on regional development (economic, socio-cultural, and environmental) in Ghadamgah Azarshahr region and has caused rural development in the studied area. Also, religious attitude, awareness and knowledge about tourism, the intrinsic motivation of the residents, and dependence of the local community on the development and expansion of rural tourism in the study area had a significant positive effect.

The policies and rules based on which cities are governed are influenced by legal and political discourses and can cause political and party conflicts. In the field of legal frameworks, ambiguities governing citizenship rights and planning tend to create inequality, and governance is necessary to ensure stable governance in the process of good urban management. In terms of purpose, this research is of an applied type, which was carried out by descriptive-analytical method and based on library studies and field investigations in the framework of the analytical-case model. Survey techniques, questionnaire tools, and interviews with the Delphi community have been used. The statistical sample size using the available sampling was 27 experts with the purposeful sampling method. In order to analyze the data, SPSS software was used, and Smart PLS software was used to model the structural equations with the partial least squares approach to evaluate the conceptual model of the research. Also, the future research method has been used to explain the key drivers and future scenarios using the structural and cross analysis method. The results of the analysis of the path coefficients related to the studied dimensions show that the justice index has the highest effect, followed by the indicators of responsibility, consensus-oriented, transparency, participation, efficiency and effectiveness, legality, and then accountability, which have the least effect on the urban management structure of Region 20. In the second part, by identifying and analyzing the effective drivers and compiling possible scenarios, from the total of 237 situations governing the scenario page, 132 situations and 55.70% are favorable situations, 64 situations and 27% are in static mode and 41 situations and 17.30% shows the percentage of the critical situation. According to the findings, among the 15 plausible scenarios for the good governance of Shahr-e-Rey, there are 9 scenarios with a favorable situation, which show relatively promising conditions at the local management level.

The microfinance movement began in Bangladesh in the early 1970s in the face of the market failure phenomenon as well as the government's failure to provide credit to the poor and low-income people in the early 1970s. Microfinance, also known as microfinance or microfinance, is a means of providing credit, usually in the form of small unsecured loans, to non-traditional borrowers, such as the poor in rural or underdeveloped areas. A review of the literature on micro-financing goals as one of the tools and methods of economic development for the lower strata of society indicates that the four goals of economic development, poverty reduction, prevention of social unrest and profitability in the form of micro-businesses for microfinance are pursued. The experience of countries shows that microcredit is used in different ways to reduce poverty and therefore, it has different effects and consequences in the target society. Of course, in some countries, banks, as an economic enterprise that aims to maximize profits, do not do so for various reasons, such as the small amount of loans, which reduces their profits through the entry and identification of poor people. Second, paying a loan to this group of customers is associated with a lot of risk. Another issue related to banks not entering into micro-credit allocation is incomplete information that leads to maladaptive selection and ethical risks. According to the Barakat Foundation's approach to job creation and the unemployment rate of 12.7% in Yazd province in 1397, the Barakat Foundation's planning for job creation in some cities of the province, including Abarkooh, Mehriz and Bahabad, began in 1398. However, two years after the implementation of these job creation plans, examining their performance on social welfare selected from the Legatum Social Welfare Index can be effective in continuing the process.

The research method used is descriptive and survey in terms of user purpose. The data collection tool is a questionnaire made by a researcher. In this regard, the five main components of social welfare including investment environment, economic quality, economic quality, social capital, health and freedom and individual safety were identified by experts and specialists based on Delphi and integrated methods and classified into 31 items. Then the validity of the questionnaire It was confirmed by elites and experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. In order to confirm the research model, the structural equation model was used and to analyze the data, 24 AMOS and 20 SPSS software were used. Using structural equations and first and second order confirmatory factor analysis, the validity of the original model and the questions were tested.

First, social welfare components were calculated based on the average response scores and used for statistical ranking. Economic quality has been an indicator that most respondents have been satisfied with and health index is an indicator that respondents' satisfaction is in the last rank. Second, the general view of the respondents towards the items of social welfare component was examined statistically, in which the item "the degree of attention to the lack of monopoly formation in projects" in the investment environment, the item "the rate of increasing women's labor force participation" in quality Economic, the degree of opportunity to communicate with others in social capital, the amount of "prevention of high-risk factors such as suicide" in health, and the amount of "reduction of strictness and increase of women's physical health" are in the first place in individual freedom and safety. Third, the effect of each component was examined through t-test and the results indicate the positive effect of microcredit allocation in Barakat Foundation employment models on each of the components of social welfare index, namely investment environment, economic quality, social capital, health and freedom. And has been individual safety. Fourth, the validity of the questionnaire questions was examined and confirmed by the first-order confirmatory factor analysis technique. Fifth, when a large structure itself consists of several latent variables, second-order confirmatory factor analysis is used. The results of the second-order confirmatory factor analysis of the social welfare variable show that its measurement model is appropriate and all numbers and parameters of the model are significant.

The results of the study on the validity of the scale structure, using the second-order confirmatory factor analysis, showed a high correlation between the hidden variables. Also, based on t-test, the effect of microcredit on each of the components of social welfare such as investment environment, economic quality, social capital, health and freedom and personal safety was confirmed.

Livability has a significant effect on the life, growth of cities, and the quality of life of citizens. Despite the high environmental capabilities of many cities in Iran, they face many livability problems, and thus, their solutions are the major priorities. A livability is a suitable place for human life. Semantic and mental aspects of citizens, especially a sense of living place affect livability. Hence, this study assesses the effect of the sense of place on the livability of citizens in Tehran. Tehran, which is currently facing several livability problems, is selected for the study due to the high population and the large displacement of its population. To this end, the questionnaires' assessment, as well as the structural equation modeling (SEM), are used in districts 1,4,5, and 6. These districts were selected as the study samples due to a relatively balanced distribution of socio-economic and cultural strata in Tehran as well as different environmental and physical conditions. The obtained results indicated that the most effective way to improve livability yields the t-statistic in a range of 5.3 to 36.7. Besides, understanding the current situation of the city by the citizens of Tehran includes the social and psychological aspects, where the social aspect has more priority than the psychological one.

The present study aimed to identify and determine the effective factors of the spread and acceptance of new technologies in the field of urban waste management. This research is applied research in terms of purpose and is descriptive-survey in terms of data collection. The study population is the citizens of Tehran, in which the new technologies considered in this research in the field of separation at the source of waste have been implemented and implemented. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the validity of the questionnaire and Structural equation modeling method was used to evaluate the research hypotheses using SmartPLS3 software. All research hypotheses were confirmed and effective factors (social factors, managerial factors, Cultural factors, educational and promotional methods, knowledge of recycling booths, trust in applications, technical attractiveness, motivation, expectations from publication and distribution, competitive marketing) dissemination and acceptance of new technologies in the field of municipal waste management were proven. The results showed that the effective factors have a positive and significant relationship with the spread and acceptance of new technologies used in the field of separation at the source of waste. The results show that using this model helps managers to identify these dimensions and eliminate weaknesses. And in the relevant field, to promote and improve the dissemination and acceptance in the audience of the technologies used, separation from the source of waste and to be able to encourage more users to use these technologies in addition to effective introduction.

Urban green landscape is considered as one of the most important uses of services and one of the developmental indicators of societies and it is very important in sustainable urban development. Having this important urban user is affected by social inequalities, which is currently considered one of the main problems for today's cities. What matters is that the quality of the green land spaces and the facilities and services provided there. In this research, the relationship between the social status of citizens and the quality of green land space in Kashan city has been investigated. The research method is descriptive-analytic and data collection is done in a field. The statistical population of the study consisted of all residents of Kashan city, 304487 people. A sample size of 200 questionnaires was used to calculate the sample size. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze and analyze the effects of social inequalities on the quality of green land space using T-test and ANOVA tests in SPSS software. Structural equation modeling in Amos software was used. The results of T-test indicate the inappropriate quality of green space in Kashan parks. Also, the results of ANOVA showed that there is a statistically significant difference between the quality indices of green space in different regions of Kashan. Analysis of the results from structural equation modeling also indicates that there is a significant relationship between the social status of areas and the quality of green space in Kashan. Also, among the variables related to the landscape quality index, the factor with the highest factor load was 0.98.

The formation of villages as the core of civilization and activity can be attributed to the environment. However, there have been major challenges in socioeconomic continuity of villages due to the decline of agricultural functionality as the most significant environmental function. This study aims to consider the evolution of agricultural functionalities in rural areas of Markazi Province over the last decade. Based on the objective, the study is applied one and descriptive – analytic in methodology. To this end, all villages with more than the 20 households in two censuses of 2003 and 2014 were taken into account. Then, all the similar agricultural variables in two time sections were extracted and 20 indicators for each section were defined and calculated. Following the statistical description and evaluation of the distribution of the indicators, agricultural evolution of rural areas was modelled in two time sections using structural equation modeling based on bootstrapping approach in AMOS Graphics environment. The path coefficients and their sign at the beginning of the period revealed that the rural areas’ agricultural identity at the beginning of the period was mainly based on farming than gardening and based on the land than water. However, the results of the end of the period showed that the land has been replaced by water. Therefore, the declining trend of changes in the agricultural functionalities the study area during this period was significantly influenced by water. Establishing an integrated organizational structure in order to land and water resources’ policy regulation and decision-making along with a provincial governance to implement the policies and decisions, beyond the sectoral approach, hopefully is a suggestion that can help to solve the problems agricultural identity of rural communities is engaged with. 

Creative tourism is one of the most popular tourism development strategies in recent years and creative tourists are looking for new destinations to get a unique and creative experience. In fact, creative tourism seeks to add new ways to develop tourism. The research method is descriptive-analytical based on field surveys. The research instrument is a researcher-made questionnaire with 14 general and 88 professional open-ended and closed-ended questions that measure tourists' opinions. The results of the ranking of creative tourism explaining factors in rural areas of Borujen city by using Friedman test show that innovation and value creation index in tourism has the highest average value of 4.74. In this ranking, the handicrafts index received the lowest rate of creative tourism development (2.91). Using factor analysis test, sustainable tourist behavior factors have been identified in three cultural, environmental, and economic dimensions. The study of the effectiveness of creative tourism on sustainable behavior of tourists according to the operating load of -0.11 and also gaining a significant level higher than 0.05 to 0.01 indicates the lack of confirmation of the significant effect of creative tourism formation on the occurrence of sustainable behavior  among tourists.

This article studies citizen participation of Isfahan citizens over 18 year old. The concept of articipation is as old as humankind and has taken different forms in different periods of history. Since the 1970s, social sciences’ scholars have increasingly emphasized that citizen participation in public decision-making is an important strategy for enhancement of democracy and improving development results. Then, these thoughts were introduced in the urban planning field and have become a hot topic in theoretical and practical debates of the field. Many features influence citizen participation: political structures, economical situations, cultural and historical specifications, etc. However, even if the politicians and decision-makers embrace participation and make it possible from the top, there will be no success in in participatory processes if citizens have no interest in participating. This is the reason why identification of influential features on citizen participation can provide the basis for institutional intervention in order to improve participatory processes, which is the main concern of this article.

For measurement of citizen participation in Isfahan, 11 statements were selected after reviewing the theoretical and practical literature and corresponding indicators. Two examples of statements are: “I’m not much interested in issues not concerning me and my family” and “I have sufficient ability and self-confidence to join parties and political groups”. The alternatives of answers were designed in 5- point Likert-type scale. Based on the statements, these alternatives were “strongly agree”, “agree”, “indifferent”, “disagree”, “strongly disagree” or “too much”, “much”, “middle”, “little” and “too little”. The statistical population is Isfahan citizens of over 18 years old. The sample was chosen by clustering method at first for every city district, three blocks were chosen randomly and amongst those, accidentally selected people were asked to answer to the questionnaire. The sample size is 450 people, which is more than what Cochran’s formula suggests. The sample is distributed in a way that 30 people represent each district. In addition to the statements, the contextual features were asked from sample population, namely age, gender, education, job status, housing type, tenure type, household income, religiosity and years of residence.

After entering and sorting questionnaire data in SPSS, reliability and validity tests were conducted using Cronbach’s Alpha and Factor Analysis, respectively. First, Cronbach’s alpha was calculated for all the statements. Since the score was not acceptable (0.580), two statements were omitted, which resulted in an alpha score of 0.680 and approved the reliability of the questionnaire. Nine remaining statements were analyzed by factor analysis to test construct validity of data and identify explaining factors of citizen participation. Factor analysis -which was conducted by the Varimax rotation method and factors with eigenvalues of over 1.0 acceptance threshold, extracted three factors from nine statements. The factors explained 32, 18 and 16 percent (in total 65 percent) of variation of the citizen participation concept. These factors were named “civic engagement”, “personal engagement” and “participation in elections”. The citizen participation indicator was calculated by a weighted combination of three factors, in which weighing was based on the variance explained by each factor. Finally, the distribution map of three factors and citizen participation indicator were drawn for Isfahan 15 districts of Isfahan. The values were categorized into three classes by half-sigma method, namely “low”, “average” and “high” values.The maps show that District 2 has the least citizen participation by four “little” values. After that, District 6 & 12 stand with three “little” and Districts 4, 5, 7 & 11 by two “little” values. No district showed “high” values in all 4 variables, but District 9, 10 & 14 showed the best citizen participation by three “high” values. District 3, 4 & 12 were second best by two “high” values.For measurement of the effects of contextual features on citizen participation, Structural Equation Modeling was conducted by SmartPLS software package. Modelling results show that household income, socioeconomic status, housing type and gender have no significant effect on citizen participation. The factor “personal engagement” showed no significant relation to contextual features. Education (0.217) was shown to be the most influential feature on citizen participation (via “participation in elections” factor). After education, age had the most effect on “participation in elections” factor. Contextual features of “years of residence” (0.122), religiosity (0.123) and “tenure type” (-0.122) were next influential features on citizen participation (via “civic engagement” factor). The least significant relation was reported to be between job status and “participation in elections” factor. In total, contextual features explained 3.4% and 7.8% of the variations of “civic engagement” and “participation in elections” factors, respectively.

The results of this article indicate that improving citizen participation is not just about the contextual features. Although general characteristics of citizens such as educational level and religious beliefs have a significant effect on their participation, the extent of this effect is minimal. this This article shows that contextual features are not decisive factors in citizen participation, but this is “civic engagement” and “personal engagement” of citizens explains more than half of the variations of citizen participation. Therefore, if the decision-makers want to increase civic and personal engagement of citizens successfully, they should make public participation a part of their routine process. To that end, facilitation and policymaking for increase on membership rates of political parties and activities, allowing peaceful protestations to be held, and give liberty to campaigns and social non-governmental institutions can have significant effects on improvement of citizen participation. Moreover, raising awareness of citizens about the important role of personal activities in increasing public benefits (especially environmental activities) can have an influential effect on citizen participation. Finally, although participation in elections apparently is a decisive determinant of citizen participation, the results of this article show that this factor can just explain 15% of the variations of citizen participation. Compatible to theoretical views, this result shows that citizen participation is much more than just representative democracy and has many aspects for consideration. Maybe the temporary nature of participation in election and continuity of civic and personal engagement is the reason why participation in elections is the last explaining factor for citizen engagement.

There is satisfying evidence that the socio-economical and built environmental conditions facing residents affect health as much as the individual characteristics of residents themselves (Jackson, 2003: 1382-83 cited in: Gomez, et al. 2015: 2314). In other words, neighborhood social and built environments have been recognized as important contexts in which health is shaped (Gomez & et al, 2015: 2314 & Ansello, 2016: 1). There is now widespread interest in the role of neighborhoods in cancer and cancer disparities (Landrine & et al, 2012: 141; Baker & et al., 2000; Krieger & et al., 2002; Singh & et al., 2003). Neighborhoods contribute to disparities in cancer and its risk factors and, hence, understanding the nature of that contribution can highlight new community-level approaches to reducing cancer disparities (Landrine, et al., 2012: 141). Cancer is a chronic disease associated with genetic mutations caused by various exposures, most of them environmental (Dey et al, 2011: 254 and Smeltzer & et al, 2007: 1001). Meanwhile, lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world, with the majority of the cases in developing countries (Ferlayetal., 2010; Jemal etal.,2011 Cited in Guo, et al,. 2016). It is estimated that there were 1.825 million lung cancer cases globally in 2012, accounting for 13.0% of all cancer cases, and 1.59 million deaths from lung cancer, responsible for 19.4% of deaths from all cancers (Chen, et al., 2015: 307). Although personal choices, such as tobacco use, dietary and physical activity patterns, play a major role in the development of cancer, environmental and occupational factors are involved in the causation of a large number of human cancers (WHO-a, 2011: 1 & Anand, et al, 2008: 2098; Black & Hawaks, 2009: 504; Tomatis, 1990). In this regard, several studies have shown that the air pollution, physical inactivity, overweight and obesity are the key risk factors for lung cancers that urban planning can have an effective role in improving or reducing of their incidence. Given the inverse relationship of these factors with the neighborhood walkability, walking and physical activity; and due to little knowledge about the potential role of the urban built environments in reduce of the trend, the present paper seeks the modelling the spatial association of lung cancer with built environmental factors such as air pollution, urban form, access to public services and social and economic indicators in neighborhoods of Tehran metropolitan in the period of 2006-2010.

The research is conducted using descriptive and analytical approaches. Several data and methods are used due to multifaceted nature of the research subject. In this regard, spatial statistics and geo-statistics methods are employed. PM10, PM2.5 and CO data are used that adapted from Tehran air pollution monitoring center and along with Lung cancers data (2006-2010) from ministry of health and population density from Iran statistics Center. Lung cancers data is used for identifying geographical pattern (Cluster, scattered and random) of its by using Moran’s spatial autocorrelation statistics. Also Getis-Ord general G statistics and Cluster and Outlier Analysis (Anselin Local Moran's I) statistics, respectively, are employed for detecting High/Low value clustering and mapping the cluster and outliers. Invers Distance Weighted and kriging methods are used for interpolating point based air pollution parameters (CO, PM10, PM2.5) data. Population and employment data and Tehran’s land use and road network data are used as a mediating factors. All of mentioned statistics are done in ArcMap 10.3.1 software.

Transportation is one of the most important sources of air pollutant emissions in Tehran city. In this case, urban air pollution is caused by urban transportation systems and suburban factories. Two major groups of polluting industries around Tehran are automotive and fuel production industries (Vafa-Arani, et al, 2014) that are located in west and south west of the city in the courses of prevailing winds. These two industries are the most related to the urban transportation systems. Ineffective public transportation infrastructures, non-standard streets and highways, population congestion, non-efficient urban management and planning, and several other reasons cause high traffic congestion in the metropolitan area of Tehran. Due to the closure of Tehran in northern, northeastern and partly east by mountains, this is an issue that worsen the air pollution in Tehran which brings many negative effects on lung cancer. The overall results showed that by applying the following policies, it can be overcome to the public health and air pollution problems in the medium and long-term: using urban smart growth policies and transit-oriented development approaches (TOD) in urban planning and designing practices; propagating the culture of using public transport; developing the natural, open and green zones and spaces in the city and especially in the western area of the city where there are more polluting sources.

Automobile dependence cities today are revealed in modern urban societies. The context preparation for automobile dependence phenomenon are improving living standards and tendency to well-being. This is in addition to the lack of necessary transport infrastructures and public transport options in developing countries, has brought many expenses including: exhaustion of natural resources, environmental hazards and public health problems. Despite that the numerous factors are involved in production and Intensifying the urban air pollution and its related problems, but ultimately this somehow refers to urban and suburbs land uses. Redistribution of land uses in urban spaces is one of the strategies that has been proposed to achieve the appropriate development patterns in order to reduce urban challenges and pollution, especially air pollution in different urban scales. Studies show that compact and smart growth urban forms has greatly impacts on reducing the air pollution (Bahtash & et al, 2013). Urban form and public transport network developments must comply with and support each other as much as possible. The compliance can create urban forms that encourages the use of public transport to against using private automobile and reduces the amount of air pollutants and results improving public health and lung cancer outcomes.