Roghayeh Karami; Hassan Rezaei; Abdolrassoul Salmanmahiy; Khalil Ghorbani
Abstract
Introduction: Today, natural resources’ managers in Iran and the world pay more attention to the participation of local stakeholders and indigenous knowledge in developing the integrated management plan of wetlands. Wetland management should contain four dimensions of wise use, sustainable ...
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Introduction: Today, natural resources’ managers in Iran and the world pay more attention to the participation of local stakeholders and indigenous knowledge in developing the integrated management plan of wetlands. Wetland management should contain four dimensions of wise use, sustainable management, integrated water resources management and comprehensive stakeholder participation. Stakeholders’participation in decision-making process leads to reaching consensus and reduces conflicts. The purpose of this study was to present a conceptual model of participatory management of Hamoun International Wetlands with the collaboration of local stakeholders.Material and methods: In this study, the opinions of 376 stakeholders living in 58 villages inside and around Hamoun International Wetlands were collected in the form of focus groups. The coding of the interviews and the presentation of the conceptual model were performed through qualitative content analysis - grounded theory - in Nvivo12 software. Reliability was calculated using the auditing method and the validity of the research was reviewed and confirmed by experts.Results and discussion: Data reliability was 76%, which is acceptable. Data analysis and comparison was implemented using 863 primary codes with repetition, 150 primary codes without repetition, 78 secondary codes, 20 concepts, 10 subcategories and six main categories. The results of data analysis revealed the participatory model of Hamoun International Wetlands comprised six components: comprehensive management of Hamoun Wetland, legal requirements for water supply through diplomatic relations with Afghanistan, empowerment of local stakeholders through training-consultative meetings, promotion and improvement of culture in adopting climate-friendly agricultural methods, reducing dependence on wetland through industrial and commercial development and sustainable protection of wetland environment.Conclusion: The results of this study presented the different dimensions of participatory wetland management using content analysis, which in particular can help the managers of Hamoun International Wetland and the managers of other wetlands in Iran in general in designing and implementing management plans and their proper outsourcing to local stakeholders. Therefore, using content analysis, the opinions of stakeholders, especially local stakeholders, can be included in management decisions.
Zoha Jafari; Alireza Ildromi; Seyed Mohsen Hosseini; Abdolrassoul Salmanmahiy; javad Rezaeain Zeidi
Volume 16, Issue 2 , July 2018, , Pages 185-202
Abstract
Introduction: In recent decades, mathematical planning methods have been widely applied for optimization of decision-making processes under resource constraint conditions (Filip, 2017). The application of these methods has been emphasized in studies such as the allocation of land to various types of ...
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Introduction: In recent decades, mathematical planning methods have been widely applied for optimization of decision-making processes under resource constraint conditions (Filip, 2017). The application of these methods has been emphasized in studies such as the allocation of land to various types of utilization in forest areas (Diaz & Romero, 2002), planning agricultural-forestry plans (de Sousa Xavier, 2015) and assessment of tourism development investment options (Carrillo et al., 2017). The present study applied a multi-objective programming method to optimize the level of investment and land allocation for the development of various types of tourism activities, considering three goals of increasing profit, decreasing erosion rate and increasing employment in Zara Park with an area of 73 hectares in Mazandaran Province. Materials and methods: The required information was collected from area maps, relevant organizations and completed questionnaires from 120 visitors. The scale of erosion for each activity in a special area was determined with the use of affecting criteria from the FAO erosion assessment method and expert opinions for each activity in a special site. Limitations related to the physiological features of the area were considered through the creation of six homogeneous areas for the allocation of sports site, children's park, picnic, forest seeing and conservation. Other information was entered into the model as input data of objective function and constraint. By solving the model in Lingo11 mathematical programming software, a pay-off matrix was first created from separate optimization of goals, in order to assess the degree of conflict between them (Romero et al., 1987). Then, with the use of the weighting method, a series of efficient solutions were obtained. Finally, using the compromise programming method and creating a balance between the goals, the best answer among them was chosen. Agreed solutions were determined based on the preference of the decision makers in the weight of the goals. Results and discussion: According to the results, on the condition of maximizing profits, annual revenue was estimated as 5.6 billion rails, the number of employees is 239 and the erosion rate was approximately 28. With a separate optimization minimizing erosion, the erosion was expected to decrease by 14 units, due to the modification in the area and the state of site assigned to each activity. In this case, a significant reduction of 3.1 billion rails in annual revenue and 19 people in employment can be envisaged. By maximizing the employment rate individually, the annual income was reduced to 3.4 billion. By simultaneously optimizing three goals in a multi-objective optimization approach, an efficient set of solutions was obtained in which the exchange between the goals could be observed. According to the results the change in the level of optimization of an objective affects the extent to which the other goals are achieved. From this set, optimal investment patterns were obtained with the use of a compromise programming method taking into consideration a different combination of objective weighting from the perspective of the three groups of park managers, tourism organizations and environmentalists. Based on these results, changing the weight of the goals significantly changed the amount of area and location allocated to each activity and the level of profitability. In the state of increasing the weight of the goal Profit, based on the preferences of park managers, the annual revenue will become nearer to the park estimation which is equal to 4.6 billion rails per year according to the comprehensive park studies and the sites allocated to each activity is approximately similar to the site expected by tourist’s point of view, as evaluated in the questionnaires. On an equal weighting, based on the preferences of the tourism authorities, although the level of income is lower than the estimated revenue, the other goals in this condition can come closer to their optimal level; ultimately, by considering environmentalist’s preferences, the percentage allocated to each land use changes in favour of the activities which are more compatible with the natural heritage, such as conservation and forest seeing. Conclusion: We face various and often conflicting goals in managing tourism resources, so multi-objective optimization methods integrated with compromise programming approaches which provide the possibility of exchange between the various preferences of managers and stakeholders can be used as an effective tool in facilitating the decision-making process.
Hoda Khoshzaher; Hossein Varasteh Moradi; Abdolrasoul Salmanmahini
Volume 14, Issue 2 , July 2016, , Pages 69-78
Abstract
This study investigated the effect of density and other properties of dead trees on the bird community in Golestan National Park during the autumn of 2013. Birds and various environmental variables were detected within a 25 m radius of each of 100 sampling points. The relationship between biological ...
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This study investigated the effect of density and other properties of dead trees on the bird community in Golestan National Park during the autumn of 2013. Birds and various environmental variables were detected within a 25 m radius of each of 100 sampling points. The relationship between biological diversity and the relative abundance of bird species to the environmental variables related to the dead tree characteristics was evaluated. To determine the association of bird diversity indices with environmental variables, a canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was performed. The first axis of CCA successfully separated the two groups of birds. The first group of birds comprised the Lagea Rock Nuthatch, Black Woodpecker, Winter Wern, Nutatch, Great Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Erosian Jay, Nightingale and Common Blackbird which had a positive correlation with some factors of dead trees, such as: the first and second axes of standing dead trees (snags) and fallen dead trees (logs), wood surface conditions of snags, degree of decay of logs, height at which food is found of snags, condition of canopy in snags, length of logs and presence of nests. The second group was on the right-hand side of the axis and included such species as: Coal Tit, Song Thrush, Long-tail Tit, River Warbler, Flycature, Green Woodpecker, Stonechat, Hawfinch, Pheasant and Common Chiffchaff. These birds had a positive correlation with the following environmental variables: the third and fourth axes of logs and the fourth axis of snags.
Mohammad Javad Amiri; Abdolrasoul Salman Mahini; Seyed Gholamali Jalali; Seyyed Mohsen Hosseini; Froad Azari Dehkordi
Volume 7, Issue 2 , January 2010
Abstract
In this research, two methods were utilized for assessing the ecological capability of forestry: the overlay maps systemic and Boolean-Fuzzy Logic (BFL) methods. To assess the ecological capability of forest land, it is essential to deploy precise ecological factors of a forest ecosystem such as its ...
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In this research, two methods were utilized for assessing the ecological capability of forestry: the overlay maps systemic and Boolean-Fuzzy Logic (BFL) methods. To assess the ecological capability of forest land, it is essential to deploy precise ecological factors of a forest ecosystem such as its physiography, topography, altitude, slope, soil, bedrock, precipitation, temperature, and natural factors like vegetation density, annual increment, and the special value of plant species. Therefore, overlay methodology and Boolean logic were used to evaluate the ecological capability of sub watersheds Nos. 33 and 34 that cover an area of 32,526 ha near Tonekabon in Mazandaran Province of Iran. Our findings after using the conventional Boolean Model revealed that there are categories 3, 5, 6, and 7 of forest capability in the area, although the category 3 area was dominant. On the other hand, when the same methodology was used but, instead of the Boolean-Logic (BL) the ‘Boolean-Fuzzy-Logic’ (BFL) was deployed and after weighting of parameters by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), the seven complete categories for forest layers have been detected in the Geographic Information System (GIS) layers. These findings can emphasize the improvement of BFL methodology against the conventional BL for assessment of the ecological capability of forests in the northern part of Iran.
Ahmad Reza Mehrabian; Asghar Abdoli; Hossein Mostafavi; Abdol Rasool Salman Mahini; Faraham Ahmadzadeh; Mehregan Ebrahimi
Volume 5, Issue 1 , October 2007
Abstract
The habitats are the most basis of plants diversity and the study of habitats are the most important studies in the ecosystem. Qom province Due to ecotonical conditions (the connection between Zagros mountain ecosystem in west and south of province and central desert ecosystem in east of province, ecosystems ...
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The habitats are the most basis of plants diversity and the study of habitats are the most important studies in the ecosystem. Qom province Due to ecotonical conditions (the connection between Zagros mountain ecosystem in west and south of province and central desert ecosystem in east of province, ecosystems and habitats diversity is high. this research has been carried out on the natural habitats and effected by human. The former Nature habiatats includes desertic, alpine and wetland zones and the later are includes the marginal of agricultural lands and Ruderal habitats . Moreover in the present survey diversity of plant habitats has been investigated in order to height, temperature and perception gradient. the different habitats by accessed With quadratic sampling in different habitat of province based on Braun-Blanquet . The highest diversity is includes Palang-darreh Valley (south west of province) and the lowest diversity is in relevant to Massileh plain (East of province).
