Zahra Dehghan Manshadi; Parastoo Parivar
Abstract
Introduction: The management of social-ecological systems such as cities is extremely complicated due to the interdependence of subsystems, the cause-and-effect relationships that exist between them, and the impacts on sustainability. The necessity of ecological capacity and the ability of cities to ...
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Introduction: The management of social-ecological systems such as cities is extremely complicated due to the interdependence of subsystems, the cause-and-effect relationships that exist between them, and the impacts on sustainability. The necessity of ecological capacity and the ability of cities to sustain their potential to provide goods and services to both current and future generations cannot be overstated. Understanding how arid ecosystems adapt to disturbances is critical for the sustainable management of such areas, given the global extent of this type of ecosystem and its fragility, both structurally and functionally. The purpose of this study is to assess the impacts of urban growth on the carrying capacity of Isfahan, which is located on Iran's central plateau. In this regard, simulation models can be an effective tool in providing scientific decisions in dealing with complex and unknown social and ecological systems.
Material and methods: In this study, system dynamics modeling was used to determine the cause-and-effect relationships between variables affecting Isfahan's carrying capacity. In order to examine the landscape structure, DIVISION, SPLIT, and IJI metrics have been used to show connectivity, and ED, SHDI, and AI metrics have been used to determine the heterogeneity of the landscape of Isfahan City. After problem articulation, the model boundary was defined in the initial step of the modeling process by developing the subsystem diagram. After the population, environment, landscape, and carrying capacity subsystems were evaluated, a cause-and-effect diagram was made. The flow diagram and scenario were also made to evaluate the state of Isfahan's carrying capacity. In order to validate the model, the historical trend and simulation of two variables of urban population and the number of industries have been compared using the coefficient of determination.
Results and discussion: The pressure factors on the urban carrying capacity were detected and analyzed by assessing key variables in the system, such as water sustainability (WSI) and air quality, as well as changes in the landscape structure of Isfahan using landscape metrics. The research findings indicate that approximately 90% of the urban water demand is dedicated to the domestic sector; therefore, the first scenario is related to the management of water consumption in this sector and its influence on the Water Supply–Demand Index. This scenario showed that if domestic water demand is not controlled, the result of this index will reach nearly 0.7 by 2040, indicating greater vulnerability to the region's water resources. The second scenario is related to the city's increasing trend of construction and the number of industries, the impact of which has been shown on the carrying capacity.
Conclusion: The current study's findings, based on two enlarged scenarios, demonstrated that water demand, changes in the structure of the urban landscape, and the growth of industries all have a major impact on Isfahan's carrying capacity. Therefore, by controlling and managing water consumption in the domestic sector, limiting industrial growth, preventing the destruction of gardens, enhancing urban green and open areas, and limiting the increase of impervious urban surfaces, Isfahan's carrying capacity will improve.
Maryam Saberian Sani; Romina Sayyahnia
Abstract
Introduction: Functional infrastructures act as an integrated system to support sustainable development. Therefore, it is worthwhile to use appropriate methods to evaluate the range capacities of functional infrastructures and the balance between them.Material and methods: In this research, the FUICC ...
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Introduction: Functional infrastructures act as an integrated system to support sustainable development. Therefore, it is worthwhile to use appropriate methods to evaluate the range capacities of functional infrastructures and the balance between them.Material and methods: In this research, the FUICC Catastrophe Model (FCM1) was used to evaluate the balance between the range capacity of functional infrastructures in the provinces of Iran. This model uses the methods of analysis of mean variance (MVA) and Critical Path Method (CPM), also the Load-Carrier modewas used to reflect the level of support for functional environmental infrastructure. The studied indicators were extracted from experimental data collected from 31 provinces of Iran by reviewing valid scientific sources in the field of functional infrastructure from 2015 to 2020 and the data used using the latest available statistics.Results and discussion: The results of this study showed that Gilan Province has the highest range capacity in green space infrastructure and Tehran Province has the highest range capacity in conventional functional and environmental infrastructures and also Tehran Province ranks first in the country in terms of balance between infrastructures. Regarding load-bearing analysis, the reflection of the level of support of functional environmental infrastructures shows that provinces such as Tehran, contrary to the good evaluation they showed in measuring range capacity. Due to the existing cargo volume, they do not provide a good level of support, and on the contrary, provinces such as Qom, which showed poor range capacity in this field, recorded good environmental performance for some factors in load-bearing analysis.Conclusion: There is a difference in the range capacity of functional infrastructure between provinces and in some areas with factors such as political, industrial, tourist, etc., it is higher than other provinces and the degree of balance between the capacity of functional infrastructure is generally weak in the provinces of Iran. Also, the reflection of the level of support of functional infrastructures has negative fluctuations and in general, in assessing the range capacity of functional infrastructures, there is a need for management measures .
Nasserali Azimi; Abdol Hamid Hajipour
Volume 6, Issue 1 , October 2008
Abstract
Planning and development are important concepts in the tourism (and ecotourism) industry and one that has several sides. Striking a balance between the requirements of these and viable economic development planning for local tourism and ecotourism is an important task. The objective of his paper is to ...
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Planning and development are important concepts in the tourism (and ecotourism) industry and one that has several sides. Striking a balance between the requirements of these and viable economic development planning for local tourism and ecotourism is an important task. The objective of his paper is to consider the planning and development of cultural tourism and ecotourism –two significant types of niche tourism for Iran - in such a way as to derive the maximum benefits from it while incurring the minimum negative impacts. In its case study this paper considers the strengths and weaknesses of Iranian tourism planning and in less extended ecotourism and makes recommendations as to the best way to develop Iran’s potential in the field of cultural tourism and ecotourism. This study has been outlined as follows: tourism planning, ecotourism planning, carrying capacity as an important tool for planning and a case study of Iran.
