نشریه علوم و تکنولوژی محیط زیست
سال نوزدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 74، تابستان 1396)

The most effective issues in biolog ical processes of wastewater treatment are appropriate selection of bio-kinetics issues. Therefore, the goal of this study is to review the operation, to determine the kinetics parameters and to model the biological process of the activated sludge unit of Qods hospitals wastewater treatment plant in Sanandaj, Iran.
This research is a descriptive sectional one which is conducted in the laboratory of Sanandaj wastewater treatment plant during 3 months in the 2011.As a result, a total of 100 samples were taken from raw wastewater, pond aeration, secondary effluent sludge and returned sludge. In each sample, COD, MLSS, TSS, VSS, discharge of raw sewage, F/M (on a daily basis), and BOD5 (two times a week) were measured.
Findings: The results from this study showed that the mean BOD5, COD, TSS in the secondary effluent were 39±11.9, 102±23.6 and 53±30 mg/l, respectively, and the mean of kinetics parameters of K, KS, Y, Kd, and µmax were 2.39±0.14, 36.7±5.97, 0.188±0.028, 0.04±0.01 and 0.39±0.017 respectively.
Considering the intended goal (determination of kinetic coefficients) the overall efficiency of the activated sludge system was obtained to beinappropriate.

Nowadays, air pollution is one of the most important problems almost all over the world. There are many strategies to control and reduce air pollution, one of which is prediction of this event and getting ready to deal with the negative effects of it. The aim of this study is to provide a multi-layer structure of artificial neural networks (ANN) for predicting of carbon monoxide pollution at subsequent 24 hours in Tehran metropolis.
To predict the amount of CO emissions in near future (subsequent 24 hours), wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity, and barometric pressure characteristics are used as meteorological data, and concentration of carbon monoxide is considered as a pollution parameter. To eliminate the noise of data, wavelets transform method and determining the threshold with normal distribution are used before training the ANN. Finally, two neural networks as two general models are proposed and used for modelling.
Findings: The results show that the correlation coefficient, index of agreement, accuracy of prediction, and root mean square error for model no. 1 with duplicate data are 0.9012, 0.915, 0.848, and 0.1012 and for model no. 2 with duplicate data are 0.9572, 0.978, 0.963, and 0.0385 respectively. Moreover, the results of listed parameters for model no. 1 with new data are 0.9086, 0.89, 0.885, and 0.0825 and for model No. 2 with new data are 0.8678, 0.928, 0.932, and 0.1163 respectively.
Results showed that there is a good agreement between predicted and observed values, hence the proposed models have a high potential for air pollution prediction.

Phosphate is one of the most important contaminants entering recipient waters (rivers, lakes, and seas) by wastewater disposal and causative agent of eutrophication due to the enrichment of aquatic ecosystems. In bioremediation process, the phosphate-removing bacteria accumulate polyphosphate intracellularly and take it away from the environment. The objective of this study was to isolate and identify the bacteria which remove phosphate from industrial wastewater.
In this study, phosphate-removing bacteria were isolated from wastewaters of Aq Qlala industrial park of Golestan province. The isolates were identified based on the creation of clear zone in the bacterial lawn, leading to phosphate removal on the specific agar plate Seperb. Finally, the isolates were identified by macroscopical, microscopical, biochemical, and molecular methods.
Findings: In total, 3 out of 30 isolates had high ability in phosphate removal regarding their large clear zone on agar. Molecular identification of isolates by 16S rDNA typing method indicated that the isolates belong to the genera Brevundimonas, Ochrobactrum, Exiguobacterium.
Variance analysis using SAS 9.2 software indicated a significant difference in phosphate removal by the isolates. The obtained results demonstrated that the isolates are highly efficient in phosphate removing from wastewater and they are suitable candidates for bioremediation along with other methods.

Ambient air quality is a major concern in highly urbanized and industrialized regions such as Tehran.
In this paper, the spatial distribution of 4 air pollutants in Tehran atmosphere was analyzed. The analyzed air pullutants were Carbon monoxide (CO), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Ozone (O3) and atmospheric particulate matters less than 10 micrometers in diameter (PM10). For this purpose, 4 common geostatistical interpolation methods namely: Ordinary Kriging (OK), Universal Kriging (UK), Sample Kriging (SK), and Ordinary Cokriging (COK) with Gaussian modeled semivariogram, were used to estimate the continuous surface for the 4 mentioned air pollutants. The data were collected from 21 air quality monitoring stations located in different districts of Tehran during a 2-year period from 2012 to 2013. The Kriging interpolation schemes are stochastic, local, gradual and exact interpolators. After preprocessing the collected data, they were imported to GIS by using metric coordinate system (UTM Zone 39). Finally, the Kriging predicted map was evaluate using 3 statistical indices of validation namely: Mean Absolute Error (MBE), Mean Bias Error (MAE), and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) that can be divide into systematic and unsystematic errors (RMSEs, RMSEu).
Findings: The results indicated that, using 2 auxiliary variables, the OCK is the optimum schema for spatial estimation of CO and NO2 pollutants in Tehran. Moreover, SK is found out as the best model for spatial estimation of NO2 and CO. According to optimal model, the highest concentrations of ozone (O3) and particulate matters greater than 10 microns (PM10) are observed in the marginal areas of Tehran, while the highest concentrations of CO, NO2 are observed in the central and northern districts of Tehran such as districts 1 to 4.
The developed optimized model can be used for real time estimation of any pollutants in Tehran atmosphere by updating the observed data.

Bahmanshir River is one of the main water resources in southwest Iran. Salinity intrusion and other pollution sources have influenced the water quality in this river. In this study, quantitative and qualitative modeling of Bahmanshir River and the water channels of Choebdeh shrimp culture is performed using MIKE11 software.
First, manning number of the river is estimated as 0.018 by integrated hydraulic modeling of the river and its water channels. Then, dispersion factor of the river is calculated as (v: velocity) by solving Advection-Dispersion equation. Modeling of water quality parameters, such as dissolved oxygen, nitrate, ammonia, BOD and temperature, is performed using ECOLAB module in the MIKE11 software. The major parameters in the water quality model are determined using sensitivity analysis. These parameters were calibrated and the calibrated model is verified.
Findings: The results showed that the water channels behave as complete mix systems. Conversion coefficients of water quality parameters are calculated, and then the average values of salinity, dissolved oxygen, ammonia and nitrate in the channels are calculated as 27000, 3, 3 and 5 ppm, respectively. In addition, these parameters in the river are about 5300, 2.2, 1.2 and 11 ppm, respectively. The correlation coefficient of developed hydraulic model in verification step is 0.95 and the percent of absolute error of verified salinity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, ammonia and nitrate models are 7.9, 12, 1.2, 0.79 and 0.34, respectively.
The results demonstrated the capability of MIKE11 for water quality and quantity modeling in tidal rivers.

Today pollution in the large cities has become a basic challenge for the environment. In Ahwaz, 60% of the pollution is related to the mobile sources which produce a huge amount of various pollutants including CO and PM10 that affect the life of the residents in Ahwaz. CO is an important pollutant emitted to the atmosphere from traffic. Generally, pollutant emission to the air has a significant effect on air pollution control. Therefore, the of this study was to investigate the dispersion and density of CO and PM10 from mobile sources.
In this study, at first the study area was zonned (3×3 Km). Then, in each net the number of cars were estimated according to the types of car and hours of traffic. Consequently, the whole diffusion of CO and PM10 concentration in each net was estimated according to gram per second for each car considering the diffusion factors, type of consumed fuel and the distance drived. Finally, for better illustration of places, graphic exhibition, distribution way of the mentioned pollutant and diffusion, GIS a software was used.
The pattern of pollutant diffusion for CO and PM10 emitted from cars, which is calculated by the model, shows that most of the polluted areas are the business and administrative centers. These pollutants were calculated to be very low and even zero at the outskirts of the city.

Inadequency of water resources or lack of appropriate resources have been among the challenges for human activities in the Harzandat plain due to shortage of rainfall. The purpose of this study was to evaluate geochemistry and hydrogeochemical anomalies and to determine groundwater usage (different uses for drinking, agriculture and industry) in the study area.
Due to the limited water resources in Harzandat plain, 16 groundwater samples were collected from wells, springs and qanats that sampling, and chemical analysis was carried out using standard procedures.
Findings: The results of the Piper diagram show that the dominant type of groundwater is saline water in Harzandat plain. Calculation of the saturation index shows the interaction between water and rock and the state of saturation and super saturation relative to dolomite, calcite and aragonite minerals. According to the qualitative classification, the water in the study area falls within the range of moderate levle, and from the agriculture view point it is brackish water and unsuitable for irrigation. For industrial uses, some of the water resources have incrustation properties and they are partly corrosive, but most of the groundwater samples taken from the study area had incrustation properties and were unsuitable for industrial purposes.
The results indicated the poor quality of drinking water, agriculture and industry in the central and northern parts of the plain. Also, based on the results from the Gibbs diagram, processes such as chemical weathering of mineral constituents of rock and evaporation influence the quality of groundwater in Harzandat plain.

The present study was conducted in line with the manufacturers’ awareness and tendency towards minimizing the hazards associated with workplace compounded by technological developments and utilization of modern machinery leading to the increase of both production rates and eventual soaring risk probabilities. Employing Job Safety Analysis (JSA) and Energy Trace and Barrier Analysis (ETBA) methods, the study aims to assess the environmental risk of direct recovery unit.
The process began with identification of environmental risks associated with this unit through the abovementioned methods. After identification of risks, the strengths and weaknesses of each method were compared, and finally separate evaluations were conducted using each method.
Findings: Six high-risk jobs were identified in Job Safety Analysis Method. 47 hazards were identified to be at the unacceptable risk level in 2 cases, unfavorable risk level in 28 cases and acceptable risk level in 17 cases. In Energy Trace and Barrier Analysis method, 9 types of energy were identified by using energy checklist. The most important risks associated with these energies are reduction gas leakage and increase of gas pressure inside the furnace. In this method, 17 risks were identified in to be at the unacceptable risk levelin 3 cases, unfavorable risk levelin 7 cases, acceptable upon revisit in 3 cases and acceptable with no need for revisitin 4 cases.
Implementing the security principles based on personal observations and interviews with experts and using opinions of production experts, proposition was made to make use of a general method combining the two aforesaid methods instead of applying each method separately in orde to ensure the highest efficiency and staff safety.

With advances in technology and the provision of care, numerous problems have emerged yet. On the one hand, these problems have led to environmental pollution and, on the other hand, have created risks of mining accidents and occupational diseases in the workplace. Since most of the activities in the concentrative unit of Sirjan Gol-E-Gohar Iron Company unit are considered working in a risk condition, it is essential to observe safety, and environmental and health issues and requirements to guarantee the security, health of the personnel and also to prevent environmental pollution.
In this study, using the JSA (Job Safety Analysis) method, first, the risks associated with each the job depending on the performed task were identified. Next, the employee exposure to risks, the probability of the risk of accidents, and the intensity of accident consequences are assessed. Finally, control solutions was proposed to eliminate or reduce any risks level.
Findings: 12 hazardous jobs were determined, the associated risks were assessed, and control solutions were suggested. After risk assessment and calculating the risks level in the mentioned company, the results indicated that the liner maintenance technician with 18 risks ranked the first and the disc filters maintenance technician with 7 risk ranked as a person with the lowest risk.
Training of the workers, increasing awareness of the risks, continuous monitoring of their work, improving the occupational safety and health management system are the main control solutions.

Nowadays, biofiltration has become a widely used technology for the removal of hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) which is one of the major odor-causing gases present in the air streams of municipal wastewater treatment facilities.
In this study, a biofilter pilot plant consisting of composts and woodchip as a bed (with a weight ratio of 5:1 for compost: woodchip) and a biotrickling filter with synthesis bed was made to compare the performance of the systems under real condition. Time duration for the pilot operation was 75 days during which the input and output H2S gas concentrations were measured. The systems were operated at ambient temperature, and it was attempted to operate them under desired conditions.
Findings: The results showed that concentration of H2S gas emitted from the pumping station during 24 hours was very variable and was in the range of 0 and 48 ppm. Evaluation of all performance parameters (removal efficiency, elimination rate, etc.) indicated that the performance of biofilter systems for the removal of odor emitted from municipal wastewater facilities, in range of 0-50 ppm of H2S, was more appropriate than that of biotrickling filter systems.
Therefore, the use of biofilter for H2S gas removal from the municipal wastewater facilities is recommended.

Urban development reduces the permeability and increases surface runoff. The Increased runoff has encountered urban areas with many threats on the one hand and provided an opportunity on the other hand and both necessitate the management of runoff in urban areas. Zoning of rainfall and runoff are undeniable because of the major land uses in Region 2 of Tehran city which includs residential land uses, highways, and green space respectively for various return periods in order to identify those areas with high potential for surface runoff to achieve management goals.
The method employed in this study is SCS-CN in GIS software based on Maximum 24-hour rainfall data for a time period of 14 years collected from Rain-gauge stations around Region 2 of Tehran.
Findings: The findings are determination of a common statistical period between stations used, homogeneity test, adequacy, reconstruction of incomplete data to calculate the return periods of 100, 50, 25 and 5 years to conduct zoning for the maximum 24-hour rainfall, and also construction of curve number layer based on the type of land use, effective coefficient, penetration and retention of surface using relations in the model to conduct runoff zoning in various return periods.
The results show that the highest potential for generation of runoff is related to residential and highway land uses in eastern part, and the lowest potential is related to slopped parts in the central and north districts with green space land use that should be put under management priority. This indicates the importance of land-use in creating the potential of runoff, so that this importance makes the prominent factor of slope totally ineffective.

Pollution and high level of nitrogen in underground water resources are the major agricultural and environmental contemporary concerns. Inappropriate use and management of nitrogen fertilizers in the last decades exacerbated the environmental pollution. Nitrogen fertilizers appear in the environment in three ion forms of nitrate, nitrite, and ammonium. Nitrate itself is non-toxic, but its reduction to nitrite by gastric bacteria can endanger human health and cause cancer, intensified cardiovascular diseases, methemoglobinemia, and eutrophication. Hence, presenting solutions to remove nitrogen concentration, which is one of the major environmental pollutants, from polluted waters is necessary. There are many physical and chemical methods to remove nitrogen; however, because of high costs and limited application of some methods, recently the use of natural methods and application of cheap absorbents such as zeolite have been tried recently.
In this study, zeolites from Khorasan-e-Razavi mines were used to remove nitrate ion from laboratory solutions. The zeolites were modified using Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide organic surfactant to improve their absorbing efficiency. Absorbent dosage, equilibrium time, pH effect, optimum nitrate concentration to be absorbed by zeolite were investigated.
Findings and Increase of absorbent dosage has a good effect on nitrate removal, and showed a 22.3% absorbing capacity in 2 g/L concentration. Increase of treatment time had no effect on absorption and a 15-m treatment caused a removal of 52%. Change of pH led to significant nitrate removal of 100%. For nitrate concentrations in the range of 5 to 50 mg/L, increase of nitrate concentration leads to reduction in absorption, and nitrate absorption by zeolite resulted in nitrate removal of about 20% .

The continuous accumulation of toxic materials such as heavy metals in soil due to interaction with industrial and domestic wastes has contributed to an extensive health hazards. Therefore, the aims of this study are to evaluate the ability of cement (as a chemical adsorbent) in remediation of contaminated soil and to compre the obtained results by the physical adsorption method through the addition of active smectite clay mineral.
To achieve the mentioned objectives, kaolinite soil in the laboratory conditions was contaminated with solutions containing 0 to 1 M concentration of Pb (NO3)2 in 1:10 ratio. Adding different percentages of cement and smectite to each sample, and after equilibrating, changes in pH and concentrations were determined. Tests of hydraulic conductivity (permeability), unconfined compression strength (UCS), toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) and SEM were also performed to evaluate the impact of adsorbent type on reduction of the of pollution transportation potential.
Findings: The results indicate that at low concentrations of contaminants (up to 50 cmol/kg.soil), the type of absorbent does not have much influence on the heavy metals removal from contaminated soils. It was found that with the increase of the pollutant concentration and due to the buffering capacity reduction and the restructed clay mineral, the possibility of soil remediation through the physical absorption method is greatly decreased. Unlike the smectite limitation encountering with contaminated soil containing the heavy metals, the cement has a high adsorption capacity to adsorbe heavy metals. In the same content of adsorbent and with the increase of the Pb concentration, the amount of its reduction in the presence of cement is 15 times more than what observed in the presence of smectite. In addition, it can be seen that the particles solidification in the samples containing cement improves the engineering properties of materials, causes to trap the pollutants within the soil mass and consequently reduces the leaching and emission capability of pollutants as compared to the physical attraction method.
According to the results, using the physical adsorption to remove the heavy metals from contaminated soils (particularly at high concentrations of contaminant) is not recommended. Unlike the smectite limitation encountering with contaminated soil, application of cement is very effective to remove contaminants from the soil due to the combination of two mechanisms of stabilization and solidification. In appropriate remediation condition and with respect to EPA criteria, application of 0.1% of cement per 1 cmol/kg.soil contamination leads to safe remediation of the heavy metals from in contaminated soils.

Textile and dyeing industry are the largest consumers of drinking water. Therefore, colored wastewaters that generated by the textile and dyeing industry, if discharged into the environment without treatment, can adversely affect aquatic ecosystems. In this study, magnetite nanoparticles are used to remove the dye (Acid Orange 7) from aqueous solution.
The magnetite nanoparticles were produced by a mechanical method using a planetary ball milling, and then the related physical properties were obtained and the chemical analysis was done by XRF, XRD and SEM images. The Heterogeneous Fenton process optimization was performance by response surface modeling with the help of Minitab16 software. The parameters of the initial concentration of the dye (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 mg/L), the initial concentration of catalyst (0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7 and 0.8 g/L), the initial concentration of hydrogen peroxide (5, 6.75, 8.50, 10.25, 12 mmol/L) and time of the process (8, 10, 24, 32 and 40 minutes) were selected as the factors involved in response surface modeling procedure.
Findings: Dimensions of magnetite nanoparticles were determined as less than 50 nm. The amounts of magnetite (Fe3O4) and hematite (Fe2O3) were measured to be 21/68 and 31/22 respectively. Conditions for the initial concentration of the dye (X1), the initial concentration of catalyst (X2), the initial concentration of hydrogen peroxide (X3) and the process time (X4) were obtained as 10 mg / L, 0.7 g / L, 10.25mmol / L, 32 min respectively. ANOVA high correlation coefficients for the proposed model was also obtained (adjusted-R2=0.945 and R2=0.897).
In optimal conditions, the removal efficiency of the dye (Acid Orange 7) by magnetite nanoparticles is 100%.

Currently, there are many environmental challenges and crises such as air pollution and its unpleasant effects on human, plants, animals and even man-made buildings and structures. Use of fossil fuels to supply the energy requirements for different activities and spaces is the main reason for occurrence of air pollution. Usually the share of residential centers is not considered. In particular, the major trend in residential centers is using central boiler houses, which further highlights the importance of air pollution and its control in these pollutant stationary sources.
In this process, boiler house is inspected by spatial arrangement, technical operation, efficiency and combustion products. Afterward, by tuning the performance of the burner, detection of probability defects and proposing the solutions, that process is optimized as much as possible.
Findings: The result of this project shows that the performance of the boiler house is undesirable. The reasons for this situation are: non-compliance of standards in boiler house building, improper arrangement of equipment and its undesirable operation, lack of timely service, unadjusted burners and improper chimney draft. These problems cause excessive and incomplete consumption and consequently lead to air pollution. Considering the importance of air pollution, especially in metropolitan and industrial cities, and also limited energy sources, technical inspection of boiler houses can be a way to access three main and effective optimization of energy consumption, reduction of air pollution and residents safety in buildings.

Some metabolites derived from plants have strong potential for free radical cleaning. The aim of this study was to determine and compare the antioxidant and antiradical properties of leaf extract of mangrove, Avicennia marina, and two red and brown algae (Gracilaria corticata and Cystoserriaceae myrica), from coastal areas of Persian Gulf in Booshehr province.
Extraction of two species of brown and red algae and mangrove was done by soaking method from coast of the Persian Gulf, and also antioxidant activities of extracts of added species were recorded using DPPH and RP tests.
Findings: According to the DPPH test, the highest antioxidant activity was observed in ethanol extract of mangrove leave and the lowest was observed in brown algae C. myrica. The highest antioxidant activity by RP test was observed in methanol extract of brown algae C. myrica and the lowest was observed in ethanol extract of mangrove leave. There were also significant differences (sig In this study, the highest anti-oxidant activity was found in methanolic extract of algae C. myrica (by RP test) and in leaf extract (etanolic) of mangrove A. marina (by DPPH test).

Growth of urban population contributes to many emerging problems including traffic, disturbances in the transportation system, air pollution and traffic accidents. In order to reduce these problems, it is possible to use rapid transportation systems and clean energy, such as rail transport systems (Metro), which can help to reduce traffic and also reduce air pollution and environmental pollution. On the other hand, with the remarkable development of our country in subway industry and its increasing necessity in large cities, transport systems (metro) have pushed industrialists and manufacturers towards such projects. This increases the number of metro and tunnel construction projects that may result in many incidents. The aim of this study is to investigate the hazards associated with metro station construction projects.
In this applied research, an analytical descriptive method is used to investigate the hazards of constructing a metro station. In general, Fuzzy Risk Assessment (FRA) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) models are used for this purpose. The risk assessment process involves four general stages including: identifying, assessing, responding, and monitoring the risks. Regarding the problem of uncertainty in the field of risk management as well as the lack of information in this field, fuzzy risk assessment method was used and hierarchical analysis was applied to include the importance of component as compared to each other.
Findings: After evaluation, the results indicated that the aggregative risk of the project was almost equal to 50%, which confirms very high probability of occurrence and severity of the risks. Also, considering the dimensions of the risks and risk factors studied, it was found that the largest share of this number was related to the implementation of metro station access and the risk of debris falling during drilling.
In order to reduce the risks and incidents, these areas should be focused and appropriate preventive and control measures should be considered to ensure greater safety in such projects.

All forms of life on Earth are related to soil. Soil is the final environmental destination for material degradation. Considering the importance of soil contamination, evaluation of soil contamination by various industries seems to be necessary. Characteristics of spatial distribution of pollutants in contaminated soils are important factors to identify and eliminate pollution. Heavy metals are the most important environmental pollutants. This study was conducted to assess the environmental impact of Shiraz refinery.
40 composite soil samples were taken from a depth of 0-5 cm. Calcium carbonate percentage, electrical conductivity, pH and total and available Cd concentrations were measured. The data were analyzed and the spatial distribution maps were plotted using GS and ILWIS software.
Findings: In the study area, soile pH was in the range of neutral to alkaline and contained a high percentage of calcium carbonate and moderate salinity. The average concentrations of available and total cadmium are much higher than the standard limit and the highest concentration is observed in an area close to the refinery.
In general, it can be stated that refinery activity in the region, has led to increase of Cd concentration in the surface soil. This increase was in the range to cause Cd concentration to exceede the standard limit.

Contamination made by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is one of the most common contaminations in oil-rich regions of Khuzestan province. The main purpose of this study was to investigatate the amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in drilling mud wastes ofSouthern Azadegan Oil Field. Drilling muds samples were taken from six drilling oil rigs and also a control soil sample was collected in two seasons of winter and spring, 2015.
Samples were homogenized after they were collected and transported to the laboratory and PAHs in them were extracted. Then 16 compounds of PAHs were measured by meansof GC-MS. Furthermore, the amounts of pH, EC, organic material and grading of mud were measured.
Findings: The results showed that the amount of PAHs in drilling mud collected from the stations Pad 69, Pad 20, Pad 78, Pad 15, Pad 56 and Pad 51 were respectively 284/51, 866/03, 358/59, 299/84, 612/93 and 386/47in the winter and 317/54, 1209/92, 427/61, 491/48, 750/73 and 602/38 mg/kg dried-form weight in the spring.The results collected based on molecular ratio showed that PAHs in all stations contain a mixture of payerolitic and pethrogenic sources.
According to the results obtained from all stations, compounds such as benzo (b) fluorantene, benzo (k) fluorantene and dibenzo (ah) antheracene were found to be exceeding the standard limits mentioned in Canadian Soil Quality and also control soil sample showed no pollution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Groundwater quality index is an important tool for determination of drinking water quality. The objective of this study was to assess and map groundwater quality index in Lordegan aquifer.
In this study, 32 agricultural wells were sampled for 4 times in 2010. pH, electrical conductivity, turbidity, total suspended and dissolved solids, total hardness, nitrate, sulfate, chloride, calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium were measured in each sample. Using the measured values, groundwater quality index was calculated for each sample.
Findings: Groundwater quality index varied between 44 and 74, indicating the suitable and moderate quality of water for drinking purpose. Spatial pattern of groundwater quality index was best described by the Gaussian variogram and ordinary kriging was used for mapping the groundwater quality index. Based on the groundwater quality index map, the larger part of the aquifer located in the northern side had a moderate quality and the smaller part located in the southern side had a suitable quality. Turbidity and electrical conductivity had the greatest impact on groundwater quality index. Groundwater quality index was also lightly sensitive to these two parameters.
Further studies are needed to determine the suitability of groundwater quality index in Lordegan aquifer and to calibrate groundwater quality index classification in aquifers such as Lordegan.

Net Renewal Time is one of the most important indicators for water quality analysis in the water bodies. In this study, in order to investigate the Net water Renewal Time in Gorgan Bay, two modules from two dimensional Mike21FM model including Advection-Dispersion and Hydrodynamic were coupled.
Modeling was performed under 4 different scenarios with inclusion of some factors such as wind stress, river input, precipitation, evaporation and water fluctuations in spans of Ashoradeh-Bandaretorkaman.
Findings: The modeling results showed that integral Net Renewal Time in Gorgan Bay was 0.0181 per days. Variations in the amounts of Net Renewal Time were strongly influenced by prevailing hydrodynamic regime in Gorgan Bay. Net Renewal Time in distance of 1 km from the input spans was less than one day. This time index rate decreases by moving along longitudinal axis of the bay from east to west. Net Renewal Time in northeastern area was more than the corresponding areas in southeastern part. There was no significant difference in the Net Renewal Time for southern and northern parts of the west area. The modeling results in the four seasons showed that the Renewal amounts in winter and spring were more than those in summer and fall, and these results were consistent with increasing and decreasing inter-annual water level trend in the Caspian Sea, respectively.
Due to the low water Net Renewal Time in Gorgan Bay, it can be concluded that the water flushing system has very low speed in this water body and any use of it must be done with further studies and arrangements.

In this study, nanoporous silica adsorbent of MCM-48 was synthesized. The adsorbent capacity of heavy metal was increased by modification of the surface with 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane. Silica adsorbents are very effective in heavy metal adsorption.
In the present study, removal of Pb (II) and Cd (II) heavy metal ions from aqueous solution was carried out using MCM-48 and NH2-MCM-48 modified nanoporous adsorbents in a batch system. The effect of adsorbent dosage, solution pH and contact time were studied. The equilibrium data were analyzed using the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms by nonlinear regression analysis.
Findings: The maximum adsorption capacities of NH2-MCM-48 for Cd (II) and Pb (II) were found to be 62.07 and 108.16 mg/g, respectively. Changing the level of each variable resulted in change of adsorption capacity of the adsorbents.
The results of this study indicated that modification of MCM-48 to synthesize NH2-MCM-48 will increase the adsorbent capacity for Cd (II) and Pb (II) ions and this compound can be used as an effective adsorbent for the adsorption of metal ions.

The purpose of this article is to compare the habitat of Asiatic cheetah with that of the predators competing this species in the National Park.
At the present study, the habitat suitability of Asiatic cheetah at the Kavir National Park was studied and modeled by MaxEnt in 10 years.
Findings: The results show that the factors such as distance from water resources, land use and competitor predators with the scores of 27/8, 22/1, 19/50% had the highest share in suitablity of cheetah’s habitat. Maximum possibility of the existence of the species at the north is at the elevation range of 1200-1300 m, at the slope range of 15-60%, and at a distance less than 10 km from water resources. Maximum possibility of the existence of cheetah is at moderate pastures, undeveloped lands, and very poor coverage.
The habitat of caracal has the highest overlap with the habitat of cheetah than other predators. Accordingly, change of pastures and establishing the lands containing the preys for cheetah at the zones weher are found to be a suitable habitat, can be introduced as leading contributors to the sustainable development of habitat for this species

Content analysis is a fast method for rapid access to scientific information published in journals, and using the distances scale which counting the number of threads and identification of the structure contributes to better understanding of the considered and less considered thematic categories, agendas and views of the authors about the environment. The purpose of this study was to analyze the content of the articles published in the Quarterly Journal of Environmental Science and Technology with the science, engineering and environmental management and research and scientific subjects.
In this study, content analysis, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used. The statistical population was all the articles studied in 755 subject categories.
Findings: For the content analysis of this quarterly publication, 3 main categories have been considered. From the total of 755 subjects, 157 subjects were related to environmental sciences, 320 subjects were about environmental engineering and 256 categories of the issues were related to environmental management. The results indicated that in environmental engineering subject, pollution reduction with the score of 34.8% was the first research priority and management of heavy metals with the score of 22.7% was the second priority.
Thus, the Quarterly Journal of Science and technology is a valuable resource in the field of environmental health, dedicating 56.15% of the subjects to contamination and its management. Considering the authors’ interests, it was also found that the authors in the field of Environment and Energy, with 32.7%, were in the first place and those in the field of Architecture, with 9.8%, were in the second place.

In this study, the sediments from Abbas Abad dam and two rivers entering into it and a tributary river are chemically analyzed to determine the concentration of heavy metals along with iron and calcium and their origin. The pollution intensity of river was also computed.
Sampling was carried out at 6 stations along the river in September 2013. In the first step, the bulk concentrations of Iron, Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc, Copper, Nickel, and Cadmium were determined. Subsequently, a 5 steps chemical partitioning technique was used to identify the association of metals with different sedimentary phases.
Findings: Majority of the studied metals have lithogenic sources while a significant portion of Cd is originated from anthropogenic sources. The result of chemical partitioning studies is well in accordance with the pollution intensity computations. Cluster analysis dendrogram reveals that the source for Zinc, Copper, and Nickel is oil, for Iron might be lithogenous, for calcium is biogenetic and for Cadmium and magnesium is unknown. The pollution intensity has been presented by various indices such as EF, Ipoll and Igeo. The two indices, namely IPOll and Igeo, are indicative of a non-polluted environment for all elements except for Cadmium with low pollution. The results of these two indices are in accordance with chemical partitioning studies. The results of the present study show that application of EF in determination of pollution intensity is limited.
Considering the total concentration and its comparison with other indices, the study area is not polluted and only an insignificant contamination with Cd is noticed.

Detection of land change during time series is very important for making optimal decisions about land management through understanding the interactions between human and natural phenomena. In this study, changes in landuse in Mashhad and their relation with topographic conditions were investigated using the Landsat images of 1987, 2001 and 2014.
Landuse map was created using visual interpretation method with six classes including bare lands, dry lands, forest, irrigated farming lands, range lands and urban lands. Finally, the relation of landuse changes with topographic components (elevation, slope, and aspect) was studied.
Findings: Results showed that area of urban, forest and bare landuses is increased and area of dry, irrigated farming and range landuses is decreased during the study period. Greatest landuse change was from irrigated farming to dry farming lands, which was about 37702.75 ha. Mashhad urban area has been expanded about 16754 ha in the studied 27-year period, most which happened in locations with 800-1600 m of elevation, 8-12% slope and located in northern and eastern aspects.
The obtained results can be used as a useful mean for managing the regions disposed to landuse change and provide the planners with suitable view to manage the landuse and future development plans.

The optimal management of hospital waste is essential to protect the public health and environment. The aim of the present study is to investigate the variables of hospital waste management in terms of their compliance with the ISO 14001 standard. In addition to identivying the weaknesses of waste management, some strategies are presented overcome them.
This study was carried out in 2013. The required data for hospital waste sector were obtained using a questionnaire and the Tables designed by World Health Organization (WHO). Condition of the environmental management of the wastes was described using the questionnaire, the environmental management system standard (ISO 14001), the national standard of Iran, and Likert range. All the data were analyzed by SPSS 16.
Findings: Results showed that the conditions in the studied hospitals were lower than the hypothetical average (3) in terms of some variables such as identification of environmental aspects, planning for achieving the macro and micro goals; receiving the necessary training, drafting functions and responsibilities of waste management, and preparation for emergency response. In order to identify the environmental aspects of hospital waste, results showed that from 2307.82 Kg of the waste produced in hospitals daily, 62.23% were general waste, 36.17% were infectious waste and 0.58% were sharp substances. There was a significant correlation between the numbers of provided services in hospitals and the rate of daily generated waste (r= 0.992¡ P=0.008). Moreover, there was a significant regression relation between the overall area of hospitals and the rate of daily generated waste (P=0.02).

Appropriate location plays a significant role for a plant to remain competitive in the market. It should be chosen in a way that the strategical advantage over rival plants is achievable. This paper aims to select an optimum site for a mill producing fluting paper from agricultural residue using hierarchical analysis process.
After the necessary studies, the factors affecting site selection for fluting paper mill in Mazandaran province were identified, and criteria and sub-criteria hierarchy was designed based on profit and loss. Finally, weight value of each of them was determined through Expert Choice software using questionnaires and date analysis. Final priority ranking of the alternatives was performed based on the ratio of benefits to cost (B/C) to choose the best alternative from eastern, western and central parts of Mazandaran.
Findings: Results showed that material and production, economic and infrastructure were respectively the best criteria. Moreover, the sub-criteria related to raw material were found to be the most effective factor.
The results indicate the highest ratio of benefits to costs for the eastern part of Mazandaran which is, as a result, the best location for establishing a mill producing fluting paper from agricultural residues in the province.

Landfill site selection is essential in urban development plans. Sustainable development can mean the identification of the unique characteristics and assets of a region which highlights the advantages of each region and leads the regional beneficiaries and resources to the perspective emerging from land use planning. Therefore, the environmental baseline studies based on GIS technology and other models related to spatial data analysis for identification of the area, could be seriously addressed. Natural landscape referes to usefulness of human activities in the nature, especially in the areas which are covered with plants or artificially drawn, On the other hand study of urban landfills from natural landscape view has a very important effect on landfill site selection, This seeks to find the optimum model for urban landfill site selection in line with land use and sustainable development.
In this study, the landfill in Bushehr was visted and features such as the spacing of wells, residential communities, industrial facilities, access roads, airports, historical and religious centers, areas of biological importance, hunting and habitat zones for birds, geographic coordinates, wind, topography, geology, land use, soil, watercourse, groundwater depth, floodplain, surface water and slope were studied. After the necessary processing using the software area maps were prepared. The obtained map was transferred to Arc GIS software. The maps with Clip functions related to the intended zone were extracted for all the digital files. The basic maps in, 9/2 Arc GIS were determined in the study area using Buffer function, after classification and finally overlaying each maps, the finalized, was obtained. The final map was prepared according to the classification table with three values of poor, average and good.
The results showed that the study area is 57% suitable, 40% poor and 3 % average in terms of spatial planning and sustainable development criteria. According to population growth in Bushehr city, the amount of waste production in a 20-year horizon (2009-2026) of the area required for sanitry landfilling in the study area was calculated 1176261/2 hectare. Knowing landfill has an area of 2 hectare, it was revealed that the place does not meet the needs for 20 years.

Understanding the economic value of various products and services provided by forests is considered as an effective management tool to formulate better conservation policies. In fact, all non-produced assets which benefit human societies are the outcome of several complicated ecological processes and ecosystem functions.
Environmental assets produce yearly outputs and the value of these assets depends on their annual output. Some of the environmental assets are interchangeable at the market and their values are evaluated on the basis of market prices, whereas some assets are not interchangeable in the market, and their value depends on the presented yearly outputs and they are evaluated by various methods.
Findings: In the present study, some of the most important functions of Lorestan forests have been identified and evaluated. The study area has been considered as a protected area for its genetic pool; it has been assingned as wildlife conservation center by the government and its Quercus tree is a dominant species. The results showed that the annual value of ecosystem functions is equal to 389,299,455,943,840 Rials.
This value is an acceptable reasoning for politicians and decision makers to show more support to the quality and quantity of this ecosystem.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of achievements of fish farmers following the implementation of IPM/FFS in rice cultivars on the economic and environmental dimensions of rural communities covered by the plan for the empowerment of farmers in Fereydunkenar city, Mazandaran province and to evaluate the importance of developing a farmer to farmer approach in managing healthy crop production.
In this study, 80 farmers were selected from four sub-villages: Souteh, Form, Haydar-Kola and Roodbest villages of Fereydounkanar. They were divided into three groups: FFS/IPM implementing (first group), affected by factor (second group) and non-informed farmers (third group).
This study was designed to examine the relationship between IPM / FFS implementation in rural areas and environmental and economic indicators. In this regard, descriptive, comparative and correlational methods were selected. The hypotheses were tested using central indices and Pearson correlation coefficient, Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis tests.
Findings: The results indicated that there was a significant correlation between the implementation of the plan and the reduction of the use of pesticides in all three groups, so that the rate of spraying by the farmers in all the three groups decreased by 45% as compared to the previous years. Statistics show that in 2008, 11 farmers from the first and second groups did not completely spray. Certainly, this action was completely normal in the first group and in the second group, which can be distinguished in the statistical Tables. The majority of farmers in the third and second groups sprayed twice, so that 50% of the subjects who participated fully (7- 6 years) have only sprayed once and reduced consumption by 80%. This is because the same farmers in the three groups mentioned in their interviews that they had sprayed more than three times within the two to three years ago, and this rate had sometimes increased to seven times, and only one farmer from the third group had sprayed more than three times. This showed a saving of upto 70% (100 thousand tomans per hectare) in all the three groups in terms of the cost of pesticide purchasing and the salaries of the sprayer workers. As in Argentina and Brazil, a similar study shows that the plan has resulted in savings of $ 1.2 million in soybean and cotton cultivation costs (9).
The results of this study indicate that there is a significant correlation among the implementation of the IPM/FFS plan and improving scientific and technical knowledge of the farmers, reducing the major problems of the past, observing individual and environmental health, reducing the consumption of chemical pesticides, reducing costs, increasing the income and production of farmers, and reduction of blast disease. However, there is no significant correlation among the implementation of the plan and job creation, reduction of chemical fertilizer consumption, and production and use of natural fertilizers.

In order to understand the condition of ecosystems it is essential to asses the threats and disturbances affecting the ecosystems and to develope suitable strategies for environmental management, monitoring and assessment. Especially, sustainable management of wetlands, in terms of their terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems composition and characteristics, requires scientific and multidisciplinary approaches. Due to the impacts of these threats, characteristics of ecosystems have become vulnerable.
This study has been done to provide a new method for vulnerability assessment of Choghakhorwetland at fine scale in order to develop management strategies. At first, by using the Driver, Pressure, State, Impact and response (DPSIR) model the threatening factors and values including ecological, hydrological, economic and social factors were investigated. Then the threats, values and links between threats and values were assessed. Vulnerability assessment is done through combination of their scores.
Results of this research indicated that main threats impact on ecological values included loss of birds and wildlife habitat. Increase of the height of constructed dam and drought have undesirable and severe impact on water supply for Gandoman wetland located in downstream lands. Finally, the strategies were presented as response to each factor of the analytical DPSIR model.

Tourism with its positive social, cultural, and econmical effects attracts more attention in various countries. Tourism industry is the first industry in the world because of its high income and effects on economic growth in countries. One of the competitive factors is satisfaction of tourists that is accounted as the best indicator for assuring the growth of future profit. In this way, the aim of this study is to investigate the factors which influence satisfaction of tourists.
This study is descriptive-survey according to practical purpose and research methodology and is considered as a correlation. Participants are tourists who visited Gonband Kavous building during Nowruz Holiday in 2015. According to the estimates, 3,000 tourists visited this building during Nowruz Holiday per day. 340 tourists as participants are chosen and also simple randomization is employed. The method for data collection is field and library research and the instrument is questionnaire.
Findings: The results of correlation test show a significant correlation among receptions, expectations, nostalgia and satisfaction of tourists. To predict satisfaction, regression is used by these three factors. Results show that the multiple correlation coefficient is 0.32 and correlation of model determining is 10%. Among the checked variables, perception variables (b: 0.275) and nostalgia (0.145) are effective in predicting satisfaction of tourists and expectations variables do not play a significant role.
According to the results, it is suggested that authorities should pay more attention to expectations of tourists and promoting nostalgia and their perception in order to present modern strategies for attracting tourists and increasing their satisfaction to develop Gonbad-e Kavous.

The crucial condition of northern cities in Iran, increases the necessity for a proper landfill site selection. Solid waste is an inseparable part of human life and in its production in different quantities and qualities is the biggest environmental problem at present. The first and the most important step towards waste management, is finding a suitable place for landfilling. Today, geographic information systems are widely used in environmental planning.
In this study, the geographical directions, surface water, faults, protected areas, soil, geology, distance from settlement and land use are investigated in terms of effective environmental factors while distance from main roads, distance from byway, slope and elevation are explored in terms of economical factors.
After prioritization of factors with the help of experts’ idea and combining them in ArcGIS9.2, three appropriate locations were selected. Afterwards, the suitable size of the landfill site needed for the city was calculated, and considering the needed size, the final location for landfill was proposed.

Solid waste is an integral part of human life and production of the waste in different quantity and quality is of one of the most important environmental issues of our time. Increase of population growth and solid waste production in urban and metropolitan areas have become a social problem. The most important component of municipal solid waste around the world is similar, however, the density and the ratio of its ingredients from country to country and from city to city, based on the level of economic development, social, climatic and geographical situation, are very diverse. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the production and composition of municipal solid waste collected from Shiraz regions 6 and 7.
Sampling was randomly done for one week in the study area in [5]May 2015. The method used in this study was analysis manual type. A standard amount of 90 Kg of municipal waste was collected from the houses in the two the regions. Weights of each component of the waste were obtained and then used to draw the diagrams using Excel software.
Findings: The highest percentages of waste components in both regions were related to organic materials (perishable), and there was a difference among the components of the waste in the two regions. The amount of waste produced in region 6 was higher than region 7. In region 6, the lowest percentage (1/77) belonged to the pet, whereas in region 7, the lowest percentage (0/55) was related to the special waste.

Among metal pollutants silver ions are the most toxic forms, and have been assigned to the highest toxicity class. Today, due to the antibacterial properties of silver compounds they are used in various industries. The effects of non-essential heavy metals such as silver are irreversible on aquatic animals’ body. In the present study, the sub-ethal effects of silver nitrate on hematology and Immunology parameters of goldfish (Carassius auratus) as a model species in Cyprinidae family were investigated.
105 fish werer randomly placed in 15 fiberglass tanks (400 liters); 12 tanks were used for different concentrations of silver nitrate and 3 tanks were used for control groups. The fishe of each treatment were separately exposed to effective silver nitrate concentrations of 0.01, 0.025, 0.05 and 0.1 ppm, and for hematological and biochemical test, nine fish were randomly selected from each treatment. Measured indices were total number of white blood cells (leukocytes), lymphocytes, neutrophils, eosinophil, total number of red blood cells (erythrocytes), hemoglobin content, hematocrit level, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), hemoglobin the corpuscular (MCH), hemoglobin concentration and serum glucoses.
The results showed that different concentrations of silver nitrate influenced blood erythrocyte (P>0.05) but did not affect blood leukocyte, which may be due to the resistance of the gold fish compared to others. Blood could be introduced as a suitable biomarker of silver pollution.

With the increase of population, the demand for proper water resources is increased. Native Iranian aquatic plants have a significant role in self-remediation of water resources. Phytoremediation by aquatic plants is a low cost and effective way to increase the quality of waters for different purposes.
In this study, phytoremediation of boron-contaminated aquatic environments was examined by cultivating two aquatic plants of Zannichellia palustris L. and Ruppia maritima L. in the greenhouse over 120 h in boron-contaminated water with adding different concentrations (0, 1, 5 and 10 mg L-1).
The obtained results showed that these plants are able to uptake high amount of boron, and the boron removal efficiency in both plants observed to be more than 70%. Uptake indices in Zannichellia palustris L. and Ruppia maritima L. were calculated as 0.51 to 8.16 mg per pot and 0.18 to 8.14 mg per pot, respectively. Biomass production measurement index of Zannichellia palustris L. reduced with increase of boron contamination, while this index for Ruppia maritima L. had no significant change, indicating that Ruppia maritima L. has a higher resistance to boron contamination. According to the results, boron phytoremediation of contaminated waters by these plants is proposed.

Selection of resistant species with an ability to make adaptation with the local contaminated site is a key factor in the success of phytoremediation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of Fe, Ni on seed emergence and plant height of Stipacapensis under laboratory conditions.
A factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with three replications was used. Pollutant substances (iron and nickel) and pollutant concentrations (0, 100, 150, 200ppm) were considered as the first and second factors, respectively.
Findings: The results showed that the effect of different amounts of iron and nickel on seed emergence and plant height of Stipacapensis was significant (p Overall results indicate the negative effects of Fe, Ni on seed germination as well as plant height of Stipacapensis.However, germination of Stipacapensis at the highest concentration of elements, indicate the relatively tolerance of this species to soil contamination elements in this study.

One of the pillars of sustainable development is pay attention to the physical and ecological aspects of rural. Human activities and changes in lifestyle and consumption patterns, resulteding in increased production of waste material. So is increaseding production of waste less material and how to disposal of the environmental challenges of human society, therefor, the aim of this study is to identify challenges and barriers to domestic waste from the perspective rural heads of households.
The investigation is descriptive and the survey was performed, The study sample was the heads of households Sarab- Ghalaeshahin Rural, Sarpole-Zahab Township that way was conducted in this study the census (N= 170), 110 questionnaires were completed and returned them (return rate = 70/64 percent). The research instrument was a questionnaire which content validity examined modified and approved by a number of experts and professors of Department of Agricultural Extension and Education Razi University in Kermanshah. The coefficient of reliability (Cronbach's alpha), was obtained by a pre-test 0/823.
Findings: According to the finding, it was 7 challenges domestic waste in the rural of study include. They are: the challenges of inter-sectoral of coordination, educatio - inform, financial, administrative, lack of compiled program, social and cultural.challenges were identified. By considering suitable place for disposal waste domestic, inter-sectoral lack of coordination, in exprienced management for disposal waste domestic and decrease ability management of goverenment (to settle different functions) challenge of inter-sectoral lack of coordination was acquaintanced challenge of disposal waste domestic rural.

Use of land ignoring the ecological differences and environmental potentials leads to adverse consequences and destruction of the environment, and eventually threatens natural resources and hinders sustainable development of the environment. Rapid expansion and development, lack of urban planning, and imbalance composition of Parsabad County call for implementation of proper management to prevent negative effects of development process and necessitate introduction of new zones for urban development. This study aimed to select appropriate directions for urban development within Parsabad County.
MADM was used with a focus on value and compensatory Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to weigh and combine the criteria in GIS environment. Urban development was completed using the criteria for ecological model of urban, rural, and industrial development. Moreover, some economic, social, hydrologic and hydro-geological criteria such as distance from wells, rivers, roads, airports, industrial zones, faults, and cities were also incorporated in this model.
Results revealed that from the total area of Parsabad County, 6238.2896 acres was suitable, 18146.5083 acres was moderately suitable, and 110121.067 acres was unsuitable for urban development. Suitable and moderately suitable lands for urban development landuse are mostly located in the northern part of the medium. At present, the spatial distribution of Parsabad population centers in this area mainy because of adjacency to Aras River, low slope and proximity to the residential area.

Human beings are always exposed to ionizing radiation. One of the main sources of this radiation is the nuclear radiation related to the particular radioactive nuclei present in water, soil, rock, and construction materials. The ionizing radiation is harmful to living organisms, causing various diseases and sometimes genetic abnormalities. Therefore, study of radiation from building materials is of great importance.
In this study, 18 samples were collected from building materials in Arak city. Activity of natural radionuclides were determined using gamma ray spectrometry method using high purity germanium detector (HPGe) model GCD30195BSI with 30% relative efficiency. Radium equivalent, internal and external hazard indices, indoor and outdoor annual effective dose rates, and absorbed dose rate were also calculated for all of samples.
Findings: The specific activity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in these samples were calculated and varied from Acordingto the measurments, the minimum and maximum radium equivalent activities of

Sponges invariably filter a large volume of sea water and potentially accumulate heavy metals and other contaminants from the environment. Sponges, being sessile marine invertebrates and modular in body organization, can live many years in the same location and therefore have the ability to accumulate anthropogenic pollutants such as metals over a long period.
In this study, marine sponge Haliclona sp. from Qeshm and Larak islands was evaluated as a potential indicator organism. For this purpose, 13 samples of marine sponge Haliclona sp. from Qeshm and 15 samples from Larak islands were collected and analyzed for the amount of heavy metals by flame atomic absorption spectrometer.
Findings: The mean concentrations of zinc, copper and iron of the marine sponge Haliclona sp. were found to be 115.23, 1698.18 and 74.91 mg/kg in Qeshm Island and 74.73, 1354.74 and 40.36 mg/kg Larak Island, respectively. The differences in concentrations of heavy metals in marine sponge, except for iron (p The results showed that in Qeshm island the heavy metals contamination in the Qeshm Island was greater than in Larak Island due to the high rate of industrial acitivities in the west part of Bandar Abbass Portland in terms of geographical industrial distribution compared to other part of the island. Moreover Qeshm Island is located, as a free trade zone, more close to the industrial zone of Bandar Abbass.

Persian Gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa subgutturosa) has been distributed in 14 countries. Among these countries, at least in 12 ones the presence of livestock has been mentioned as a factor of Gazelles habitat destruction. Qaraviz no hunting area in Kermanshah province, with the structure of hill and rising ground, is one of the best Persian Gazelle habitats in the west of Iran. The most important obstacle in this regard is entry of livestock of villagers and nomads into its habitat. The aim of this study is to compare the ecological niche of livestock (sheep and goat) and Persian Gazelle in autumn and winter.
In order to model the Gazelle habitat, the presence of point the species and 12 environmental factors of slope, aspect, altitude, vegetation density index (NDVI), type of vegetation, distance from the river, distance from the road, distance from the areas of human activity, distance from the village, distance from the border stations, distance from the presence of livestock, and distance from spring and trough were used. Moreover, to model the habitat of the livestocks in the region, the presence point of livestock and 9 environmental factors of slope, direction, height, vegetation density index (NDVI), type of vegetation, distance from the river, distance from spring and trough and distance from the presence point of Gazelles were used. Modeling was carried out by ecological niche factor analyzing method performed in Biomapper software.
Findings: Gazelles and livestock in both seasons tended to the low-vegetation density and south direction. Gazelles in both seasons tended to the vegetation types of Poa bulbosa-Annual grass, while the livestock in the region in autumn and winter, tended to the vegetation types of Astragalus spp.-Amygdalus scoparia - Salsola rigida and Poa bulbosa-Annual grass, respectively. Pearson correlation coefficient showed that there is a correlation (P-Value Based on the results, marginality of ecological niche of Gazelles narrows from autumn (1.05) to winter (1.48), whereas the ecological niche of the livestocks widens from autumn (0.927) to winter (0.836). The results show that pressure from the entry of livestock of villagers and nomads has been effective on narrowing the Gazelles’ ecological niche.

Incerease of fish production and necessity of developing this industry by environmental measures show the importance of studing the aquaculture effects. In this stydy, the alpha biodiversity indices for macrobenthic community in response to trout farm effluent located at Gamsiab River were calculated in 2013.
Sampls were collected from four stations at the inflow, outflow, and 500 meter and 1000 meter away from the farm and in three replicates from the middle and sides of the river by surber sampler. After identifying and counting the samples, the different biodiversity indeces including Shanon H', Berger-Parker, Alpha, Casewell, Simpson, Hill-Ho, Margalef and Ept/chir were calculated.
Findings: Results showed that EPT/Chir index decreased in the outflow station in all seasons. Changes in alpha biodivesity indeces showed that some indices, such as Alpaha and Hill indices, in most cases decreased in the outflow station, while some others, such as Margalef richness index, increased. PCA analysis showed the relationship between biodiversity indices and both sampeling units in different stations and seasons and EPT/Chir index. Accordingly, all sampeling units were not related to one index and had stronger relationship wih some of the indices. Therefore, it was concluded that index type affects the study.
Generally, analysis of the biodiversity indices showed that in different seasons and stations and in changing river conditions these indices had meaningful differences with one another, and did not lead to a single result for health situation of ecosystem.

Species diversity conservation is a main objective in rangelands management. In ecosystem management, the first step is to determine the factors influencing the distribution of species and species diversity, knowing that species diversity is correlated with ecosystem parameters. By measuring the diversity, distribution of species in the environment can be studied with an emphasis on the dynamics of ecosystems and proper management recommendations can be presented.
In this study, 90 plots (1 m2) were established in the study area in a systematic-randomized manner. Presence and cover percent were determined within each plot.Also identification of medicinal plants, belonging to genus and family, was performed and biological type,life form and growth form were determined. Shannon and McIntosh diversity indices were used to estimate the species diversity of medicinal plants in taxonomic, life form, biological type and growth form levels.
The results showed that the species diversity of Asadli-Pelmiss rangelands could be considered as moderate, and the vegetation of the study area was mostly of perennial plants species which is a characteristic of mountainous areas with cold climate in altitudes.

Urban population in Iran is increasing. It is supposed to intensify the usage of raw materials, vehicles, energy and etc., and consequently lead to the environmental pollution which is a barrier to sustainable development realization. Therefore, along with the process of urban development settling down, its environmental consequences should be managed as well. Meanwhile information and communication technology (ICT) application such as E- Government, E-Commerce and etc., could play a vital role in reducing the subsequent negative impacts on environment. This has been considered as the main theme of this study.
In this study, it is attempted to assess the impact of information and communication technology on Urban Sustainable Development process in Iran, using provincial data through Panel Data technique. The hypothesis was tested separately for developed and less developed provinces of Iran.
Findings: The results imply that ICT had significant and positive impacts on improving the environment and achieving sustainable development (just) in developed provinces.
Seemingly, this attributed to the differences in degree of ICT penetration and institutionalization amoung developed and less developed provinces.

The current study is performed to investigate patterns, physical, functional, environmental, and semantic features of past successful places to present design strategies for contemporary places.
In this study, a descriptive-analytic and comparative method has been used to recognize the place components features in historical squares through analysis of prominent case studies (Ganj-Alikhan square, Naghshe-Jahan square, Piazza del Campo and Grand Place) and to present effective strategies for designing the contemporary squares based on these features.
Findings: The results show that squares can be improved to successful places due to their functional, physical, and semantic quality.
The results obtained in this study imply that the existing historical features beyond the old monuments can be applied for designing the modern squares to achieve alive, dynamic, and successful public places. These features are summarized in the form of place components including form, ecosystem, meaning, and activity.

Educational spaces in Iran, with a student population of about 12 million people and lowgradedness of 75% of schools in terms of energy management, are one of the most energy wasting applications. Adding to this is the developing student population and non-renewable energy reserves which are under distruction. Therefore, it is essential to bind to modern proposals for the use of renewable energy sources as alternatives for designing educational spaces in Iran to step towards further development of this application. In this study, in line with the introduction of green architecture as a renewable source of energy, the green schools model covered with a green roof in connection with atrium has been presented. Moreover, the impact of atrium-related green roof cooling and heating loads on energy management in pedagogical spaces in Sharekors as one of the cold climate regions of Iran has been investigated.
In the present study, which is descriptive-analytic, suggested a synthetic model of atrium- related green roof has been suggested as a strategy for energy saving in pedagogical. For studying the heating load in summer and cooling load in winter, three classrooms in Shahrekord as an example of cold climate region in Iran were simulated by Carrier Hap software (Hourly Analysis Program, one of the most modern softwares for heat transfer analysis whose results of are accepted by the U.S Green Building Council or LEED).
Findings: The results of this project showed the advantage of using green roofs for improvement of heating load in the winter and cooling load in summer in the classes with atrium-related green roofs over the classes with 40-cm and 66-cm conventional roofs .

Today, according to the increasing importance of green space and environment, decision making about environmental policies is growing at the national and international levels. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the information that could be used to promote efficient environmental decision making.
In this study, the economic benefits associated with Azadi Park in Shiraz, are estimated using a double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation survey design. The model is estimated applying the Bayesian method. Data for this study was collected with the help of 215 respondants in 2012.
Findings: The model was calibrated for the years 1992-1996 and validated for the years 1998-2000. The coefficient of determination (R2) for monthly flow was equal to 0.82 and Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient (Ens) was equal to 0.8 in the calibration period, while in the validation period these coefficients were 0.77 and 0.73, respectively.
The results indicate that income, household size, quality and beauty of the park have a significant positive effect and history of visiting has a robust negative effect on the acceptance of bid price. Äisitors are willing to pay 4390 Rials per person per day on average, resulting in aggregate benefits of 14000 million Rials yearly. The present value of these aggregate benefits equals to 190000 million Rials, using a social discount rate of 7.2 %.

The speedy process of urbanization is destroying urban green spaces and causing a lot of problems including urban heat island. To restore back the nature into the urban landscape and to set up a balanced cycle among the climate factors, green surfaces can be the key element to this transformation. For this purpose, vegetation can be very helpful through its cooling effect, evapotranspiration and shading.
The main method used in this research is field study, in which, by a data logger, air temperature and relative humidity were recorded in certain points with definite distances from two green walls.
Findings: According to the measurements, green surfaces reduce the temperature of their surrounding area by 0.63 to 1.0 ˚C during warm seasons. Furthermore, during cold seasons, temperature of the areas where are covered with vegetation is higher by 2.43 to 1.76 ˚C.
The obtained results indicate that during warm seasons, temperature of green-wall surrounding area is cooler up to 1.0 ˚C and during cold seasons it is warmer up to 3.0 ˚C. Therefore, building vertical green structures creates an appropriate environment by reducing the temperature during warm seasons and increasing the temperature during cold seasons, and makes a proper microclimate at their surrounding area.