فصلنامه مطالعات جغرافیایی مناطق خشک
پیاپی 50 (زمستان 1401)

Given the abundance of desert and desert areas in Iran, it is necessary to recognize the basic capabilities of these areas to eliminate restrictions, prevent migration of people and achieve their sustainable development. KhoroBiyabank region is the tourism hub of the central desert of Iran. The aim of this study was to identify the most suitable place for ecotourism in Khorobiabank city and to identify the potential of the region in the field of various ecotourism activities. 30 questionnaires were completed by experts in this field and its results were used using hierarchical analysis in Expert Choice software to achieve the set goals. The results showed that the six criteria studied in order of importance are: 1- biological environment, 2- special values, 3- physical environment (geology and geomorphology), 4- socio-economic and political environment, 5- physical environment ( Climate and climate) and 6- Cultural environment criteria, the options of each criterion are Iraj village for the first criterion, Egypt village for the second and third criteria, Khor city for the fourth criterion, Iraj village for the fifth criterion and again Khor city for the sixth criterion.

Tourism clusters refer to a set of tourism business units which are concentrated in a geographical area and have specialized cooperation relations. Many countries are trying to overcome the existing issues and challenges in tourism businesses by using the clustering strategy. The purpose of the research is to explain the spatiality of tourism clusters in villages with tourism potential in Tabas region. The descriptive-analytical research method is used and its dominant approach is based on survey; meanwhile, literature review and field study methodologies have been used to collect data. The statistical population includes 36 villages with tourism potential in Tabas region in South Khorasan province. The modified Cochran formula was used to determine the sample size in this study. Based on this, out of 3675 rural households in Tabas city, 348 households were selected as samples. In order to cluster the villages, the opinions of 30 experts (employees of cultural heritage, prefectural and governorate, etc.) were included. Also, Aras model was used to rank the studied villages and ARc GIS software was used to calculate the records and cluster the villages. The results of the research indicate a positive and significant relationship between the arrival of tourists and the economic, social and environmental dimensions. The results of the t-test with a confidence level of 95%, the level of most of the indicators among the villagers is higher than the average level. Furthermore, by considering the results of Aras and Gutman's technique, it can be seen that the villages of Hoder, Jokhah, Azmeighan, Kirit, Dastgaran, Naiband, Esfandiar, Zenughan, Rabat Khan, Helwan, Dehnu and Arababad have a strong potential to attract tourism. By contrast, the creation of tourism clusters, and the villages of Khorualiya, Marghoub, Pikoh, Melvand, Hasan Abad, Kordabad, Nusrat Abad, Pirhajat, Chirok, Serand, Mawder have less potential to attract tourists.

Drought is a mysterious phenomenon whose effects, unlike earthquakes and floods, are not sudden and cover wide areas. Understanding this phenomenon can increase the resilience of human societies and reduce its consequences. Otherwise, drought leads to imbalance and anomaly in social and ecological systems. In this research, Fars province (9 selected stations) has been selected to investigate the drought during a statistical period of 28 years (1994-2021), and the SPI and PNPI indices and the NDVI index have been used to verify the validity of these indices and the consequences of drought. The results showed that climatic droughts continued during this period with the difference that the index (SPI) shows the severity of drought better and emphasizes minimum ranges, and the PNPI index displays the maximum ranges while providing a better classification of drought severity. According to the results, the severity of droughts is inclined from the south to the northern parts of the region. The results of the vegetation cover index showed that there are many changes in the density and extent of vegetation cover during the period of about 30 years, which confirms the evaluation of the drought indicators in this research.

Flood is one of the natural hazards in the world that is caused by natural and human factors. Every year, the country of Iran is suffered from the occurrence of small and large floods in different seasons of the year. The purpose of this research is to investigate the flooding situation in Jajarom city by using fuzzy logic and analyzing the factors affecting flooding in this county. Therefore, in the study area, the factors affecting the occurrence of floods were first identified, which include height, slope, slope direction, rainfall, vegetation cover, lithology, geomorphology, land use, permeability, density of waterways and distance from the river. Then the criteria were fuzzified according to the required functions, and in the next step, flood zoning was done in the target area using different operators. The results of the research showed that 1,127.1 square kilometers of the study area is at low risk, 573.573 square kilometers are at medium risk, 593 square kilometers are at high risk of flooding, and 654.2 square kilometers are at very high risk of flooding. It was also found that all the cities of this county are in the range of medium to very high risk and about half of the villages are in the range of medium to very high risk. In addition, about 77% of the main roads of the county are in the range of medium to very high risk. These results show that many areas of Jajarm county, especially the residential areas, are very prone to flooding, and in this context, applying solutions such as trying to correct inappropriate land uses, restoring natural vegetation, scientific monitoring, and using flood warning systems locally is an important step in reducing damages.

Cities have been competing with each other since its inception, with increasing urbanization and the complexity of the urban system. In an age that we call the age of knowledge and economics as a knowledge-based economy and global competition, we see intense competition between countries at the international level and cities at the national level. Therefore, the purpose of the research is to investigate the impact of competitiveness components on the promotion of urban knowledge-based economy in Kerman.The research method in this study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of method. Most of the data are based on field studies and questionnaires from 30 experts in the field of urban planning in the region. Findings of the study based on the method of Analysis Hierarchi Procces(AHP) show that between the indicators related to economic factors and indicators related to social factors, the coefficient of economic factors including: "economic performance", "economic structure and capacity", "technology transformation" "Information gathering", "Economic transformation", "Space transformation" and "Marketing" with a rate of 59.5% have the greatest impact on social factors including: "human resources", "quality of life", "level of urban development", "performance "Government" and "Environmental Performance" account for 40.5% of the total final weight. And among the 11 economic and social components of competitiveness affecting the formation of urban knowledge-based economy, economic structure and capacity and economic performance with 12 and 10.5, respectively, the formation of knowledge-based economy have the highest impact factor. Therefore, in order to achieve comprehensive development, the city of Kerman needs effective attention to economic factors, because the most effective drivers of social factors are the most effective drivers in the formation and promotion of knowledge-based economy in the city of Kerman.

In this research, the precipitation data needed for the stations of the study area during the statistical period of 1981-2015 was obtained from the Meteorological Statistics Center. To predict and produce statistical data from 2026 to 2065, the LARS-WG and CLIMGEN models were used. In this study, bootstrap method was used to assess precipitation uncertainty. The correlation between the observed and simulated monthly rainfall data shows that the CLIMGEN model simulates the synthetic rainfall data more accurately. The lowest error of the RMSE and MAE in both of these models is at Jolfa Station And the highest error in both models was measured at Sardasht station. Estimation of precipitation output (mean precipitation) by LARS-WG model with bootstrap method indicates higher uncertainty of LARS-WG model than CLIMGEN model. The variance of precipitation observations also indicates a significant change in confidence intervals in the spring and autumn months. Therefore, with regard to the above, it can be said that in the case of rainfall, the LARS-WG model shows more uncertainty than the CLIMGEN model in most of the studied stations in the study area. The absolute magnitude of annual precipitation error with the output of the CLIMGEN model is less than the magnitude of the error with the output of the LARS-WG model. This indicates a lower error value of the CLIMGEN model in the simulated precipitation spatial uncertainty than the LARS-WG model in the northwestern region of Iran.

In this article, we want to investigate the barriers and challenges of ecotourism resorts from the perspective of experts and stakeholders using the Delphi method and confirmatory factor analysis. The study is an applied work in terms of the purpose and methodology of the paper descriptive-analytical. The statistical population consists of two groups including experts and stakeholders. The sample size for the first group was selected using snowball or chain sampling of 28 people. The second group consists of owners of ecotourism resorts and residents. The case study was five villages in Egypt, Garmeh, Mehrjan, Bayaz, and Iraj. These villages have a population of 1384 people and 476 families. To generalize the information of the whole statistical population using the Cochran sampling method from a total of 476 households, the sample size is equal to 330 at random.Data analysis was carried out using SPSS software version 23. The Delphi technique was used to identify the challenges of eco-lodges. The results in the qualitative part indicated that the most important challenges facing ecotourism resorts are structural and managerial factors, policy, financial and economic factors, individual personality, research, and information. In the quantitative part, using confirmatory factor analysis, there are five factors: financial and economic factors, managerial and structural factors, weakness of laws and comprehensive policy-making, research and information, and individual and personality factors that 73 Explain 78% of the total variance.