**Effect of Environmental and Socioeconomically Change on Agricultural Production in Konya Region**

Sukru Dursun\* , Serpil Onder, Ramazan Acar, Mithat Direk, Osman Mucehver

Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey; \*Corrersponding author, Email: sdursun@selcuk.edu.tr, Tel. & Fax. : +90-332-2232057

#### **Abstract**

Recently environmental problems are increasing all over the world with increasing population and industrialisation which is the increasing human requirements. In the same way, there are many environmental problems in the Konya Closed Basin, such as scarcity of water supplies in the region for realization of the unplanned agricultural production with related irrigations, since water storage difficulties owing to geologic and topographic characteristics of the area and drainage problems of irrigated agricultural areas. Climatic conditions are shaped large flat steppe areas in Konya basin. There will be important water shortage problems in the basin and irrigation water demand should be planned. Water losses should be kept to a minimum so that the amount of water obtained from underground water resources can be reduced and eventually the possible biological and ecological adverse impacts of the project will decrease and the diversity of species of flora and fauna will be preserved and endemic species will be protected. With this investigation, we aimed to put forward source of problems come from the future, appeared recently and continue in the future. Our effort may help to reduce critical problem or save our environment for our children.

**Keywords:** Konya Close Basin, Environmental problem, Agriculture related to water, Climate change,

## **1. Introduction**

Turkey straddles Europe and Asia with an area of 779,452 km2, across the Marmara Sea with Istanbul and Canakkale Straits. Turkey's border is on the northwest by Bulgaria and Greece, on the east by Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran, and on the south by Iraq and Syria (Figure 1). Turkey's 8,333 km coastline extends along the Black Sea, the Marmara Sea, the Aegean and the Mediterranean Sea. Turkey is one of the fortunate countries in which all four seasons and various climate types are present. Large plains, highlands, mountains and deep valleys mainly characterize its geography. Turkey lies between the temperate zone and the sub-tropical zone. These peculiarities are causing different seasons to be lived at the same time, over the different climatic regions of the country. Turkey divides into five basic climate regions: Mediterranean Climate, Black Sea Climate, Semi-humid Marmara Climate, Steppe Climate and Continental Eastern Ana-

© 2012 Dursun et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

tolia Climate. Average altitude is 1,132 m and only 10% of the country is less than 250 m above the sea level. High mountains are concentrated in central and eastern Anatolia. The physical landscape is closely linked to environmental conditions.

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**Protection Status Recent Situation**

*Samsam Lake* 830 ha SPA\* (1992) Drying activity for opening Agricultural.

*Kulu Lake* 860 ha SPA (1992) Lake was dried with usage of under-

*Kozanli Lake* 650 ha SPA (1996) Lake area decreased to 50 ha

37,000 ha SPA (1992), Nature

(4,500 ha)

reserve (6,787 ha)

nent wildlife reserve

*Beysehir Lake* 73,000 ha SPA (1988/91) Extreme water pulled for irrigation

*Sugla Lake* 16,500 ha - Irrigation of 14,600 ha agricultural area

*Hotamis reedy* 16,500 ha SPA (1992) Lake area was decreased 27.85%.

Meke crater (493 ha) accepted as Ramsar side in 2005.

**Table 1.** Wetlands and Lakes in Konya Closed Basin (Anonymous, 2008b; Durduran, 2008)

*Bolluk Lake* 1,100 ha SPA (1992) It dried in 2007 year. *Tersakan Lake* 6,400 ha SPA (1992) It was decreased 81.24%

> site status (71,44 km2)

**Konya Basin Wetlands**

*Eregli reedy (Akgöl)*

**Original Scale\***

*Esmekaya reedy* 11,250 ha SPA (1992), Perma-

*Tuz Lake* 92,562 ha SPA (1992), national

depth 12 m

*Meke Lake* 40 ha,

*SPA\*: strict protected area.*

Karapınar reedy, *Sultaniye reedy*

Turkey, September 10-12, 2012

Lake area decrease under 400 ha

Lake decrease % 40.11.

ground water for irrigation of agricultural area. Kulu town wastewater and solid waste discharged via Kulu stream.

The reedy dried during Eşmekaya Barrage construction. It lost Natural SPA status in 2005. Surface area decrease 92.85%.

Area nearly dried with barrage building on water source for irrigation system construction. Lake area decrease 41.76 %. Single water source of area wastewater

Konya-Cumra plain. Wastes of around settlement and industry discharged into

in Konya was planned with building of Sugla barrage in Seydişehir Town in. Lake was turn to water reservoir with decreas-

Huge amount of untreated domestic and industrial waste water of neighbour city and town was discharged. Lake area

Lake depth was decrease to 1 m with extreme irrigation water usage.

swage channel of Eregli town.

lake. Lake was decreased 2.96%.

ing surface area to 2,500 ha.

62.84%.

6000 ha - Surface was decrease % 43.43

<sup>21</sup> ISALS

Erosion is one of the most severe rural environmental problems affecting 81% of the total land surface in varying levels of severity. About 73% of the cultivated land and 68% of the prime agricultural land (Classes I-IV) is prone to erosion. As a result, about one billion tons of soil is carried away each year. Turkey has about 120 natural lakes, including small lakes in the mountains. The largest and deepest lake is Lake Van with a surface area of 3,712 km2 and an altitude of 1,646 m from sea level. There are four main regions where lakes are intensively dispersed: The "Lakes District" (Eğirdir, Burdur, Beyşehir, Acıgöl Lakes), Southern Marmara (Sapanca, İznik, Ulubat, Kuş Lakes), Lake Van and its environs, and Lake Tuz and its environs. Turkey has 555 large dam reservoirs. The names and surface areas (km2 ) of the large ones are Atatürk (817), Keban (675), Karakaya (268), Hirfanlı (263), Altınkaya (118), Kurtboğazı (6). Turkey is rich for streams and rivers which many of them meet with seas within Turkey border. However, Turkey is not enough water sources for their requirements. Many lakes are under drying risk that needs to take measure for this problem (Table 1).

## **2. General View of Turkey**

A large part of the Konya province is coincided on the high plains of Central Anatolia. Southern and western parts of Konya area are included the southern Mediterranean. Konya takes geographically in between 36° 41' and 39° 16' north latitude and 31° 14' and 34° 26' east longitude respectively (Figure 1). Surface area (excluding lakes) is 38,257 km². This area is the largest face in cities area of Turkey (Anonymous 2008a). The average height of the city from the sea level is 1,024

meters. Average altitude is 1,016 m in Konya (Anonymous, 1998; Anonim, 1997).

**Figure 1.** Location maps of Konya City and Konya Closed Basin


**Table 1.** Wetlands and Lakes in Konya Closed Basin (Anonymous, 2008b; Durduran, 2008)

*SPA\*: strict protected area.*

#### **2.1. Population**

The population of the city was about 56,462 in 1940, which increased slightly to 119,841 in 1960 and finally showed a high rate of increase and reached 980,953 in 2008. Estimations for 2020 showed that population will be 1,311,200 in 2020 year. The density of the population is 57 people /km2 . Konya is the 2nd most crowded city centre in the Interior Anatolian region and 7th overall in Turkey (Anonim, 1994; Anonym, 2010; Anonim, 1996; DİE, (2003)).

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despite moderate forces the yield limiting factors such as drainage and erosion composed of fine-grained components of this land with the water thickness. The most important limiting factor is water. Unconsciously irrigation activity in provinces areas made unavailable inefficient agricultural. Floods were caused serious damage in the past few years with more rainfall. The ground water problems flooding and soil salting in a large area will be reduced

**Table 3.** Agricultural land usage status in Konya closed basin (TUBITAK CBS; ÇOB, 2009; Anonim,

Steppe vegetation is dominant in both Konya and its vicinity. The flora of the providence consists

The climate of Konya is typical terrestrial climate which is mostly known as hot, semiarid summers with cold, rainy and snowy winters. The annual average of total precipitation is 319.2 mm/ year. Konya has located in the lowest precipitation receiving region of Turkey. The average value of relative humidity is %59 (ACIR, 2009; Anonim, 1998). There has not been a study about how

of Irano-Turanien species and Anatolian endemic species (Çetik, 1985; Akman, 1990).

2000/b Anonim, 2003/b*)*

**2.3. Vegetation**

**2.4. Vegetation**

with followed the completion of "Konya Plain Drainage Project" (Tables 2, 3).

Turkey, September 10-12, 2012

<sup>23</sup> ISALS

#### **2.2. Soil**

Different big soil groups were originated due to differences climate, topography and a variety of major soil main components in Konya. In addition, some of the land types without soil cover can be seen. Konya plain is covered with young geological formations. Plain towards the centre is covered the young segmented edges, increasing the thickness of 500 m. 4/5 of the province is flat and the rest is mountainous. Konya is reputation as a wheat warehouse for Turkey, there are other plains Akşehir and Eregli (Anonim, 1997; Anonim, 2000a; Anonim, 2003a).


**Table 2.** Land use value in Konya Closed Basin (*CORINE 2nd* level classification; ÇOB, 2009) *Source: TUBITAK CBS; ÇOB, 2009*

Territory of the Konya province, flat or slightly undulating topography formed on the old lake and marine sediments and volcanic rocks. The Provence soil quality is middle degree despite moderate forces the yield limiting factors such as drainage and erosion composed of fine-grained components of this land with the water thickness. The most important limiting factor is water. Unconsciously irrigation activity in provinces areas made unavailable inefficient agricultural. Floods were caused serious damage in the past few years with more rainfall. The ground water problems flooding and soil salting in a large area will be reduced with followed the completion of "Konya Plain Drainage Project" (Tables 2, 3).


**Table 3.** Agricultural land usage status in Konya closed basin (TUBITAK CBS; ÇOB, 2009; Anonim, 2000/b Anonim, 2003/b*)*

#### **2.3. Vegetation**

Steppe vegetation is dominant in both Konya and its vicinity. The flora of the providence consists of Irano-Turanien species and Anatolian endemic species (Çetik, 1985; Akman, 1990).

#### **2.4. Vegetation**

The climate of Konya is typical terrestrial climate which is mostly known as hot, semiarid summers with cold, rainy and snowy winters. The annual average of total precipitation is 319.2 mm/ year. Konya has located in the lowest precipitation receiving region of Turkey. The average value of relative humidity is %59 (ACIR, 2009; Anonim, 1998). There has not been a study about how much is used the consumed net annually total amount of solar energy in the province of Konya. But the solar energy is used in provinces residences during summer. Konya city centre Average monthly sun irradiation level and Figure 4. Monthly Rainfall (mm) levels of Konya city centre are given below (Figures 2 – 4; Table 4).

**Figure 2.** Yearly total precipitation distribution map of Konya closed basin (DMI, 2010 DMI, 2006)

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January February March April May June July August Septem. October Novem. Decem.

62year 39.3 31.4 29.8 31 45.5 25 6.5 4.4 11.4 29.3 31.4 40.8 1 10.6 3.7 14.1 66 0.7 1.3 4.1 5.1 1.9 50.1 118.4 27.8 12.9 24.2 70 22.9 15.3 27. 8.7 65.8 24.6 15.3 48 17.6 47.5 24.6 50.2 30.9 2.3 0 0 16.6 9.5 9.8 106.6 34.1 31.1 3.1 40.6 17.2 56.9 4 21.4 0 0 51.3 2.8 29.5 12.9 13.8 31.8 12.5 3.5 12.2 0.1 20.9 34.7 68.8 9.8 21.2 23.8 18.4 53.4 17.9 9.9 0.3 0 20 66.1 51.9 2

**Figure 4.** Monthly Rainfall (mm) levels of Konya city centre (Meteorology region director-

**Drinking Water Resources and Dams:** There are more than 200 drinking water wells in the Konya city centre (General directory of KOSKI, 2008; Anonym, 2008). Their outputs change from 10 to 50 L/sec and average deeps are 150 m. Water taking levels were less than 100 m about 20 years ago but it increased up to 250 m in recent years. That means high amount of water sucking from the underground water, decreasing ground water levels with increasing city centre population (about on millions in 2010). There are four dams west of Konya to protect the Konya land from the flood, with the intent of water use and irrigation to ensure. These are Apa, Altınapa, May, Sille dams. Also Beyşehir Lake is used as a source of drinking water for the centre of the

**Ground Water Resources:** Determining the situation of ground waters in the Konya province will be discussed separately within province and independent Konya-Çumra-Karapınar and, Cihanbeyli-Yeniceoba-Kulu Plains. Studying area, the geological formations in the plains, which

ate-2009)

**2.5. Water Resource**

County of Beyşehir.

Turkey, September 10-12, 2012

<sup>25</sup> ISALS

**Figure 3.** Yearly total sun radiation distribution map of Konya closed basin (DMI, 2010)


**Table 4.** Konya city centre Average monthly sun irradiation level (ACIR 2009; Anonim, 1998; Çiftçi, 1991)


**Figure 4.** Monthly Rainfall (mm) levels of Konya city centre (Meteorology region directorate-2009)

#### **2.5. Water Resource**

**Drinking Water Resources and Dams:** There are more than 200 drinking water wells in the Konya city centre (General directory of KOSKI, 2008; Anonym, 2008). Their outputs change from 10 to 50 L/sec and average deeps are 150 m. Water taking levels were less than 100 m about 20 years ago but it increased up to 250 m in recent years. That means high amount of water sucking from the underground water, decreasing ground water levels with increasing city centre population (about on millions in 2010). There are four dams west of Konya to protect the Konya land from the flood, with the intent of water use and irrigation to ensure. These are Apa, Altınapa, May, Sille dams. Also Beyşehir Lake is used as a source of drinking water for the centre of the County of Beyşehir.

**Ground Water Resources:** Determining the situation of ground waters in the Konya province will be discussed separately within province and independent Konya-Çumra-Karapınar and, Cihanbeyli-Yeniceoba-Kulu Plains. Studying area, the geological formations in the plains, which those transport to water (aquifers), the depth of these formations in groundwater, its fl ow direction, purpose, status and location distribution of the number of wells will be discussed (Anonym, 2008).

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**Water potentials:** Konya is the 7th city of Turkey having a high population. Water sources of the city are limited and annual precipitation (319.2 mm/a), for this reason, economical usage of irrigation water for green areas of Konya city centre is more important. In this study, the importance of irrigation for continuing usage of city centre green areas was emphasised, and water conserva-

**Wetlands:** There are 12 important wetland area in the Konya closed Basin. A project used Landsat satellite images showed that most of the wetlands were dried or lost, as it has been wetland

**Rivers:** Çarşamba Brook is originated from west of the Hacımer Mountain, under the name of Sırıstad from 2200 m elevation. Meram River located near to the village Başarakavak is discharged from sources northwest of Konya, Akdağ hillsides. Other rivers and streams are Ivriz stream, Zanapa River, Gümüşler creek. İnsuyu Creek is the most important river in Cihanbeyli - Kulu region (Table 5). Table 6. Water storage areas in Konya closed basin, Table 7. Land use value in Konya Closed Basin (CORINE 1st level classification). Protected land and areas in Konya

Economically active population is 9.1% in the Konya who work in the industrial sector, industrial investments, and significant investments began in 1950s with the sugar factory and realized after 1960. In 1963 the first large scale factory production is cement production plant in the 1960s. After then the chrome-magnesite brick factory was started production in 1968. The biggest aluminium plant in Turkey 'was started build in Seydişehir, 1969. Aluminium Factory was launched in 1970,

**City Industry Development, Site Selection Process and These Influencing Factors**

**Table 6.** Lakes and characteristics in Konya closed basin kaynak gösterilmeli

tion measurements were explained for Konya city centre green area sample.

characteristics in last 20 years (Durduran 2008; Aygen, 1967).

closed basin is given in Table 7.

**2.6. Industry and Technology**

**Development of industry in the province of Konya**

Turkey, September 10-12, 2012

<sup>27</sup> ISALS

**Groundwater Depth and Flow Direction:** Konya-Çumra-Karapınar plain is the most important one of the subdivided plains in the province. Water-bearing formations are varied. Therefore, these formations also vary depending on the state of the ground water. General groundwater fl ow direction is from southwest to northeast. There is largely groundwater recharge From Neogene age limestone in the south and marls west, in the Kreatase age limestone to plains. DSI, Rural Services and well as many private companies have opened number of wells in order to meet drinking and irrigation water requirements in Konya-Çumra- Karapınar plains since 1956. The total area irrigated by these wells are approximately 76 000 ha. Depths ranging between 23 m and 409 m wells have diff erent fl ow rates MTA, 2006a,b).

Konya closed basin, especially wetland area keeps the widest and virgin halophytic steps of Turkey and also the world contains special fauna and fl ora. WWF International declared the Konya closed basin in the 200 special ecological regions with its 16 important bird area and 6 special plant containing place. WWF-Turkey (National Life Protection Foundation) began the project "Intelligent Use of Konya Closed Basin" September, 2003. But most of the wet lands were lost with wrong and unconscious applications (*Anonymous, 2008b; Table 1).*


**Table 5.** Land use value in Konya Closed Basin (CORINE 1st level classifi cation; Anonim, 1997; Günay, 1985)

*Source ÇOB, 2009; TUBITAK CBS*

**Water potentials:** Konya is the 7th city of Turkey having a high population. Water sources of the city are limited and annual precipitation (319.2 mm/a), for this reason, economical usage of irrigation water for green areas of Konya city centre is more important. In this study, the importance of irrigation for continuing usage of city centre green areas was emphasised, and water conservation measurements were explained for Konya city centre green area sample.

**Wetlands:** There are 12 important wetland area in the Konya closed Basin. A project used Landsat satellite images showed that most of the wetlands were dried or lost, as it has been wetland characteristics in last 20 years (Durduran 2008; Aygen, 1967).

**Rivers:** Çarşamba Brook is originated from west of the Hacımer Mountain, under the name of Sırıstad from 2200 m elevation. Meram River located near to the village Başarakavak is discharged from sources northwest of Konya, Akdağ hillsides. Other rivers and streams are Ivriz stream, Zanapa River, Gümüşler creek. İnsuyu Creek is the most important river in Cihanbeyli - Kulu region (Table 5). Table 6. Water storage areas in Konya closed basin, Table 7. Land use value in Konya Closed Basin (CORINE 1st level classification). Protected land and areas in Konya closed basin is given in Table 7.

#### **2.6. Industry and Technology**

#### **City Industry Development, Site Selection Process and These Influencing Factors**

#### **Development of industry in the province of Konya**

Economically active population is 9.1% in the Konya who work in the industrial sector, industrial investments, and significant investments began in 1950s with the sugar factory and realized after 1960. In 1963 the first large scale factory production is cement production plant in the 1960s. After then the chrome-magnesite brick factory was started production in 1968. The biggest aluminium plant in Turkey 'was started build in Seydişehir, 1969. Aluminium Factory was launched in 1970,


**Table 6.** Lakes and characteristics in Konya closed basin kaynak gösterilmeli

which provides great contributions to the province and the country's economy, that Turkey's only plant producing raw aluminium. Tümosan diesel engine factory began production in 1981, has an annual production capacity of 25,000. 1970s, most large-scale enterprises in Konya belongs to public sector consists of businesses and establishments belonging to the private sector, the business demands of the region are not geared towards mass production for a production that consists of small and medium-sized businesses. These establishments are farm equipment, engines and spare parts and food industry engaged in the production of small places. Current industry state of Konya is listed below.

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Sector Firm nu. Ratio%

Industry Region (KOSB)

Automotive side Ind. 27 18 Farm tool & Machine 16 11 Machine & spare part Ind. 13 9 Smelting Ind. 11 7 Paper & Packing Ind. 4 3 Sounding, Pipe & Irrigation sys. 13 9 Plastic, Paint & Chemistry Ind. 12 8 Construction Materials Ind. 4 3 Leader & Textile Ind. 5 3

Metal Property & hardware Ind. 1 1

Industry Region (KOSB)

Automotive spare Ind. 57 18 Smelting Ind. 30 10 Machine Ind. 27 9

Farm Machine & tools Ind. 23 7 Construction Ind. 21 7 Plastic Ind. 19 6 Food Ind. 13 4 Packing Ind. 13 4 Lorry box dumper Ind. 8 3 Mill machine Ind. 8 3 Textile Ind. 7 2 Rubber Ind. 7 2

**Table 9.** Industrial sector distribution in Konya 1st Organised

**Table 10.** Industrial sector distribution in Konya Organised

Mill machine Ind. 6 4 Metal Ind. (No iron) 5 3

> Other 33 22 Total 150 100

Sector Firm nu. Ratio %

Turkey, September 10-12, 2012

<sup>29</sup> ISALS



**Table 7.** Water storage areas in Konya closed basin

**Table 8.** Protected land and areas in Konya closed basin

#### **Small Industrial Sites**

Small industrial estates, small and medium-scale industrialists and artists visited the existing infrastructure, education and social facilities of the Ministry to ensure that the credit support the work of a healthy workplace or directly carried out by own resources of entrepreneurs. There are a total of 17 units with Small Industrial Estate with a capacity of 4409 business launched in Konya (Table 9, 10).


**Table 9.** Industrial sector distribution in Konya 1st Organised


**Table 10.** Industrial sector distribution in Konya Organised

## **3. Environmental Problems in Konya**

#### **3.1. Soil Pollution**

An investigation on contamination of the Konya province on the territory by metals and microbial, the main discharge channel of Konya Plain is known to cause Salt Lake pollution, the water withdrawn for agricultural irrigation and soil be contaminated with the decrease in the efficiency of agricultural land indirectly. (Water samples taken at different times of Main Discharge Canal to results of analyze; and used in accordance with Food Ingredients Regulation this should be regarded as dangerous waters). According to the results of an other project, Konya Closed Basin province, the identification and elimination of pollution in the Salt Lake; Main Discharge Canal reached the Salt Lake and agricultural areas due to agricultural use for irrigation purposes, the necessary precautions are not taken, otherwise soil will be contaminated so that is not irreversible situation.

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Turkey, September 10-12, 2012

2,135

3,196

36

<sup>31</sup> ISALS

#### **3.2. Atmospheric Pollution**

There have been done some measurements in the city on the atmospheric SO2 , and fluorinated compounds, hydrogen sulphur, magnesite powder, carbon dust and heavy metals in the soil as it will cause accumulation of particulate matter.

#### **3.3. Pollution from the waste**

There is a little investigation on hazardous matter contamination on soil. There are some heavy metal accumulations in waste water watered agricultural lands.

#### **3.4. Land Property**

The raising quality classification of land use is taking into consideration the degree of conformity to the classification system of cultivars, land pasture, forest and home animal husbandry. Processing show considerable differences from the territory of the province in terms of features for this classification needs of the land, limiting factors (soil, topography, drainage failure, etc.) (Table 12).

#### **3.5. Unplanned urbanization**

Konya city population was rapid increased as a result of migration from rural to city centre after 1950 years due to the establishment of factories in, to be come mechanized, increasing the agriculture production of the province, connection of Konya to highway network, development of industry. However, Konya is one of the provinces of rare non shanty. When we look at the transportation, infrastructure and social service standard development pattern is a concern that the city is public improvements. However, the existing environmental impacts are not considered in the development of the city. Air pollution is to reach a large size especially during the winter months due to Meteorological and geomorphologic structure of the city. Establishment of industrial zones in the northern part of the city has important effect on air pollution problem, especially stainless steel sector.

Usage form I

Dry Farm (fallowing)

Irrigated farm

Less irrigated farm

Vineyard (dry)

Garden (irrigated)

Garden (dry)

Vineyard (irrigated)

Meadow-pasture

Meadow land

pasture land

Forest-shrub

Forest-land Shrub land Non-farming land

Residential (Heavy)

Residential (rare)

Industry land

Army land National Park

Other lands

Water surface

TOTAL

546477

426151

549756

436266 **Table 11.** Land Use Capability Classes Forms of Konya Breakdown 2008 (Konya Province Land Property Inventory)

1958650

17041

414481

1050460

1481982

385068

3,825,700

123353

564

93 463

1057 15

15

271

235

1163 1520

2391

1446

1067

17257

484 774 12131

463

21

21 160037 189621

189,621

160,037

1678

198

972

815

1299

202

93

13119

3949

2774

1317

20250

295

39165

36258

176 322

1927

3588

6013

971711

124495

297089

406

208901

16987

2471

1715

218

218

35410

35,923

18,556

4186

35410

59,846

109203

126190

459992

669299

39165

38252

1994

6348

7146

15388

16635

5269

56668

78572

103419

131641

131477

17041

214170

516660

747871

39165

38252

1994

6248

7146

15388

16635

5269

56668

78572

103419

131641

312477

17041

214170

516660

747871

11,121

6,565

1,566

339

19,591

77 400

783

928

367

2476

232 120

52

172

206

438

7,931

374

663

1,512

215

2,655

5,241

292

5,941

9,512

1,971

25,355

494,017 367,249

310,025

372,948

276,276

1,326,498

384,132

439,779

291,568

1,609,496

154,973 126,698

84 9,919

21,536

31,455

56,358

183,056

84

78,272

233,245

1,842,741

1,509,544

248,081

36,696

292

2,916

19,763

1,060,348

93960

1,060,348

93,960

966,288

132,203

II

III

IV

Total

V

VI

VII

Total

VIII

Land Use Capability Classes Forms (ha)

TOTAL


**Table 11.** Land Use Capability Classes Forms of Konya Breakdown 2008 (Konya Province Land Property Inventory)

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#### **3.6. Reduction of Green Areas**

Vegetation in the Konya province is shaped according to climatic conditions. Steppes are covered with large flat areas. Weeds will sprout with spring rains of the plains in spring season, but a variety of greenery lasts a short life would not be long. Herbs are immediately dry and roasted starting high summer temperatures. Wide plains take the steppe form. There are shrub and forest areas in the mountainous of province. Forested area is 559 759 hectares in the province. Percentage of forest in the province was 14.6%. Reforestation initiatives are supported by people and companies in Konya province. A major work is done for the proliferation of green areas. Reforestation campaign is underway.

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Increase the agricultural production, agricultural settlements in order to develop the agricultural sector and enterprises belonging the people and more than a small surplus divided into parcels scattered in various positions in the Management School or impractical, according to the principles of modern agriculture and land ways, shaped the development of the culture of technical services in accordance with the format, design and arrangement need a new or amended land

**2. Unconscious or More Soil Manipulating Activity:** Manipulating the soil, the structure of the soil, namely sand, clay, silt, organic ratios are damage. Soil tillage must be suitable with rainfall, climatic conditions and plant species and necessary cultivation in accordance with the increasing costs balanced unnecessary and excessive soil tillage and soil compaction and underlying supporting structure, forming harm base stone. The is important effect of forming harm base stone on infiltration and surface of the water in the soil prevents the occurrence of leakage may be caused by water erosion in the region. High soil tillage has effect on such as fuel and labour costs, increased more and more crumbling supporting structure, and paves the way wind erosion.

**3. Irrigation with Wastewater:** Irrigation with wastewater is common in Konya city. Chemical and medical wastes in wastewater become leading as soon as the soil desertification and insolu-

Changing property of soil these pollution effect take negative rolls on ability of as needed chemical fertilizers by the plant in the soil. If the sewage and detergents, chemicals and medical waste speared and sewage water after treatment can be used safely to be applied to the irrigation of

**4. Erosion:** Wind erosion is dangerous for some parts of Konya city. Erosion is the most important factor at L organic matter poor unproductive soils in sierozem lands at around Karapınar town. **5. Alternation application as need:** Konya city is in continental climate zone. Product range is limited due to lack of sufficient irrigation ability. According to the available range of products with a suitable climate and soil characteristics, useful production pattern of land must be used. Applying rotation, production increase and as well as effective land use would be useful. Different plant groups have different nutrients uptake and left from the soil. For this reason, applying the necessary alternation rule, trying to get sufficient efficiency in the land in the region, and we

**6. Unconscious Fertilization:** Fertilizer applied in Konya city without taking account to soil and plant needs. Thus, the chemical properties of soil deterioration spoil and can not be get requested advantage from the fertilizer. Fertilizer should be applied after analysis of soil at amount and sort

**7. Carelessness in application building industrial plants region:** Stage of the establishment of industrial area must be kale in consideration of the predominant wind direction and the land will be established in the industry, not be agricultural land, regardless of whether the city centre in particular, the factory chimneys of particles and chemical compounds into the atmosphere, due to the prevailing wind hovering over farmland productivity is negatively affected. As a result of

must maintain the structure of the land and must start applying right functioning.

bility of soil available useful organic and inorganic substances.

landscape areas and irrigation of agricultural land.

consolidation.

need of land.

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<sup>33</sup> ISALS

#### **3.7. Land Problems**

It can be grouped in seven levels.

**1. Large scale and fragmented lands:** Land fragmentation directly affects on the soil entire work the in the agricultural sector based.

a. Effects of land use areas

1.Increased border losses

2.Losses caused by excess land routes

3.Losses small and far parcels leaving empty

b. Impact of working time and labour costs

Work and labour costs by shrinking has negative impact on non-economic forms with increasing fragmentation in acquiring parcels losses caused by excess land routes

1. Increased routes

2.Preparation of work duration increase

3.Returning time losses increase

c. Fragmentation effects on mechanization

Partly or messy parcels subdivided from the land, more of the time spends cultivation period and going each small part. Machine efficiency and usage trend is going lower. The efficiency reduces with time going to land and returns, preparation, going from a parcel to other parcel, increasing machinery work.

d. Effects of fragmentation on Culture Technical Services

Service surface area per unit area for common small land parcels is increases with road and irrigation, drainage length of the area and therefore production efficiency decreases accordingly. Also construction costs and service spends are increase.

e. Effects of fragmentation from Operating Activities

There is effect on planting time and harvest time, on alternation business organization, on the agricultural struggle, on transportation efficiency. Taking in all of these failures;

Increase the agricultural production, agricultural settlements in order to develop the agricultural sector and enterprises belonging the people and more than a small surplus divided into parcels scattered in various positions in the Management School or impractical, according to the principles of modern agriculture and land ways, shaped the development of the culture of technical services in accordance with the format, design and arrangement need a new or amended land consolidation.

**2. Unconscious or More Soil Manipulating Activity:** Manipulating the soil, the structure of the soil, namely sand, clay, silt, organic ratios are damage. Soil tillage must be suitable with rainfall, climatic conditions and plant species and necessary cultivation in accordance with the increasing costs balanced unnecessary and excessive soil tillage and soil compaction and underlying supporting structure, forming harm base stone. The is important effect of forming harm base stone on infiltration and surface of the water in the soil prevents the occurrence of leakage may be caused by water erosion in the region. High soil tillage has effect on such as fuel and labour costs, increased more and more crumbling supporting structure, and paves the way wind erosion.

**3. Irrigation with Wastewater:** Irrigation with wastewater is common in Konya city. Chemical and medical wastes in wastewater become leading as soon as the soil desertification and insolubility of soil available useful organic and inorganic substances.

Changing property of soil these pollution effect take negative rolls on ability of as needed chemical fertilizers by the plant in the soil. If the sewage and detergents, chemicals and medical waste speared and sewage water after treatment can be used safely to be applied to the irrigation of landscape areas and irrigation of agricultural land.

**4. Erosion:** Wind erosion is dangerous for some parts of Konya city. Erosion is the most important factor at L organic matter poor unproductive soils in sierozem lands at around Karapınar town.

**5. Alternation application as need:** Konya city is in continental climate zone. Product range is limited due to lack of sufficient irrigation ability. According to the available range of products with a suitable climate and soil characteristics, useful production pattern of land must be used. Applying rotation, production increase and as well as effective land use would be useful. Different plant groups have different nutrients uptake and left from the soil. For this reason, applying the necessary alternation rule, trying to get sufficient efficiency in the land in the region, and we must maintain the structure of the land and must start applying right functioning.

**6. Unconscious Fertilization:** Fertilizer applied in Konya city without taking account to soil and plant needs. Thus, the chemical properties of soil deterioration spoil and can not be get requested advantage from the fertilizer. Fertilizer should be applied after analysis of soil at amount and sort need of land.

**7. Carelessness in application building industrial plants region:** Stage of the establishment of industrial area must be kale in consideration of the predominant wind direction and the land will be established in the industry, not be agricultural land, regardless of whether the city centre in particular, the factory chimneys of particles and chemical compounds into the atmosphere, due to the prevailing wind hovering over farmland productivity is negatively affected. As a result of the establishment of industrial plants in productive agricultural lands located within the boundaries of city centre disposed directly or indirectly.

International Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)







It was attempted to give some examples which were chosen from the hundreds of them showing energy wasting in our country. As it could be seen by examples, unfortunately waste its own energy and energy source fast by using them ineffectively. This makes us vey upset as being as Turkish scientist. This paper have been presented to worn the people and want them, to take

[1] ACIR, 2007. Air Conditioning Industry Report. The research report on Konya's air conditioner

[3] Anonim, 1994, "1990 Genel Nüfus Sayımı", Nüfusun Sosyal ve Ekonomik Nitelikleri, 42: Konya,

[5] Anonim, 1997, "Ülkemiz Arazi Varlığı Kullanım Analizi", Ziraat Mühendisliği Dergisi

[9] Anonim, 2003/a, "Konya Tarım Master Planı", T.C. Tarım ve Köyişleri Bakanlığı, Konya Tarım İl Müdürlüğü, İl Tarım ve Kırsal Kalkınma Master Planlarının Hazırlanmasına Destek Projesi,

[4] Anonim, 1996, "İstatistik Göstergeler", T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet İstatistik Enstitüsü, Ankara.

[6] Anonim, 1998. Cumhuriyetin 75. Yılında Konya. Konya İl Yıllığı, Konya Valiliği, Konya. [7] Anonim, 2000/a, Tarım ve Köyişleri Bakanlığı, Konya İl Müdürlüğü Kayıtları, Konya.

rainy period. These systems save the underground water source in dry period.

and necessary measures (quality improvement etc.) should be done in planning period.

local climatic conditions if they were grown in right position.

animals etc.) will be followed after presentation of green areas.

[2] Akman, Y. 1990. İklim ve Biyoiklim, Palme Yayınları, 319s, Ankara.

[8] Anonim, 2000/b, DİE Tarım Şubesi BİM Kayıtları, Ankara.

dryness and water requirements must be lower.

necessary precautions as soon as possible.

DİE Yayın No: 1641, Ankara.

No:303,Sayfa:19, Ankara.

[10] Anonim, 2003/b, http://www.die.gov.tr

**5. References** 

Konya.

industry. Konya.

water.

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<sup>35</sup> ISALS

## **4. General Discussion and Recommendations**

**Water Economising Measures in the City Centre Green Areas Irrigation**: Irrigation was described as watering the plant for their necessary in a controlled and an artificial way (Kara, 1983). Active way of usage the irrigation water is to give enough water to grow plants necessary. Water amount must be estimated concerning the plant type in the water poor places and used in control and order. Barış (2008) has recommended to followings for active and economical water usage in the green areas;








The natural factors have effect on the environmental which urban data form climate, topography, rivers, flood areas, geomorphologic structure, vegetation and soil ability. The formation of urbanisation plans for the future is not determined for natural form, the macroeconomic data, but it played a role in limiting and conditioner direction. There is an interaction between artificial and natural environmental processes. This interaction may be contradictory as that may be in harmony with the environment but also damaging both give rise to negative results in some processes, jobs and products. In general, balance degradation such as environmental pollution, ecological processes are this kind. These events can be seen in Konya.

Water is the foundation of life and is a driving force for economic and social developments and for the poverty eradication. But drought and water crisis have been a global problem since last years of 21st century. For this reason saving water usage is the most important necessity in the solution of this problem.

Necessary precautions for economical water usage in irrigation of urban green areas may be explained as the followings:








It was attempted to give some examples which were chosen from the hundreds of them showing energy wasting in our country. As it could be seen by examples, unfortunately waste its own energy and energy source fast by using them ineffectively. This makes us vey upset as being as Turkish scientist. This paper have been presented to worn the people and want them, to take necessary precautions as soon as possible.

#### **5. References**



International Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)

**MTA Genel Müdürlüğü, 2006b. Araştırma** 

**of Ecotourism Absorption in Desert Zones**

*,* M.Yazdi <sup>2</sup>

1 Department of Environmental Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Maybod Branch, Yazd,

2 Department of Agricultural Engineering .Payam E Noor University, yazd Center,Yazd, Iran

Ecotourism is a modern phenomenon in which the tourists' principle motive is observation and pleasure of nature and phenomena and natural-cultural landscapes. We can consider it as one of the new source of income in the line of sustainable development of our province. The main object of this research is the examination and evaluation of natural phenomena which is attractive for tourism in order to recognize ecotourism fields and opportunities. Yazd province with an area of 131,551 square kilometers (the third province from an area view point) and with a population of about 880.000 is situated in the central plateau limits. The average yearly rainfall is 107 mm, the average yearly temperature is 18 degrees centigrade and the rate of proportional humidity is between 30 and 35 degrees. Yazd, as one of the regions with dry climate, has natural, historical and cultural attractions with tourist attraction potential. The city of Taft with the different climatic conditions in comparison with other regions (the average rainfall of 250mm) and with mountains and glacier is considered as tourism axis of province. With regard to ecological capability evaluation, ecotourism potential is obtained with GIS software and with tourism ecological model (Makhdum) in the Tezerjan region. In the mentioned region, areas with centralized outdoor recreation potential of grade 1 have very limited area that arising from limitation of soil, water, ground cover, and climate of this region. In the sites 1 and 2, they have a vast outdoor recreational potential of grade 2 and suggested sites 3 and 4 have grade 1 for centralized outdoor recreation.

(Case study: Tezerjan Telecabin)

Iran

**Abstract**

**1. Introduction** 

world resources and fragility of ecosystems.

H. Zarei Mahmoodabady<sup>1</sup>

**Alanının Topoğrafik Haritası, Konya. Feasibility** 

© 2012 Mahmoodabady et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

provided the original work is properly cited.

In today world, optimized utilization of potential and existing facilities of any country has become one of the major local, national and international concerns within the framework of sustained development goals. This subject has more importance in dry and semi-dry regions of world and Iran, particularly in Yazd Province of Iran due to the vulnerability of the bio and live

**Keywords:** Ecotourism, Yazd, dry areas, industrial sustainable development

Turkey, September 10-12, 2012

<sup>37</sup> ISALS


## **MTA Genel Müdürlüğü, 2006b. Araştırma Alanının Topoğrafik Haritası, Konya. Feasibility of Ecotourism Absorption in Desert Zones**

(Case study: Tezerjan Telecabin)

#### H. Zarei Mahmoodabady<sup>1</sup> *,* M.Yazdi <sup>2</sup>

1 Department of Environmental Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Maybod Branch, Yazd, Iran

2 Department of Agricultural Engineering .Payam E Noor University, yazd Center,Yazd, Iran

#### **Abstract**

Ecotourism is a modern phenomenon in which the tourists' principle motive is observation and pleasure of nature and phenomena and natural-cultural landscapes. We can consider it as one of the new source of income in the line of sustainable development of our province. The main object of this research is the examination and evaluation of natural phenomena which is attractive for tourism in order to recognize ecotourism fields and opportunities. Yazd province with an area of 131,551 square kilometers (the third province from an area view point) and with a population of about 880.000 is situated in the central plateau limits. The average yearly rainfall is 107 mm, the average yearly temperature is 18 degrees centigrade and the rate of proportional humidity is between 30 and 35 degrees. Yazd, as one of the regions with dry climate, has natural, historical and cultural attractions with tourist attraction potential. The city of Taft with the different climatic conditions in comparison with other regions (the average rainfall of 250mm) and with mountains and glacier is considered as tourism axis of province. With regard to ecological capability evaluation, ecotourism potential is obtained with GIS software and with tourism ecological model (Makhdum) in the Tezerjan region. In the mentioned region, areas with centralized outdoor recreation potential of grade 1 have very limited area that arising from limitation of soil, water, ground cover, and climate of this region. In the sites 1 and 2, they have a vast outdoor recreational potential of grade 2 and suggested sites 3 and 4 have grade 1 for centralized outdoor recreation.

**Keywords:** Ecotourism, Yazd, dry areas, industrial sustainable development

#### **1. Introduction**

In today world, optimized utilization of potential and existing facilities of any country has become one of the major local, national and international concerns within the framework of sustained development goals. This subject has more importance in dry and semi-dry regions of world and Iran, particularly in Yazd Province of Iran due to the vulnerability of the bio and live world resources and fragility of ecosystems.

© 2012 Mahmoodabady et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Tourism is considered as one of the largest and most variable industry of world in modern time and many countries use this dynamic industry as a main source of income, job creation and development of their substructure. Ecotourism is a responsible trip to natural environments that contributes in protecting the environment as well as sustaining local people's economy. Tourism industry is the source of 5.1 percent of national income of world [10]. More than 50 percent of job difficulties in developing countries could be solved through tourism industry. In 2004, tourism has brought 75 billion dollars income for developing countries and 21 billion dollars of it; 28 percent, is the share of ecotourism [9].

International Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)

The research method is a combination of field, research and literature review studies. After evaluation of ecology power of the limit subject of study, the systemic analysis methods. This method is based on full identification of needed resources and map development. First, the entire resources and parameters were identified, their maps were prepared and then, by analyzing data that included table processing, a map and model in GIS is used to process information layers, overlap them and in next stage, make environmental units.By using ecologic model that is developed through conformity with specifications of study zone, the units are measured in power terms for centralized and expanded recreation usage. To prepare the unit map of land figure, the map of slope layers, height layers and geographic direction layers are combined together. The placement of layers is done by using ILWIS software and the code of land shape units was

Province Yazd has 131,551 square kilometers is in the center of Iran and its neighbors are Kerman, Isfahan, Fars and Khorasan provinces. The zone subject of study is located between 31 northern degree and 54 eastern degree. The maximum height 3750 meters and minimum 2066 meters, covering an area of 9,903,500 square meters, approximately 10 square kilometres [11].

**2. Materials and Methods** 

extracted from the three combination formula.

The situation of the region in the province is shown in Figure 1.

E= [j3(j1 (1-1) + ja)-1]+j13

J3= Total number of map layers

J13= Number of floor of map The Range Subject of Study

**Figure 1.** Political divisions of Yazd

J1= Total number of layers of height Jii= Number f floors of height map I= Number of floor on slope map

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Iran is in the first five countries with highest climatic varieties in world [7].There are more than 160 mammal species, 500 species of birds, 270 species of fish and more than 800 species of plants, giving this country an actual capability to attract ecotourism. On the other hand, Iran receives only one hundred percent of foreign tourists in the world while in a twenty years perspective, it should raise tourism income to 25 billion dollars [8]. In 2004, Iran had the last rank among other countries in world tourism organization in terms of tourists and incomes [1].

Yazd province, as a significant example of dry and semi-dry regions of the world has special characteristics in ecologic, environmental…terms; therefore, in order to achieve sustained development, any interference and actions of human groups in natural environment such as agriculture, industry, services…must be performed based on full and comprehensive knowledge on the ecologic tolerance and ability of the zone. On the other hand, due to the richness of natural phenomena in the province, such as significant desert characteristics in dry plains, Kevir and beautiful mountain foots or natural views with variety of animal and plant species, in addition to having recreational aspect, it has the opportunity to be utilized in developing local communities, remove poverty and create job along with maintaining and protecting the ecosystems of the region. Assessment of environment power means assessing possible use of man from land for agriculture, range, forestry and park management (tourism protection), engineering affairs urban development, industrial and rural improvement [4].

In Iran, development of preparations land started at State Forests and Ranges Organization in 1956. The plans were initiated in 1960 by executing forestry plan in Visar woods (south Noshahr) [3]. Eventually, the plan was executed in range administration, urban development, park management, cattle breeding, fishery management…The goal of this research is to study and assess natural phenomena that attract tourism for the purpose of identification and introduction of ecotourism grounds and opportunities in Yazd Province. The assumption is that agricultural and industrial and mining activities, with respect to the environmental and ecological conditions of the zone could not meet the present and future demands. The abundance of natural phenomena and special climatic, geology, wild life…have provided necessary potential to benefit from potential and existing chances to improve tourism. Using those potentials, by expanding and improving tourism facilities would attract ecotourism and cause economic flourish of the region. Therefore, providing telecabin in Tezerjan zone is an example of increasing potentials for attracting tourism that could peruse the goal of introducing the attractiveness of zone for executing the plan in order to improve job creation for local forces and preventing migration of rural population to cities.

## **2. Materials and Methods**

The research method is a combination of field, research and literature review studies. After evaluation of ecology power of the limit subject of study, the systemic analysis methods. This method is based on full identification of needed resources and map development. First, the entire resources and parameters were identified, their maps were prepared and then, by analyzing data that included table processing, a map and model in GIS is used to process information layers, overlap them and in next stage, make environmental units.By using ecologic model that is developed through conformity with specifications of study zone, the units are measured in power terms for centralized and expanded recreation usage. To prepare the unit map of land figure, the map of slope layers, height layers and geographic direction layers are combined together. The placement of layers is done by using ILWIS software and the code of land shape units was extracted from the three combination formula.


Province Yazd has 131,551 square kilometers is in the center of Iran and its neighbors are Kerman, Isfahan, Fars and Khorasan provinces. The zone subject of study is located between 31 northern degree and 54 eastern degree. The maximum height 3750 meters and minimum 2066 meters, covering an area of 9,903,500 square meters, approximately 10 square kilometres [11]. The situation of the region in the province is shown in Figure 1.

**Figure 1.** Political divisions of Yazd

## **3. Results**

Natural attractions of the province

The geographic study of Yazd province shows that the existing situation of natural resources and environment of man is the product of long historical process. Yazd-Ardakan plain is one of the driest regions of the region as much that average rainfall of province is around 100 mm. There are several large and small desert pits around Yazd province, the most famous of them are Tafeh Taghestan, Abarkouh, Marvast and Daranjir [2].Those deserts start from west part of the province that covers its east south and north and makes one of the ecotourism attractions of province. Those zones are visited by local and foreign eco-tourists.

International Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)

To prepare the drawings of land shape, height layers, slope and direction maps are needed. To prepare the map of height layers, the numerical models of height was classified as per table one. To assess the area between height lines, Planimeter and Ilwis software was used and the relevant curves were drawn in Excel software environment. With respect to mountain morphology of the

Preparing slope classification is significant due to the importance of this parameter in using the land. The number of layers of slope of basin subject of study was determined with respect to the goal and type of plan usage. The geographic direction is effective on amount of receiving light and amount of light affects on the evaporation, perspiration and photosynthesis. Therefore, it is

considered as an ecologic factor that could affect on frequency of plant society.

mountain, the maps of height layers have been prepared in three floors.

**3.3. Slope and aspect**

**Figure 2.** The height classes

Slope and aspect classification

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In terms of hills and high lands, Yazd province is very variable. The heights of different spots vary from 850 meters from sea in Tabas to 4070 meters in Shir Kouh Mountains. This range of height leads to emergence of mountain foots and plains in Shirkouh range, among which, one might note Manshad, Dehbala, Tazarjan, Sanich…green valley [5].

There are several springs in the region, the most important of them are Gharbal Biz spring in 40 Klm of Yazd, Tamehr Spring in 6 kilometers south of Taft city.Touran Post boiling lime spring is one of the unique springs in Iran where hot water boils out of land along with gypsum minerals. In the lapse of time, the boiled water has created laminated salina hills.

Existence of many caves in the province, some of them containing remains of cavemen are among natural attractions. There are thirty caves in the province, including three groups of epic, historical and geological caves that are visited by many tourists each year. Province Yazd with its considerable area and special desert capabilities has high environmental value. Despite undesirable climatic conditions and limited resources of water, it is the wild life habitation of wild animals such as ewe, panther, deer, bustard and partridge, they could play role in tourists attraction.

#### **3.1. Climate**

The climate subject of study, according to Amperage division has dry and cold climate. A considerable part of rainfall is snow fall. Average annual rainfall is 205 mm and mean average annual temperature is 11.4 centigrade degree. The temperature and rainfall maps are as follows.

#### **3.2. Hydrology and water resources**

The hydrology and water resources of subject of study are located in Yazd-Ardakan hydrological unit. The water resources of the region consist of springs, subterranean canals and wells and due to the existence of Snow Mountains in the surface and underground water resources in spring, the amount of water shed is very high. Tezerjan underground water beds are of mountain beds. Among significant specifications of those beds one may point out the low thickness of alluvium, large grain alluvium deposits, high penetration and relatively low reserve of the bed. The floor rocks in all regions are Shirkouh granite and the direction of underground water flows are along topography slope

#### **3.3. Slope and aspect**

To prepare the drawings of land shape, height layers, slope and direction maps are needed. To prepare the map of height layers, the numerical models of height was classified as per table one. To assess the area between height lines, Planimeter and Ilwis software was used and the relevant curves were drawn in Excel software environment. With respect to mountain morphology of the mountain, the maps of height layers have been prepared in three floors.

Slope and aspect classification

Preparing slope classification is significant due to the importance of this parameter in using the land. The number of layers of slope of basin subject of study was determined with respect to the goal and type of plan usage. The geographic direction is effective on amount of receiving light and amount of light affects on the evaporation, perspiration and photosynthesis. Therefore, it is considered as an ecologic factor that could affect on frequency of plant society.

International Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)

and ultimately, the map of environmental units were specified. Ultimately, the overlap steps, preparing environmental unit maps and specifications of each unit were compared with the ecologic models for that scope and its power for vast recreation and centralized applications were

As shown in table number 1, in the scope subject of study, the range with centralized recreation power with first class desirability has limited area. This factor is due to the limitations of soil, water, vegetation and climate. The complex of those factors has lowered the ability of the zone for centralized recreation and risks its success. With respect to the principle of multi-use, the application of expanded recreation and centralized recreation usage are compatible. Thus, to implement this plan in the zone, it is sufficient to perform local zoning for selecting proposed sites of the origin and destination stations. With respect to the base map, decisions and studies, the suggested sites have been specified for centralized recreation. Sites 1 and 2 have expanded recreation power with quality degree 2 and have closest distance to the access roads. Therefore, it could be discussed as a suggested site for origin stations. Sites 3 and 4 have the advantage of centralized recreation with quality degree 2 and closeness to Tezerjan snow peak as well as beautiful view.

**Type Area Limits the number in each class**

Intensive recreation class 1 3.918/462 5 Intensive recreation class 2 1.147.370/881 187 Extensive recreation class 1 4.034.100/933 850 Extensive recreation class 2 3.885.293/13 333

**Table 1.** Tvansnjy range of model produced using

**Figure 4.** Map based decision making

determined.

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<sup>43</sup> ISALS

**Figure 3.** Classes for aspect and The slope of area

#### **3.4. Geology**

The geology and soil science show that in terms of texture of geology layers, the range of variety is not high. In large part of the area, Shirkouh granite is noticeable. In some parts, sand stone and cretaceous limes are located on Shirkouh granite. In addition, soil science studies show that there is no fertile and cultivable soil and the region is more consist of Rocky Mountains without soil. Most soils have light texture with pebbles.

#### **3.5. Vegetation**

Variety and compactness of natural vegetation is much limited in the area subject of study. Despite relatively good rainfalls, mountainous region and sharp slopes, particularly granite stone texture, the plants coverage development has been limited. The dominant vegetation of the region is mountain wormseed in +2400 meters height and plain wormseeds in less than 2400 meters height. In addition, there are different types of goat's thorn in the region. The vegetation coverage is less than 10%.

### **4. Discussion and Conclusion**

#### **4.1. Evaluation of environmental power for tourism application**

In order to prepare a unit map of land, the maps of slope layers, height and geographic direction were mixed. The overlap is performed by using Ilwis software and the code and units of shape of land were given to the polygons through the three-combine formula, the results are in accordance with following table. The land units were prepared by GIS software. The unit map of shape of land and soil science map, slope, vegetation and plants coverage were overlapped and ultimately, the map of environmental units were specified. Ultimately, the overlap steps, preparing environmental unit maps and specifications of each unit were compared with the ecologic models for that scope and its power for vast recreation and centralized applications were determined.

As shown in table number 1, in the scope subject of study, the range with centralized recreation power with first class desirability has limited area. This factor is due to the limitations of soil, water, vegetation and climate. The complex of those factors has lowered the ability of the zone for centralized recreation and risks its success. With respect to the principle of multi-use, the application of expanded recreation and centralized recreation usage are compatible. Thus, to implement this plan in the zone, it is sufficient to perform local zoning for selecting proposed sites of the origin and destination stations. With respect to the base map, decisions and studies, the suggested sites have been specified for centralized recreation. Sites 1 and 2 have expanded recreation power with quality degree 2 and have closest distance to the access roads. Therefore, it could be discussed as a suggested site for origin stations. Sites 3 and 4 have the advantage of centralized recreation with quality degree 2 and closeness to Tezerjan snow peak as well as beautiful view.


**Table 1.** Tvansnjy range of model produced using

**Figure 4.** Map based decision making

#### **5. References**

[1] Hosseini, H, 2004.Pact of Environmental Development of Yazd Province, Environment Protection dept. of Yazd Province. p. 67

International Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)

**Global Energy Consumption Paradigm:** 

The energy debate and its discourse have changed drastically in the 21st century. The paradigm will go on changing with the coming time. This phenomenon will be in context of the consumers and producers; as well as the environment alike. Unlike the earlier times, today energy stands critical not just for the west but also for other consumer markets. This paper intends to address the energy consumption pattern and its changing paradigm. The new parameters of the global growth and development has been impacting the levels of energy consumption, thus, the changing statistics and fluctuating markets will see a tremendous increase and shift in the consumption pattern. The central theme of the paper is that, with the globalization process, the high income pockets have become largely vulnerable. The paper analyses the increased energy consumption and its future speculation. The paper also discusses the long term consumption trajectory.

Energy industry today has become very versatile and is expanding as time passes. However, fossil fuels will continue to be an important source of energy for the world. "Oil and natural gas alone will still make up almost 60 per cent of global energy supplies in 2030. The fastest - growing fossil fuel will be natural gas, because it is abundant, affordable and the cleanest - burning. By 2030, global demand for natural gas will be more than 55 per cent higher than in 2005"1. "With the United Nations predicting world population growth from 6.6 billion in 2007 to 8.2 billion by 2030….. The global electricity demand is increasing twice as fast as overall energy use and is likely to rise 76 per cent to 2030. Nuclear power provides about 14 per cent of the world's electricity, almost 24 per cent of electricity in OECD countries, and 34 per cent in the EU. Nuclear power generation is an established part of the world's electricity mix providing in 2007 some 15 per cent of the world's electricity (cf. coal 42 per cent, oil 6 per cent, natural gas 21 per cent and hydro & other 18 per cent)"2. As the renewable and alternative sources of energy are escalating their influence at the global level,

The chief factors that are driving the global energy demand are expanding globalization process, where today, the people are connected globally through inter – connected roads and highways. This has also led to intense Industrialization process, where factories and manufacturing businesses require a huge amount of energy to run. At the same time, the rise of the middle class

**Future Trends and Trajectory**

**Keywords:** energy consumption; globalization; changing paradigm

**1. Changing energy paradigm**

Vrushal T. Ghoble

Jai Hind College, India

**Abstract**

© 2012Ghoble.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the

original work is properly cited.

the world will remain dependent on oil and gas for most of its usage.

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## **Global Energy Consumption Paradigm: Future Trends and Trajectory**

Vrushal T. Ghoble

Jai Hind College, India

#### **Abstract**

The energy debate and its discourse have changed drastically in the 21st century. The paradigm will go on changing with the coming time. This phenomenon will be in context of the consumers and producers; as well as the environment alike. Unlike the earlier times, today energy stands critical not just for the west but also for other consumer markets. This paper intends to address the energy consumption pattern and its changing paradigm. The new parameters of the global growth and development has been impacting the levels of energy consumption, thus, the changing statistics and fluctuating markets will see a tremendous increase and shift in the consumption pattern. The central theme of the paper is that, with the globalization process, the high income pockets have become largely vulnerable. The paper analyses the increased energy consumption and its future speculation. The paper also discusses the long term consumption trajectory.

**Keywords:** energy consumption; globalization; changing paradigm

## **1. Changing energy paradigm**

Energy industry today has become very versatile and is expanding as time passes. However, fossil fuels will continue to be an important source of energy for the world. "Oil and natural gas alone will still make up almost 60 per cent of global energy supplies in 2030. The fastest - growing fossil fuel will be natural gas, because it is abundant, affordable and the cleanest - burning. By 2030, global demand for natural gas will be more than 55 per cent higher than in 2005"1. "With the United Nations predicting world population growth from 6.6 billion in 2007 to 8.2 billion by 2030….. The global electricity demand is increasing twice as fast as overall energy use and is likely to rise 76 per cent to 2030. Nuclear power provides about 14 per cent of the world's electricity, almost 24 per cent of electricity in OECD countries, and 34 per cent in the EU. Nuclear power generation is an established part of the world's electricity mix providing in 2007 some 15 per cent of the world's electricity (cf. coal 42 per cent, oil 6 per cent, natural gas 21 per cent and hydro & other 18 per cent)"2. As the renewable and alternative sources of energy are escalating their influence at the global level, the world will remain dependent on oil and gas for most of its usage.

The chief factors that are driving the global energy demand are expanding globalization process, where today, the people are connected globally through inter – connected roads and highways. This has also led to intense Industrialization process, where factories and manufacturing businesses require a huge amount of energy to run. At the same time, the rise of the middle class

© 2012Ghoble.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

globally, which "..… has also raised the needs of the people, aspiring for a better and luxurious life"4 .

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"Energy demand in the Gulf has more than doubled in the past 10 years and is forecast to increase by 85 per cent by 2030 compared with 2008 levels, a Wood Mackenzie report said. An energy demand surge in the Arabian Peninsula will be largely met by oil - fired generation, removing about 1.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) otherwise available for export….."6

The rise of new energy suppliers outside OPEC have also impacted on the Middle East exports. Due to the instability in the region, the consumers are looking for other sources, which happen to be Europe & Eurasia and Africa. Thus, the consumer market has shifted to new energy supplies, however, the oil finds are cheaper in the Middle East, which will be a major attraction for

**Graph 2.** Energy Information Administration (EIA), "International Energy Outlook 2010".

China is the second largest oil consumer after US. From the net exporter of oil in the 90s, China has emerged a net importer of oil, and also consumes a large amount of natural gas. China imported its first shipment of LNG in the summer 2006, and the country has quickly ramped up imports since then, importing about 730 MMcf/d in 2009 and 1,120 MMcf/d in the

increased lately, also due to the fact that China plans its growth in all sections such as construction business, transportation sector, industries, agriculture, etc. the overall demand has grown up. "Coal supplied the vast majority (71 per cent) of China's total energy consumption of 85 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2008. Oil is the second - largest source, accounting for 19 per cent of the country's total energy consumption. While China has made an effort to diversify its energy supplies, hydroelectric sources (6 per cent), natural gas (3 per cent), nuclear power (1 per cent), and other renewables (0.2 per cent) account for relatively small

. Natural gas plays an important role and its usage for domestic purpose has

. China's energy strategy is a complexity of

. Apparently, the Chinese energy

the consuming countries.

**2.1. China**

first half of 20107

amounts of China's energy consumption mix"8

hydrocarbon constraints and environment friendly energies9

demand exceeds supply bringing other stakeholders (producers) into picture.

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.

**Graph 1.** ExxonMobil, "Energy Demand".

#### **2. New consumption markets**

Worldwide energy markets have witnessed increasing activity by the energy consumers. Now, this presence could be divided into old and new players. In addition to the old players in the market, the new stakeholders are Asia. The new players are clearly defined as the energy consumers, which have experienced a drastic increase in its energy consumption due to the higher economic growth. Thus, the 21st century sees a new competition from the new energy rivals. As time passes, these energy consumers do see a stiff competition for hydrocarbon resources. Gradually, the competition is also carried out in other areas where there are huge reserves of oil and gas such as, Europe & Eurasia and Africa. With this, the competitors also face the challenge to contribute for regional security and development of these societies.

Post - Second World War, saw the emergence of hydrocarbon as a basic factor in the development of the world. Thus, the major oil producer i.e., the Middle East became the centre of attraction for the global powers. Oil, therefore became the basic factor for the powers involvement in many energy rich countries of the world. The Middle East especially, where there are the largest reserves of oil in the world, became the centre stage. Many of the energy rich states today are majorly dependent on income from oil exports. Some countries are dependent upto 90 per cent. This clearly identifies the space energy holds in the economic development of a country. However, the oil exports made the producers completely dependent on the revenues, with no development whatsoever. This made the producers a rentier economy. Although, the enormous wealth that was incurred as oil revenues, made the producing countries rich and powerful, and helped them in the development of their country. Thus, over a period of time, the intensity of competition has increased and become more complex.

In the last few years, the global energy demand has increased mainly due to the economic surge and the rise of global middle classes. The energy demand of the producers has also increased. "Energy demand in the Gulf has more than doubled in the past 10 years and is forecast to increase by 85 per cent by 2030 compared with 2008 levels, a Wood Mackenzie report said. An energy demand surge in the Arabian Peninsula will be largely met by oil - fired generation, removing about 1.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) otherwise available for export….."6 . The rise of new energy suppliers outside OPEC have also impacted on the Middle East exports. Due to the instability in the region, the consumers are looking for other sources, which happen to be Europe & Eurasia and Africa. Thus, the consumer market has shifted to new energy supplies, however, the oil finds are cheaper in the Middle East, which will be a major attraction for the consuming countries.

**Graph 2.** Energy Information Administration (EIA), "International Energy Outlook 2010".

#### **2.1. China**

China is the second largest oil consumer after US. From the net exporter of oil in the 90s, China has emerged a net importer of oil, and also consumes a large amount of natural gas. China imported its first shipment of LNG in the summer 2006, and the country has quickly ramped up imports since then, importing about 730 MMcf/d in 2009 and 1,120 MMcf/d in the first half of 20107 . Natural gas plays an important role and its usage for domestic purpose has increased lately, also due to the fact that China plans its growth in all sections such as construction business, transportation sector, industries, agriculture, etc. the overall demand has grown up. "Coal supplied the vast majority (71 per cent) of China's total energy consumption of 85 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2008. Oil is the second - largest source, accounting for 19 per cent of the country's total energy consumption. While China has made an effort to diversify its energy supplies, hydroelectric sources (6 per cent), natural gas (3 per cent), nuclear power (1 per cent), and other renewables (0.2 per cent) account for relatively small amounts of China's energy consumption mix"8 . China's energy strategy is a complexity of hydrocarbon constraints and environment friendly energies9 . Apparently, the Chinese energy demand exceeds supply bringing other stakeholders (producers) into picture.

#### **2.2. India**

In 2009, India was the fourth largest oil consumer in the world, after the United States, China, and Japan. "Oil accounts for nearly 24 per cent of total energy consumption, natural gas six per cent, hydroelectric power almost 2 per cent, nuclear nearly 1 per cent, and other renewables less than 0.5 per cent. Although nuclear power comprises a very small per centage of total energy consumption at this time, it is expected to increase in light of international civil nuclear energy co - operation deals"10.

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Looking at the current scenario and the future trajectories, the global competition and militarization of these resources is inevitable. The rapid growth of the 'rising' Asian economies will set its own repercussions for the world. China and India's rapid growth will facilitate the future growth of the hydrocarbon industry as its demand rises. Under these circumstances, it becomes vital for Asia to look out for alternative / renewable sources of energy, which are costly, unsafe and will take some time to be produced on a commercial scale, while simultaneously, developing the indigenous resources. Serious competition for the resources, will lead to lesser shares for individual stakeholders, hence the hike in the oil prices, also affecting the taxation policy of the countries. Apparently, the process of globalization has been efficient in integrating the global economies and connecting the producers and the consumers. With the oil politics expanding, the

[1] ExxonMobil, "Global Energy Demand", Accessed 19th December 2010, See, http://www.

[2] World Nuclear Association (December 2010), "World Energy Needs and Nuclear Power",

[4] Kothari, Raj Kumar (2010), "India's Foreign Policy in the New Millennium", Academic Excellence,

[5] Energy Information Administration (EIA), "International Energy Outlook 2010", Accessed 20th

[6] "Gulf energy demand to 'soar 85pc by 2030" (20th July 2010), Accessed 18th December 2010, see,

[7] Energy Information Administration (EIA) (November 2010), "Country Analysis Briefs: China", p. 14, Accessed 19th December 2010, See, http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/China/pdf.pdf

[9] Ghoble, Vrushal (April – June 2010), "China and the Global Energy", Dialogue, 11 (4): 152 – 163. [10] Energy Information Administration (EIA) (August 2010), "Country Analysis Briefs: India", p. 1, Accessed 19th December 2010, See, http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/India/pdf.pdf

[11] Ghoble, Vrushal (October – December 2009), "Maritime Energy Security and Hormuz and

[13] Saudi Arabia increased its production during the Iraq war in 2003 to compensate for the loss of

[14] Energy Information Administration (EIA) (November 2009), "Country Analysis Briefs: Saudi Arabia", p. 1 & 2, Accessed 19th December 2010, See, http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Saudi\_

Iraqi oil and made it unnecessary to release oil from the strategic stocks.

Accessed 19th December 2010, See, http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf16.html

stakeholders involved will have to redefine their interest.

exxonmobil.com/corporate/energy\_issues\_energydemand.aspx

December 2010, See, http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/world.html

http://www.tradearabia.com/news/ogn\_183277.html

Malacca Straits", Think India Quarterly, 12 (4): 96.

**4. Conclusion**

**5. References**

Delhi, p. 38.

[3] Ibid.

[8] Ibid, p. 2.

[12] Ibid, p. 101.

Arabia/pdf.pdf

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A safe and secure supply of energy resources to the end consumer is a major challenge for both the producers and the consumers. Today's consumers face tremendous challenges in terms of a safe passage of oil and gas through pipelines or tankers. "About two – thirds of the world's oil trade (crude oil & refined products) moves by tanker. Oil transported by sea flows through fixed routes, the most important being the Strait of Hormuz and Strait of Malacca. External threats like piracy and terrorism have threatened the secure transit of energy supplies in the straits"11. Any threat to these supplies would create a worst scenario for the global economy. "….., the worst hit would be the Gulf states, unable to export their oil and their main source of income would come to an end"12. The significance of the Middle Eastern countries such as, Saudi Arabia, producer of spare capacity of oil should be recognized13. Thus, today's energy business has become more complex, where any instability in the market will affect the producers and the consumers alike.

#### **3. Speculative Trajectory**

As the global energy demand increases, the energy rich areas specifically the countries which are benefitted by the oil wealth such as Saudi Arabia and UAE, their domestic demand has also taken an upswing. To meet the increased consumption, the Middle Eastern states need huge proportion of energy. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE are known to be the economic powerhouses of the region. "Saudi Arabia is the largest consumer of petroleum in the Middle East, particularly in the area of transportation fuels. Domestic consumption growth has been spurred by the economic boom due to historically high oil prices and large fuel subsidies. In 2006, Saudi Arabia was the 15th largest consumer of total primary energy, of which 60 per cent was petroleum - based. The remainder was made up of natural gas, the growth of which has been limited by supply constraints. In 2008, Saudi Arabia consumed approximately 2.4 million bbl/d of oil, up 50 percent since 2000, due to strong economic and industrial growth and subsidized prices. According to independent analysis quoted in industry reports, demand is expected to rise by eight to 10 percent through 2010, mostly in the area of electricity and NGLs for petrochemical production. Saudi Arabia also does direct burn of crude oil for power generation during summer months"14.

Energy today, has become a indispensable support- system of development and growth, for the western and the developing nations alike. Apparently, energy being the backbone of the global expansion and progress; it is fundamental in the onward industrial movement. With the energy supplies in other regions getting scarce, the demand has become ever more critical.

## **4. Conclusion**

Looking at the current scenario and the future trajectories, the global competition and militarization of these resources is inevitable. The rapid growth of the 'rising' Asian economies will set its own repercussions for the world. China and India's rapid growth will facilitate the future growth of the hydrocarbon industry as its demand rises. Under these circumstances, it becomes vital for Asia to look out for alternative / renewable sources of energy, which are costly, unsafe and will take some time to be produced on a commercial scale, while simultaneously, developing the indigenous resources. Serious competition for the resources, will lead to lesser shares for individual stakeholders, hence the hike in the oil prices, also affecting the taxation policy of the countries. Apparently, the process of globalization has been efficient in integrating the global economies and connecting the producers and the consumers. With the oil politics expanding, the stakeholders involved will have to redefine their interest.

#### **5. References**


International Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)

**An Analysis of Iran's Cities Distributions in** 

Natural disasters such as earthquakes often result in extensive casualties and damage. The location of Iran and many other developing countries in active tectonic regions of the world emphasizes the necessity to develop a comprehensive disaster management system. Iran is located in the Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt which is one of the most active tectonic regions of the world. Iran is a country with about 75 million people living and the history of the region indicates strong earthquakes. Population centralization in urban area and metropolitans with environmental disaster, especially in developing countries such as Iran increase metropolitan's vulnerability against earthquake hazard. Iran is a vulnerable against earthquake hazard, because of distribution of cities and population centralization in its metropolitan. But the amount of damage and injured in an earthquake in Iran's cities is different. Population growth with increase of cities number cause to sustain a loss of people and appurtenances. This research tries to help to planning for earthquake crisis. Type of research is applied and method of data collection is documentary and methods of analysis are; population analysis with urban system analysis and urban distribution system in related to earthquake hazard. In beginning the situation of urban system and locations of cities are studied, than the relationship between distribution of cities and earthquake hazard studied. This paper examines the spatial distribution of the population and focusing

**Related to Earthquake Hazard**

University of Yazd, Iran

on urban system patterns.

ming from events such as earthquakes.

**1. Introduction** 

**Abstract**

Safar Ghaedrahmati, Mohammad Reza Rezaei

© 2012 Ghaedrahmati et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

provided the original work is properly cited.

**Keywords:** Iran's Cities, Distributions of Cities, Earthquake Hazard, Urban System.

A disaster is a perceived tragedy, being either a natural calamity or man-made catastrophe. It is a hazard which has come to fruition. A hazard, in turn, is a situation which poses a level of threat to life, health, property, or that may deleteriously affect society or an environment. Planning for crisis, especially urban crisis in variable angles must be analysis and review. This discussion is interested in some sciences such as urban planning, environment science and crisis management. This topic is very important, because of related to life and property of people. Basically, researches can important role in decrease of manmade and environmental hazard. Developing countries suffer the greatest costs when a disaster hits – more than 95 percent of all deaths caused by disasters occur in developing countries. A disaster can be defined as any tragic event with great loss stem-

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## **An Analysis of Iran's Cities Distributions in Related to Earthquake Hazard**

Safar Ghaedrahmati, Mohammad Reza Rezaei

University of Yazd, Iran

#### **Abstract**

Natural disasters such as earthquakes often result in extensive casualties and damage. The location of Iran and many other developing countries in active tectonic regions of the world emphasizes the necessity to develop a comprehensive disaster management system. Iran is located in the Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt which is one of the most active tectonic regions of the world. Iran is a country with about 75 million people living and the history of the region indicates strong earthquakes. Population centralization in urban area and metropolitans with environmental disaster, especially in developing countries such as Iran increase metropolitan's vulnerability against earthquake hazard. Iran is a vulnerable against earthquake hazard, because of distribution of cities and population centralization in its metropolitan. But the amount of damage and injured in an earthquake in Iran's cities is different. Population growth with increase of cities number cause to sustain a loss of people and appurtenances. This research tries to help to planning for earthquake crisis. Type of research is applied and method of data collection is documentary and methods of analysis are; population analysis with urban system analysis and urban distribution system in related to earthquake hazard. In beginning the situation of urban system and locations of cities are studied, than the relationship between distribution of cities and earthquake hazard studied. This paper examines the spatial distribution of the population and focusing on urban system patterns.

**Keywords:** Iran's Cities, Distributions of Cities, Earthquake Hazard, Urban System.

#### **1. Introduction**

A disaster is a perceived tragedy, being either a natural calamity or man-made catastrophe. It is a hazard which has come to fruition. A hazard, in turn, is a situation which poses a level of threat to life, health, property, or that may deleteriously affect society or an environment. Planning for crisis, especially urban crisis in variable angles must be analysis and review. This discussion is interested in some sciences such as urban planning, environment science and crisis management. This topic is very important, because of related to life and property of people. Basically, researches can important role in decrease of manmade and environmental hazard. Developing countries suffer the greatest costs when a disaster hits – more than 95 percent of all deaths caused by disasters occur in developing countries. A disaster can be defined as any tragic event with great loss stemming from events such as earthquakes.

© 2012 Ghaedrahmati et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Various disasters like earthquake are natural hazard that kill thousands of people and destroy billions of dollars of habitat and property each year. The rapid growth of the Iran's population and its increased concentration often in hazardous environment has escalated both the frequency and severity of natural disasters. Among various natural hazards, an earthquake is the major disasters adversely affecting very large areas and population in the Iran. For few decades, the population of cities in developing countries, including Iran had a higher growth rate than the total growth rate of countries' population. The cities in the developing countries have become areas of very high vulnerability to natural hazards, where effectively, more than 40% of the urban population is directly or indirectly threatened [1].

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Iranian cities are usually the heart of economic and cultural changes that have occurred aft er the Islamic revolution in 1979. These cities are increasingly having impacts via political–economical arrangement and chiefl y by urban management structures. Structural features have led to the increasing growth of cities and urbanization (in number, population and physical frame) and the main problems in them. For instance, housing, water supply, traffi c jams, social welfare, security, safety and health, etc. The beginning and continuation of the war with Iraq accelerated these circumstances. Aft er the war, population movements resulted in a number of urban changes, such as Local people moved from war-stricken regions to others, especially to cities; Young men moved from rural areas to towns and then to cities; Foreign migrants moved from such countries as Afghanistan and Iraq to Iran. On the other hand, because of the lack of birth control policies and also because of the deceptive att ractions of cities, particularly big cities, the birth rate has shot up,

The population of Iran has increased rapidly since 1956. The 1956 and 1966 decennial censuses counted the population of Iran at 18.9 million and 25.7 million, respectively, with a 3.1% annual growth rate during the 1956–1966 period. The 1976 and 1986 decennial censuses counted Iran's population at 33.7 and 49.4 million, respectively, a 2.7% and 3.9% annual growth rate during the 1966–1976 and 1976–1986 periods. The 1996 count put Iran's population at 60 million, a 1.96% annual growth rate from 1986–1996 and the 2007 count put Iran population at 72 million. The reasons of the recent decline in the annual population growth rate are att ributed partially to the government's family planning eff orts since 1989 and the dismal economic conditions and general decline in living standards for the average Iranian household. The urban population of Iran has nonetheless been rapidly growing from 1956 to 1986. It has expanded about 2.6 times in the period 1956–1976, and doubled again (2.52 times) from 1979 to 1996. The number of cities in Iran has gone from 199 to 393 and 614 and 900 and 1012 during the periods 1956–1976, and 1996–2007 [6].

something which has occurred mainly in rural regions and small cities.

**Figure 1.** Major Active Fault of Iran

**3. Population Analysis**

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Controlling the development of land on or close to active faults is a Resource Management Act 1991 issue. The guidelines provide direction on land use planning approaches for land on or close to active faults. They aim to assist planners, emergency managers, earth scientists, and people in building industry to avoid or mitigate the fault rupture hazard[2]. Many large cities in developing countries are subject to natural hazards .At global scale, large natural hazards are associated with unplanned and poor cities [3]. In fact the main pressure which threats our lives is because of hasty urbanization without analyzing the hazard risk [4].

While in developed countries, the development of the big cities began centuries ago and generally allows for controlled and planned urban expansion, the opposite is the case in developing countries, where rapid urbanization's process is characterized by an unplanned urban expansion. The developing metropolitan cities have enormous difficulties in coping both with the natural population increase and the urban physical expansion. In fact, urbanization process increases the vulnerability through centralization of human and property. Because of unplanned urbanization, growth of land in vulnerable areas with a high level of hazard risk, inadequate urban management and unsuitable construction measures, third world cities transform into vulnerable centers. If cities grow rapidly, without any plan and attention to the observance of urbanism regulation and factors resistance, it will cause an increase in urban vulnerability. This case deteriorates when the metropolitan cities extend on or close to active faults. On the other hand, urbanization programs must be based on natural hazard knowledge. Suitable location for residence and logical development of cities has a basic role in the decrease of earthquake damage [5].

#### **2. Seism tectonic and seismicity of Iran**

The Iranian plateau can be characterized by active faults, recentvolcanic and high surface elevation along the Alpine earthquake belt. Tectonicstudies indicate that the Iranian plateau has a very high density of active andrecent faults. Earthquake data of Iran show that most activity is concentratedalong the Zagros fold thrust belt while less activity is observed in central andeastern Iran. Thus, several regions are vulnerable to destructive earthquakes. The preparation of an earthquake hazard map is the delineation of theseism tectonic province and the assessment of the associated maximum earthquakepotentials[ figure 1]. The boundaries of the provinces are established through analysis ofseismic history, relocated epicenter for the past several decades; tectonicenvironments, active faults, regional geomorphology, and plate boundaries.

**Figure 1.** Major Active Fault of Iran

## **3. Population Analysis**

Iranian cities are usually the heart of economic and cultural changes that have occurred aft er the Islamic revolution in 1979. These cities are increasingly having impacts via political–economical arrangement and chiefl y by urban management structures. Structural features have led to the increasing growth of cities and urbanization (in number, population and physical frame) and the main problems in them. For instance, housing, water supply, traffi c jams, social welfare, security, safety and health, etc. The beginning and continuation of the war with Iraq accelerated these circumstances. Aft er the war, population movements resulted in a number of urban changes, such as

Local people moved from war-stricken regions to others, especially to cities; Young men moved from rural areas to towns and then to cities; Foreign migrants moved from such countries as Afghanistan and Iraq to Iran. On the other hand, because of the lack of birth control policies and also because of the deceptive att ractions of cities, particularly big cities, the birth rate has shot up, something which has occurred mainly in rural regions and small cities.

The population of Iran has increased rapidly since 1956. The 1956 and 1966 decennial censuses counted the population of Iran at 18.9 million and 25.7 million, respectively, with a 3.1% annual growth rate during the 1956–1966 period. The 1976 and 1986 decennial censuses counted Iran's population at 33.7 and 49.4 million, respectively, a 2.7% and 3.9% annual growth rate during the 1966–1976 and 1976–1986 periods. The 1996 count put Iran's population at 60 million, a 1.96% annual growth rate from 1986–1996 and the 2007 count put Iran population at 72 million. The reasons of the recent decline in the annual population growth rate are att ributed partially to the government's family planning eff orts since 1989 and the dismal economic conditions and general decline in living standards for the average Iranian household. The urban population of Iran has nonetheless been rapidly growing from 1956 to 1986. It has expanded about 2.6 times in the period 1956–1976, and doubled again (2.52 times) from 1979 to 1996. The number of cities in Iran has gone from 199 to 393 and 614 and 900 and 1012 during the periods 1956–1976, and 1996–2007 [6].

## **4. Cities and urbanization in Iran**

Rural to urban migrations are the major reason for Iran's rapid urbanization. The employment opportunities and declining living conditions forced the rural population to migrate. In 1956 only one Iranian city (namely Tehran), had a 500,000 population, whereas 9 of the nation's 199 cities had a 100,000 population or more; about 53% of the total urban population lived in cities with 100,000 or more. In 1976, only 23 (6.2%) of 373 cities in Iran had population of 100,000 or more, and, only four cities had population of 500,000 or more. In this year 28.6% of the urban population of Iran lived in Tehran.

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**Year 1959 1966 1976 1986 1996 2007 2010** Total Population 18500000 25789000 33709000 49445000 60055000 70495000 74733230 Urban Population 5997000 9794000 15855000 26845000 36700000 48259000 53637652

Number of Cities 199 271 373 496 617 1012 1025 Urban Population (%) 31.4 38.7 46.1 54.3 61.3 68.4 72.77

1. High concentration of economic and commercial investment in several big cities, especially in Tehran, and the lack of control over it. The process of urbanization in the country has been accompanied by an overconcentration of productive activities and economic forces in big cities; 2. High concentration of social, cultural, educational and welfare facilities in the above-mentioned cities, which is mainly resulting from the lack of equal distribution of the capital and

3. Physical and spatial expansion of big cities and their irregular growth; in spite of the recent reforms (such as renovation plans), in the old cities or some of the sections of ancient cities, cities often have had not proper physical form yet and in the regional level they had not harmonious distribution spatially. This is affected by two factors: the first is the climatic and natural situation;

4. Processes of urbanization lead to urban primacy, regional inequalities, centralization of political and economic power within cities and intra-urban ecological segregation and environmental crisis; this process has intensified because there is no accord on the necessary principles of urban

 18954704 - - 100 - - 25788722 6834018 36.1 136.1 36.1 3.13 33708744 7920022 30.7 166.8 66.8 2.71 49445010 15736266 46.7 213.5 113.5 3.91 60055488 10610478 21.5 235 135 1.96 70495782 10440294 17.3 252.3 152.3 1.62

Absolute Proportional

**Table 1.** Trends and the number of urban population in Iran 1976–2007

equipment in the totality of regions and cities.

the second is the national policy and planning.

sustainability within development [10].

Year Population Changes

**Table 2.** Population changes in Iran 1957- 2007

Source : [8].

The characteristics of the urban system of Iran can be enumerated as follows:

Source: [8]

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Annual growth (%)

Changes in proportion to base year

Changes index 1957=100

By 1996, nearly 10% of 614 cities in Iran had a population of 100,000 or more and nine cities had a population of 500,000 or more. 36.8 million People lived in urban areas, 8.4% lived in Tehran, 41.8% in the nine largest cities with populations of 500,000 and more. Thus, the country's largest city (Tehran) had a very rapid population growth. In 1956, 1976 and 1996 its population had reached 1.5, 4.5 and 6.7 millions. Similarly, the population of the Greater Tehran Metropolitan area had reached about 10.5 millions from 1956 to 1996. Several conclusions can be drawn from the urbanization analyses in Iran during 1956–1976 and 1976–1996. First, Iran's urban population increased by 5.9 million to 15.9 and then 36.8 millions in a period of 40 years. Second, Iran's hierarchy of urban settlements had only one city in 1956, four in 1976 and nine cities in 1996 with a population of half a million or more. This represents a major gap in the hierarchy of urban settlements. Third, the number of large cities (defined as those with a population of at least 250,000) went from 3 to 8 and then to 23. Their share of the urban population increased from 31.6% to 47% and then to 61.3% of Iran's total urban population. Fourth, the number or medium-sized cities (with a population of 100–250,000) grew from 15 to 36, while their share of total urban population decreased from 42.5% to 15.4% to 13.9% during 1956–1996. This indicates that rural and urban migrants generally did not consider the medium-sized cities as their destinations and moved to large cities to take advantage of greater opportunities there. Fifth, the number of small cities (<100,000) increased from 190 to 533, while their share of the total urban population decreased from 49.1% to 31.3% [7].

#### **5. Primacy City Index (PCI) in Iran**

Almost all censuses after the revolution have revealed a continuation of large-scale urbanization and an increasing tendency towards the concentration of urban population in a few big cities. The proportion of urban population to the total population of the country in 1976 reached to 46.1% while in 1996 it increased to 61% and increased to 72% in 2010. Both the increase in the number of urban places and population increase in cities have contributed to the process of urbanization [8]. After the revolution, the number and population of cities continued to increase as before. These changes are shown in[ Table1]. A recent major policy of urban economic and industrial decentralization is a persistent program of the government. The policy has been identified as a result of the massive growth of Tehran in recent years, up to 9 million by 2010. Part of the growth of the capital resulted from the lack of economic opportunities elsewhere and in order to redress the developing primacy of Tehran and the internal pressures which it is undergoing, the policy of decentralization is to be implemented as quickly as possible [9].


**Table 1.** Trends and the number of urban population in Iran 1976–2007

Source: [8]

The characteristics of the urban system of Iran can be enumerated as follows:

1. High concentration of economic and commercial investment in several big cities, especially in Tehran, and the lack of control over it. The process of urbanization in the country has been accompanied by an overconcentration of productive activities and economic forces in big cities;

2. High concentration of social, cultural, educational and welfare facilities in the above-mentioned cities, which is mainly resulting from the lack of equal distribution of the capital and equipment in the totality of regions and cities.

3. Physical and spatial expansion of big cities and their irregular growth; in spite of the recent reforms (such as renovation plans), in the old cities or some of the sections of ancient cities, cities often have had not proper physical form yet and in the regional level they had not harmonious distribution spatially. This is affected by two factors: the first is the climatic and natural situation; the second is the national policy and planning.

4. Processes of urbanization lead to urban primacy, regional inequalities, centralization of political and economic power within cities and intra-urban ecological segregation and environmental crisis; this process has intensified because there is no accord on the necessary principles of urban sustainability within development [10].


**Table 2.** Population changes in Iran 1957- 2007 Source : [8].

Iranian cities are not often 'self-contained', and cannot act independently from their nation and region. Dependent urbanism not only leads to uneven urban hierarchies and high levels of 'intraurban inequality', but also creates cities that are more likely to be economically 'parasitic' on the surrounding region than 'generative'. Therefore, today we are witnessing an increase in the gap between regions and cities and the creation and spread of squatter settlements or poor housing, especially in the suburbs. Certainly, several projects have been developed in order to reduce the inequalities of urban development, but none of them have been executed completely[ Table2].

International Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)

The sustainable urban expansion has become a key point in the context of urban studies. The management of the urban growth on the safe lands is the main issue in developing countries where the urban areas experienced rapid urban physical growth. In this study, we examined the relationship between urban extent and active faults around the cities. In general, the results of

Demographic changes have become a main reason in transforming the urban dynamics. One of these dynamics is urban growth that causes uncontrolled and rapid expansion. The rapid growth of the Iran's population and its increased concentration often in hazardous cities has escalated both the frequency and severity of natural disasters.An earthquake is the major disasters adversely affecting very large cities and population in the Iran. For few decades, the population of cities in Iran had a higher growth rate than the total growth rate of countries' population. The

[1] Chardon, A. C. (1999). A geographic approach of the global vulnerability in urban area: case of

[2] Kerr, Janine, Nathan, Simon (2004). Planning for development of land on or close to active faults,

[3] Batisani, N. and Yarnal B. (2009), urban expansion in center county, Pennsylvania: Spatial

[5] Nateghi, F. (2000) Disaster mitigation strategies in Teheran. Disaster Prevention and Management,

[9] Plan & Budget Organization (PBO) (1997) Report on the Performance of National Development

[10] Drakakis-Smith, (199*6* ) Third World Cities: Sustainable Urban Development II—Population,

[11] Sharbutoghlie, A (1991) Urbanization and Regional Disparities in Post Revolutionary Iran. West

[12] Ziari, Keramatollah,(2006). The planning and functioning of new towns in Iran, Cities, Vol. 23,

cities in the Iran have become areas of very high vulnerability to earthquake hazards.

dynamics and landscape transformations. Applied Geography, 29, 235-249.

[7] Javan, J (2002) Population Geography of Iran. Jahad Danesgahi, Tehran (Persian).

Manizales, Colombian Andes. Geo Journal, No.49, pp. 197 - 212.

[4] Giddens, Anthony (2000).Runaway World. New York: Rout ledge.

[6] Statistical Center of Iran (2003) Population Data. SCI Publication, Tehran.

[8] Demographia world areas: population projection: edition 6.1(2010.07)

Labour and Poverty, Urban Studies May 1996 33: 673-701.

**7. Conclusion**

**8. References**

9, 205–211.

Plan, Tehran.

View Press, Boulder, CO.

No. 6, p. 412–422, 2006

this paper are summarized as follows:

Wellington, New Zealand. pp.1-68

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## **6. Cities at Risk**

The beginning of changes in the process of urbanization in Iran goes back to the Qajarieh period (1906) the offices, embassies, new buildings, theaters, movies, shops and hotels were built according to new styles but without planning and discipline. In the first Pahlavi's period (1921), the changes had been without proper planning and mostly on the basis of modernization, which included the advent of machines, new building, offices, ministries, embassies, new urban laws, changing streets, etc., and also changes in economic, social and cultural ways, not only in Tehran but in the other cities of Iran. But up to 1948, no national, regional or urban planning had been undertaken in Iran.

In the first decades of second Pahlavi era, the Iranian government implemented five national development plans (1948–1978). Together, these plans reflected a gradual shift from agriculture to industry and from subsistence agriculture to large scale capital intensive commercial farming [11].

In the post-revolutionary period, the two national development plans were prepared in the same way as prior to 1979. The authorities were concerned with planning, war, and expansion of the universities, relying on oil income. The urban development exceeded the pre-revolutionary period; the peripheries of large cities expanded and the urban indices of centralization increased [12]. The traditional building forms of the cities and the tendency toward modernization had been increased[ figure 2].

**Figure 2.** Cities Distribution and Major Active Fault of Iran

## **7. Conclusion**

The sustainable urban expansion has become a key point in the context of urban studies. The management of the urban growth on the safe lands is the main issue in developing countries where the urban areas experienced rapid urban physical growth. In this study, we examined the relationship between urban extent and active faults around the cities. In general, the results of this paper are summarized as follows:

Demographic changes have become a main reason in transforming the urban dynamics. One of these dynamics is urban growth that causes uncontrolled and rapid expansion. The rapid growth of the Iran's population and its increased concentration often in hazardous cities has escalated both the frequency and severity of natural disasters.An earthquake is the major disasters adversely affecting very large cities and population in the Iran. For few decades, the population of cities in Iran had a higher growth rate than the total growth rate of countries' population. The cities in the Iran have become areas of very high vulnerability to earthquake hazards.

## **8. References**


International Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)

**2 Rangeland Dynamics Monitoring Using** 

Department of Forestry, Behbehan University of Technology, Behbehan, Iran,

Email: atorahi@yahoo.com. Tel: +98 6712221230, Fax: +98 6712229969

Ali A Torahi

**Abstract**

that are difficult to access.

**1. Introduction**

**Remotely-Sensed Data, in Dehdez Area, Iran**

The land-cover dynamics has been quite conspicuous over the last three decades in Dehdez area, Iran. Therefore, the present study was undertaken in the Dehdez area to assess the trends of rangelands dynamics in the study area during the period 1990-2006. Two clear, cloud-free Landsat and one ASTER images were selected to classify the study area. All images were rectified to UTM zone 39, WGS84 using at least 25 well distributed ground control points and nearest neighbor resampling. Land-use/cover mapping is achieved through interpretation of Landsat TM satellite images of 1990, 1998 and ASTER image of 2006. Fieldwork carried out to collect data for training and validating land-use/cover interpretation from satellite image of 2006, and for qualitative description of the characteristics of each land-use/cover class. In order to create a testing sample set, first of all a set of testing points is selected randomly. A supervised classification technique with Maximum Likelihood Algorithm was applied based on 48 training samples for the image of 2006, and 42 samples for the images of 1990 and 1998 and the landuse/cover maps were produced. Error matrices were used to assess classification accuracy. The results showed, rangeland covers about 30.8%, 36.7% and 45% of the total geographical area of the Dehdez area in 1990, 1998 and 2006, respectively. Overall accuracies of land-use/cover classification for 1990, 1998 and 2006 were 89.37%, 75.24% and 71.14%, respectively. Kappa values obtained were of 78.71%, 55.61% and 51.41% of accuracy for the 1990, 1998 and 2006, respectively. During 16 years span period (1990-2006) about 1738.4 ha, 383.7 ha, 32.8 ha and 890.1 ha of rangelands were converted to forest, agriculture, water and settlement. The total rich rangelands in the area, accounts for 38.5%, 44% and 42.2% in 1990, 1998 and 2006, respectively. The total poor rangeland in the area, accounts for 61.5%, 56% and 57.8% in 1990, 1998 and 2006, respectively. Satellite Remote Sensing enabled the generation of a detailed rangeland map and the separation of grazing intensity levels in rangelands can be generated with the relatively little effort in areas

> © 2012 Torahi; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the

original work is properly cited.

On an area basis, rangelands contribute significantly to the world's land surface and an important share is devoted to grazing. Management of these areas alters drastically their natural characteristics. With increasing livestock, pressure on natural and semi-natural rangelands is also increased. But not all range types have the same production potential. Destruction of rangeland is

**Keywords:** Rangeland, Dynamics, Remote sensing, Dehdez, Iran

Turkey, September 10-12, 2012

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## **2 Rangeland Dynamics Monitoring Using Remotely-Sensed Data, in Dehdez Area, Iran**

## Ali A Torahi

Department of Forestry, Behbehan University of Technology, Behbehan, Iran, Email: atorahi@yahoo.com. Tel: +98 6712221230, Fax: +98 6712229969

#### **Abstract**

The land-cover dynamics has been quite conspicuous over the last three decades in Dehdez area, Iran. Therefore, the present study was undertaken in the Dehdez area to assess the trends of rangelands dynamics in the study area during the period 1990-2006. Two clear, cloud-free Landsat and one ASTER images were selected to classify the study area. All images were rectified to UTM zone 39, WGS84 using at least 25 well distributed ground control points and nearest neighbor resampling. Land-use/cover mapping is achieved through interpretation of Landsat TM satellite images of 1990, 1998 and ASTER image of 2006. Fieldwork carried out to collect data for training and validating land-use/cover interpretation from satellite image of 2006, and for qualitative description of the characteristics of each land-use/cover class. In order to create a testing sample set, first of all a set of testing points is selected randomly. A supervised classification technique with Maximum Likelihood Algorithm was applied based on 48 training samples for the image of 2006, and 42 samples for the images of 1990 and 1998 and the landuse/cover maps were produced. Error matrices were used to assess classification accuracy. The results showed, rangeland covers about 30.8%, 36.7% and 45% of the total geographical area of the Dehdez area in 1990, 1998 and 2006, respectively. Overall accuracies of land-use/cover classification for 1990, 1998 and 2006 were 89.37%, 75.24% and 71.14%, respectively. Kappa values obtained were of 78.71%, 55.61% and 51.41% of accuracy for the 1990, 1998 and 2006, respectively. During 16 years span period (1990-2006) about 1738.4 ha, 383.7 ha, 32.8 ha and 890.1 ha of rangelands were converted to forest, agriculture, water and settlement. The total rich rangelands in the area, accounts for 38.5%, 44% and 42.2% in 1990, 1998 and 2006, respectively. The total poor rangeland in the area, accounts for 61.5%, 56% and 57.8% in 1990, 1998 and 2006, respectively. Satellite Remote Sensing enabled the generation of a detailed rangeland map and the separation of grazing intensity levels in rangelands can be generated with the relatively little effort in areas that are difficult to access.

**Keywords:** Rangeland, Dynamics, Remote sensing, Dehdez, Iran

#### **1. Introduction**

On an area basis, rangelands contribute significantly to the world's land surface and an important share is devoted to grazing. Management of these areas alters drastically their natural characteristics. With increasing livestock, pressure on natural and semi-natural rangelands is also increased. But not all range types have the same production potential. Destruction of rangeland is

© 2012 Torahi; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

mainly related to overpopulation. To enhance food production, grasslands possessing fertile soils have been ploughed and converted to agricultural lands. Three syndromes, i.e., desertification, woody encroachment, and deforestation are inherent to global grazing. These syndromes have widespread and differential effects on the structure, biochemistry, hydrology and biosphereatmosphere exchange of grazed ecosystems as well as represent a major component of global environmental change [1]. Managing the rangelands represents a major shift in thinking and practice. In some parts of the world leading many to believe this is the required stimuli to develop a sustainable rangelands management approach [2]. There is an increasing need for better management of rangelands in developing countries in view of the alarming depletion causing by population pressure, agricultural expansion, and misuse of rangelands. Basic to the implementation of any rangelands management strategy, whether it is for assessment and allocation to sustainable uses or for rehabilitation of rangelands and denudate lands, is a clear understanding of how much natural resources there are, where they are located, and their present condition. Knowledge of the rangelands and its geographical environment are essential for proper planning of sustainable rangelands management. To meet those requirements, precise and up-todate information regarding the status of the rangelands and potential of rangelands rehabilitation is important to upgrade and to design proper management for future improvement of the rangelands. Several studies reported successful mapping of rangelands in arid and semi-arid environments as well as in temperate areas based on remotely sensed data [3, 4]. In tropical and subtropical areas, attempts to classify land-cover have been performed [5]. In the study area, raring cattle are a very important economic activity and continuous grazing all year round is possible at almost all sites. Hence, precise land-cover information and a quantification of the study area are required. The present study was undertaken in the Dehdez area to assess the trends of rangelands dynamics in the study area during the period 1990-2006.

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was performed using ENVI 4.5. Land-use/cover mapping is achieved through interpretation of

Classification scheme was based on the land cover and land use classification system developed by [6] for interpretation of remote sensor data at various scales and resolutions. Based on the Anderson land-use/cover classification system, the land-use and land-covers are classified as forest land, rangeland, water bodies, agricultural land and residential land. The unsupervised image classification method carried out prior to field visit, in order to determine strata for ground truth. Fieldwork carried out to collect data for training and validating landuse/cover interpretation from satellite image of 2006, and for qualitative description of the characteristics of each land-use/cover class. Also, it is necessary to collect other ancillary data and historical data required for classification of 1990 and 1998 images. In order to create a testing sample set, first of all a set of testing points is selected randomly. However, reaching all those random points in practice is infeasible because study area is a very complex with very steep slope, and very difficult to access, especially areas which are very far from the road/path. So, a modification is made in the field, whereby 95 randomly points used and all cover classes, which were mapped in the vicinity of these points were checked. For classification of images of 1990

The image classification is carried out in ENVI software. A supervised classification technique with Maximum Likelihood Algorithm was applied. The classification was based on 48 training samples for the image of 2006, and 42 samples for the images of 1990 and 1998. The land-use/ cover maps of 1990, 1998 and 2006 were produced by using supervised image classification technique based on the Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC) and 132 training samples [8]. Finally, a 3\*3 majority filter was applied to each classification to recode isolated pixels classified differ-

An independent sample of an average of 95 polygons, with about 100 pixels for each selected polygon, was randomly selected from each classification to assess classification accuracies. Error matrices as cross-tabulations of the mapped class vs. the reference class were used to assess classification accuracy [9]. Overall accuracy, user's and producer's accuracies, and the Kappa statistic

The land-use/cover pattern in the area as a whole showed that the rangeland covers about 30.8%, 36.7% and 45% of the total geographical area of the Dehdez area in 1990, 1998 and 2006, respectively. According to the confusion matrix, the overall accuracies of land-use/cover classification

Landsat TM satellite images of 1990, 1998 and ASTER image of 2006.

and 1998 simple random sampling is applied [7].

ently than the majority class of the window.

were then derived from the error matrices.

**4. Summary and Conclusion**

**3.2. Image Classification**

*3.2.1. Training*

*3.2.2. Allocation*

*3.2.3. Testing*

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#### **2. Study Area**

Dehdez area is located in the south-eastern part of the state (50˚ 12´ 14˝ to 50˚ 33´ 25˝ E and 31˚ 35´ 05˝ to 31˚ 58´ 12˝ N). It has an elevational range of 580-3000 m a.s.l. with a total area of 513.12 km2 . The population of the area was 23745 in 2006 with an average density of 47 person per km2 . The structural geology of the Dehdez area consists of limestone, calcareous marl, and shale stone in Asmari and Pabdeh formations. Most of the soils were alkaline (pH ranged from 7.5 to 9) across the study area. Average annual precipitation was 620mm, mean annual maximum temperature ranged from 17-34ºC and mean annual minimum temperature from 4-14ºC at the study sites.

#### **3. Methodology**

#### **3.1. Image Pre-processing**

Two clear, cloud-free Landsat and one ASTER images were selected to classify the study area: June 17, 1990; May 18, 1998 and June 21, 2006. The Dehdez area is entirely contained within Landsat and ASTER path 164, row 38. All images were rectified to UTM zone 39, WGS84 using at least 25 well distributed ground control points and nearest neighbor resampling. The root mean square errors were less than 0.25 pixel (7.5 m) for each of the three images. Image processing was performed using ENVI 4.5. Land-use/cover mapping is achieved through interpretation of Landsat TM satellite images of 1990, 1998 and ASTER image of 2006.

#### **3.2. Image Classification**

#### *3.2.1. Training*

Classification scheme was based on the land cover and land use classification system developed by [6] for interpretation of remote sensor data at various scales and resolutions. Based on the Anderson land-use/cover classification system, the land-use and land-covers are classified as forest land, rangeland, water bodies, agricultural land and residential land. The unsupervised image classification method carried out prior to field visit, in order to determine strata for ground truth. Fieldwork carried out to collect data for training and validating landuse/cover interpretation from satellite image of 2006, and for qualitative description of the characteristics of each land-use/cover class. Also, it is necessary to collect other ancillary data and historical data required for classification of 1990 and 1998 images. In order to create a testing sample set, first of all a set of testing points is selected randomly. However, reaching all those random points in practice is infeasible because study area is a very complex with very steep slope, and very difficult to access, especially areas which are very far from the road/path. So, a modification is made in the field, whereby 95 randomly points used and all cover classes, which were mapped in the vicinity of these points were checked. For classification of images of 1990 and 1998 simple random sampling is applied [7].

#### *3.2.2. Allocation*

The image classification is carried out in ENVI software. A supervised classification technique with Maximum Likelihood Algorithm was applied. The classification was based on 48 training samples for the image of 2006, and 42 samples for the images of 1990 and 1998. The land-use/ cover maps of 1990, 1998 and 2006 were produced by using supervised image classification technique based on the Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC) and 132 training samples [8]. Finally, a 3\*3 majority filter was applied to each classification to recode isolated pixels classified differently than the majority class of the window.

#### *3.2.3. Testing*

An independent sample of an average of 95 polygons, with about 100 pixels for each selected polygon, was randomly selected from each classification to assess classification accuracies. Error matrices as cross-tabulations of the mapped class vs. the reference class were used to assess classification accuracy [9]. Overall accuracy, user's and producer's accuracies, and the Kappa statistic were then derived from the error matrices.

## **4. Summary and Conclusion**

The land-use/cover pattern in the area as a whole showed that the rangeland covers about 30.8%, 36.7% and 45% of the total geographical area of the Dehdez area in 1990, 1998 and 2006, respectively. According to the confusion matrix, the overall accuracies of land-use/cover classification for 1990, 1998 and 2006 were 89.37%, 75.24% and 71.14%, respectively. The Kappa statistic was made for verifying the accuracy and trusty of land-use/cover maps. The Kappa values obtained were of 78.71%, 55.61% and 51.41% of accuracy for the 1990, 1998 and 2006, respectively. Monitoring of land-use/cover reflected changes were greater in extent over the span of 16 years in the land under different categories. During 16 years span period (1990-2006) about 1738.4 ha, 383.7 ha, 32.8 ha and 890.1 ha of rangelands were converted to forest, agriculture, water and settlement. Overall, because of conversion of other land covers in to rangeland, the total rangeland increased by 14.2% during 1990-2006. The rate of rangeland increment was approximately 1.77% per year.

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Rich rangeland 6094 38.5 8294 44.0 9762 42.2 Poor rangeland 9720 61.5 10545 56.0 13350 57.8 Total 15814 100 18839 100 23112 100

Satellite Remote Sensing enabled the generation of a detailed rangeland map and the separation of grazing intensity levels in rangelands can be generated with the relatively little effort in areas that are difficult to access. It is also presents a more realistic appraisal of livestock grazing pressure in the area and set a framework for future management plan. About 36.6% of Dehdez's area of rangeland showed mismanagement features and almost 26% was classified as intensively or overgrazed. Based on land-cover dynamic map, the area of rangelands is increased during the period of study, but because of the high pressure of human activity the quality of these rangelands seriously affected. Therefore, many changes have been occurred in the rangeland, because of over grazing. Certain factors are responsible for the changes are; human activities, domestic animals and ecological conditions. Still, human activity is the primary factor to affect the rangelands in this area. Animal husbandry is the factor of subsidiary kind as people cause a lot of consumption of grass and frequent pasturing by domestic animals. The rangelands got ruined by domestic animal, agricultural activities like deep plaguing and decreasing in the efficiency of soil in the area. The rangelands are exploited for medicinal plants as well as fuel and its wood quality, make cause for the demolition. This process produces further even more harmful conditions for the rangelands while quality of vegetation cover is reduced so much even for food and fodder. The damaging union of these factors is adversely affecting the ecological cycle in further. Natural rangelands are consequently changing into the agricultural and less natural vegetation cover. Quality of vegetation cover is decreased because of the unbalanced conditions like the unequal ratio of vegetation cover and animals. The lack of plant cover due to overgrazing causes soil erosion by water and wind. In conclusion, efforts should be made to prevent degradation and

1990 1998 2006 Area Area Area (ha) (%) (ha) (%) (ha) (%)

Year

**Table 1.** Area under different rangeland types in Dehdez area

deterioration of rangelands irrespective of scale and geographic location.

1995. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.

Mexico. Remote Sensing of Environment, 93, pp. 198-210.

[1] Asner, G. P., Elmore, A.G. Olander, L.P., Martin, R. E., and Harris, A. T. (2004). Grazing systems, ecosystem responses, and global change. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 29:261-

[2] Cook, F. M. (1999). The challenge of sustainable forests. Forest resources policy in Malaysia, 1970-

[3] Laliberte, A. S., Rango, A., Havstad, K. M., Paris, J. F., Beck, R. F. and McNeely, R. (2004). Objectoriented image analysis for mapping shrub encroachment from 1937 to 2003 in southern New

Rangeland type

**5. References**

299.

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**Figure 1.** Rangeland in Dehdez area: (a) 1990, (b) 1998 and (c) 2006 and comparison of respective extents of rangeland types by percentage in the area

There are two types of rangelands in Dehdez area viz., rich rangeland and poor rangeland. Spatial distribution revealed that the northern and some eastern parts of the area dominated by the rich rangelands (Fig. 1). The total rich rangelands in the area, accounts for 38.5%, 44% and 42.2% in 1990, 1998 and 2006, respectively (Table 1). Because of steep slops and inaccessibility of these areas the rangelands have suitable condition and more species diversity than the other parts. Spatial distribution shows that the poor rangelands were dominated in southern and eastern parts of the area (Fig. 1). The total poor rangeland in the area, accounts for 61.5%, 56% and 57.8% in 1990, 1998 and 2006, respectively (Table 1). These rangelands are used to be as pasture lands and most of them are degraded by the livestock overgrazing. People used to graze their livestock wherever the accessible poor rangelands they found. Basically, the poor rangelands close to the settlement seems under intensive grazing. High degradation is visible in the poor rangelands of the area and species that are better able to withstand grazing have crowded out original species in many areas.


**Table 1.** Area under different rangeland types in Dehdez area

Satellite Remote Sensing enabled the generation of a detailed rangeland map and the separation of grazing intensity levels in rangelands can be generated with the relatively little effort in areas that are difficult to access. It is also presents a more realistic appraisal of livestock grazing pressure in the area and set a framework for future management plan. About 36.6% of Dehdez's area of rangeland showed mismanagement features and almost 26% was classified as intensively or overgrazed. Based on land-cover dynamic map, the area of rangelands is increased during the period of study, but because of the high pressure of human activity the quality of these rangelands seriously affected. Therefore, many changes have been occurred in the rangeland, because of over grazing. Certain factors are responsible for the changes are; human activities, domestic animals and ecological conditions. Still, human activity is the primary factor to affect the rangelands in this area. Animal husbandry is the factor of subsidiary kind as people cause a lot of consumption of grass and frequent pasturing by domestic animals. The rangelands got ruined by domestic animal, agricultural activities like deep plaguing and decreasing in the efficiency of soil in the area. The rangelands are exploited for medicinal plants as well as fuel and its wood quality, make cause for the demolition. This process produces further even more harmful conditions for the rangelands while quality of vegetation cover is reduced so much even for food and fodder. The damaging union of these factors is adversely affecting the ecological cycle in further. Natural rangelands are consequently changing into the agricultural and less natural vegetation cover. Quality of vegetation cover is decreased because of the unbalanced conditions like the unequal ratio of vegetation cover and animals. The lack of plant cover due to overgrazing causes soil erosion by water and wind. In conclusion, efforts should be made to prevent degradation and deterioration of rangelands irrespective of scale and geographic location.

#### **5. References**


[4] Evans, J. and Geerken, R. (2006). Classifying rangeland vegetation type and coverage using a Fourier component based similarity measure.pdf. Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 105, 1, 1-8.

International Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)

,

**A Simple Method for Purification of Low Levels** 

The beluga sturgeon (*Huso huso*) is one of the most valuable commercial fish species in the Caspian Sea and has become highly endangered due to overfishing, loss of natural habitat and water pollution [2]. Vitellogein as a major beluga sturgeon yolk precursor, can be used as a suitable marker to monitor the contamination of the aquatic environments. In this study, we tried to compare some methods for purification of low levels of beluga vitellogenin. The efficiency of selective precipitation (EDTA-Mg+2), anion exchange chromatography and preparative electrophoresis in purification of low vitellogenin levels were compared. SDS electrophoresis analysis of the obtained fractions showed that DEAE-based chromatography and selective precipitation were unable to purify low levels of beluga vitellogenin. Preparative electrophoresis showed an appropriate result and low level of vitellogenin was purified efficiently by this method. These data suggest that preparative electrophoresis is a simple and efficient procedure for the purifica-

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are considered to be a major source of *pollutants* in the aquatic environments and may interfere with the endocrine system and produce adverse developmental, reproductive, neurological, and immune effects. Fish, because of their constant and direct exposure to EDCs present in the aquatic environment are the most affected by EDCs [4]. This long-life exposure can influence reproduction functions including reduced fertility in both male and female, reduced fecundity, change in mating behaviors, partial sex reversal and skewed population sex ratios [10]. Certainly in this case, beluga sturgeon because of long reproductive cycle is a susceptible specie in contaminated environments. So regarding to the above mentioned issues, study on the effects of the endocrine disruptors on the reproductive functions in such endangered species is necessary. Vitellogenin (Vtg) is a dimeric phosphoglycolipoprotein with high molecular weight and the major yolk precursor protein synthesized by the liver in response to circulating estrogen, released into the bloodstream and taken up by growing oocytes via receptor-mediated endocytosis, where it undergoes proteolytic cleavage to form yolk proteins [8].

**of Beluga (***Huso huso***) Vitellogenin**

**Keywords:** Beluga, vitellogenin, purification, endocrine disruptor

Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB), Tehran, Iran

, Mahvash Khodabandeh<sup>2</sup>

, Hamid Farahmand<sup>1</sup>

1 Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran 2 Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology Department, National Institute of Genetic

Mahdi Paktinat<sup>1</sup>

**Abstract**

Bagher Mojazi Amiri<sup>1</sup>

tion of low levels of beluga Vtg.

**1. Introduction**

© 2012 Paktinat et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

provided the original work is properly cited.

Turkey, September 10-12, 2012

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## **A Simple Method for Purification of Low Levels of Beluga (***Huso huso***) Vitellogenin**

Mahdi Paktinat<sup>1</sup> , Mahvash Khodabandeh<sup>2</sup> , Bagher Mojazi Amiri<sup>1</sup> , Hamid Farahmand<sup>1</sup>

1 Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran 2 Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology Department, National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB), Tehran, Iran

#### **Abstract**

The beluga sturgeon (*Huso huso*) is one of the most valuable commercial fish species in the Caspian Sea and has become highly endangered due to overfishing, loss of natural habitat and water pollution [2]. Vitellogein as a major beluga sturgeon yolk precursor, can be used as a suitable marker to monitor the contamination of the aquatic environments. In this study, we tried to compare some methods for purification of low levels of beluga vitellogenin. The efficiency of selective precipitation (EDTA-Mg+2), anion exchange chromatography and preparative electrophoresis in purification of low vitellogenin levels were compared. SDS electrophoresis analysis of the obtained fractions showed that DEAE-based chromatography and selective precipitation were unable to purify low levels of beluga vitellogenin. Preparative electrophoresis showed an appropriate result and low level of vitellogenin was purified efficiently by this method. These data suggest that preparative electrophoresis is a simple and efficient procedure for the purification of low levels of beluga Vtg.

**Keywords:** Beluga, vitellogenin, purification, endocrine disruptor

#### **1. Introduction**

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are considered to be a major source of *pollutants* in the aquatic environments and may interfere with the endocrine system and produce adverse developmental, reproductive, neurological, and immune effects. Fish, because of their constant and direct exposure to EDCs present in the aquatic environment are the most affected by EDCs [4]. This long-life exposure can influence reproduction functions including reduced fertility in both male and female, reduced fecundity, change in mating behaviors, partial sex reversal and skewed population sex ratios [10]. Certainly in this case, beluga sturgeon because of long reproductive cycle is a susceptible specie in contaminated environments. So regarding to the above mentioned issues, study on the effects of the endocrine disruptors on the reproductive functions in such endangered species is necessary. Vitellogenin (Vtg) is a dimeric phosphoglycolipoprotein with high molecular weight and the major yolk precursor protein synthesized by the liver in response to circulating estrogen, released into the bloodstream and taken up by growing oocytes via receptor-mediated endocytosis, where it undergoes proteolytic cleavage to form yolk proteins [8].

© 2012 Paktinat et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Vtg synthesis in normal conditions is confined to reproductive females, but it can be induced in either sex or every age by exposure to estrogens. Due to this trait, Vtg is a suitable marker to monitor the contamination of the aquatic environments with estrogenic compounds and often used as a biomarker of endocrine disruption in fish [1]. With regard to the significant importance of Vtg in screening and testing for endocrine disruption in fish, many studies have focused on the purification of this protein and then use of it as antigen in the production of antibody. So, setting up the appropriate methods for Vtg purification is important. Several purification methods such as ultracentrifugation, precipitation by dimethylformamide, selective precipitation using EDTA-Mg+2, ion exchange chromatography and gel filtration based on the physicochemical properties of Vtg have been developed [3]. Despite the efficiency of these methods in isolation of Vtg from most of the oviparous animals, some methods may be less efficient for purification of fish Vtg, due to high lipid content or less phosphorylation of fish Vtg [6]. Moreover, it's necessary to consider that Vtg obtained from various species respond to these methods differently. Therefore, optimization of Vtg purification methods is considered as an essential part of research about this protein. Accordingly, this study was designed to optimize the beluga Vtg purification methods and compare the performance of these methods for the purification of beluga Vtg.

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collected by centrifugation at 5000 rpm for 15 minutes at 4 °C and the supernatant was discarded. The obtained precipitate was re-dissolved in 1 ml of the buffer containing 1 M NaCl, 50 mM Tris-Cl and centrifuged at 13000 rpm for 30 minutes at 4 °C to remove any insoluble materials. The precipitate was discarded and supernatant fraction containing purified Vtg used for following assay. In order to determine the purity of Vtg, the obtained supernatant

Selective precipitated samples were dissolved in the 125 µl sample buffer containing SDS and β-mercaptoethanol and loaded on a preparative gel (5 % stacking gel over 7.5 % resolving gel) with high molecular weight marker and electrophoresed at 120 V. After electrophoresis, the section related to the marker was cut and bands were visualized with staining. After comparing the stained section with the main section, the Vtg and contiguous slices were excised from the gel and liquefied in a glass-glass tissue grinder in 3 ml of Tris-Cl 50 mM (pH: 7.5) and shook overnight to extract proteins from the gel slices. Obtained fractions were centrifuged at 5000 rpm (4 °C) for 20 minutes and the supernatant were evaluated for

SDS-PAGE performed with a 5% stacking gel and 7.5% separating gel according to Lämmli [5]. Gels were stained with 0.1% Coomassie Brilliant Blue G-250 for the visualization of proteins and the molecular mass of the individual protein bands was estimated using high molecular weight

The absorbance of the each purified sample was measured at 280 and 260 nm and the following

Anion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-Sepharose was carried out for the purification of beluga Vtg. Result presented in fig. 1.A show that this column *was not able* to separate Vtg from plasma proteins. Accordingly, we tried to optimize chromatography conditions to purify Vtg (e.g. binding and elution buffers concentration, pH and volume). Fig. 1.B *shows the best result* of anion-exchange chromatography. Eluted Fractions containing significant amounts of protein were evaluated for the presence of Vtg by denaturing gel electrophoresis (fig. 1.B). As shown in fig. 1.B this anion-exchanger resin was not able to purify low

tion was performed with adding 0.1 ml of 0.5 M MgCl2

was subjected to the SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

**2.4. Purification of Vtg using preparative electrophoresis**

**2.5. SDS-Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE)**

**2.6. Determination of Vtg concentration in purified samples**

Vtg concentration = (1.55 × O.D. 280 nm) – (0.76 × O.D. 260 nm)

**3.1. Purification of Vtg by anion-exchange chromatography**

equation was used for calculating the Vtg concentration in the purified samples.

the presence of Vtg by SDS-PAGE.

marker (Pharmacia Biotech, Piscataway, NJ).

**3. Results**

plasma Vtg levels.

Turkey, September 10-12, 2012

in this mixture. The precipitate was

<sup>67</sup> ISALS

## **2. Materials and methods**

#### **2.1. Plasma preparation**

Blood plasma was obtained from naturally vitellogenic females and males reared at the Rajaee Sturgeon Hatchery Center (Sari, Mazandaran, Iran). Blood samples were collected from the caudal vein of the anesthetized fish using heparinized tubes. Plasma was then separated by centrifugation at 4000 rpm (4 °C) for 10 minutes. Aprotinin (Sigma #A6279) was added to the plasma samples (20 µL, 0.2 TIU aprotinin/1000 µL plasma), and all samples were stored at -70 °C until assay.

#### **2.2. Purification of Vtg by DEAE-Sepharose, anion-exchanger resin**

Anion exchanger resin (DEAE Sepharose CL-6B, Pharmacia) packed into 10 × 1.2 cm column and purification carried out according to the procedure described by Shi et al. [11]. Briefly, 0.5 ml of plasma sample were diluted with equal volume of buffer A (Tris-Cl 20 mM, pH: 9.0, NaCl 0 M) and centrifuged at 13000 rpm (4 °C) for 15 min. The obtained supernatant was loaded on the column equilibrated with the buffer A. Purification was performed at the room temperature with a flow rate of 36 ml h-1. Unbound proteins were removed by an additional washing step with 2 column volumes of the buffer A. Bound proteins were eluted using a gradient of 0-0.8 M NaCl in 20 mM Tris-Cl (pH: 9.0), within 15 column volumes. Eluted fractions were collected at a volume of 4 ml and the elution profile was monitored at 280 nm. Fractions containing significant amounts of protein were evaluated for the presence of Vtg by SDS-PAGE.

## **2.3. Purification of Vtg by selective precipitation (EDTA-Mg+2)**

Vtg precipitated from the plasma samples by method of Wiley et al. with some modifications [13]. Briefly, 0.5 ml of plasma was mixed with 2 ml of 20 mM EDTA. Then, precipitation was performed with adding 0.1 ml of 0.5 M MgCl2 in this mixture. The precipitate was collected by centrifugation at 5000 rpm for 15 minutes at 4 °C and the supernatant was discarded. The obtained precipitate was re-dissolved in 1 ml of the buffer containing 1 M NaCl, 50 mM Tris-Cl and centrifuged at 13000 rpm for 30 minutes at 4 °C to remove any insoluble materials. The precipitate was discarded and supernatant fraction containing purified Vtg used for following assay. In order to determine the purity of Vtg, the obtained supernatant was subjected to the SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

## **2.4. Purification of Vtg using preparative electrophoresis**

Selective precipitated samples were dissolved in the 125 µl sample buffer containing SDS and β-mercaptoethanol and loaded on a preparative gel (5 % stacking gel over 7.5 % resolving gel) with high molecular weight marker and electrophoresed at 120 V. After electrophoresis, the section related to the marker was cut and bands were visualized with staining. After comparing the stained section with the main section, the Vtg and contiguous slices were excised from the gel and liquefied in a glass-glass tissue grinder in 3 ml of Tris-Cl 50 mM (pH: 7.5) and shook overnight to extract proteins from the gel slices. Obtained fractions were centrifuged at 5000 rpm (4 °C) for 20 minutes and the supernatant were evaluated for the presence of Vtg by SDS-PAGE.

## **2.5. SDS-Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE)**

SDS-PAGE performed with a 5% stacking gel and 7.5% separating gel according to Lämmli [5]. Gels were stained with 0.1% Coomassie Brilliant Blue G-250 for the visualization of proteins and the molecular mass of the individual protein bands was estimated using high molecular weight marker (Pharmacia Biotech, Piscataway, NJ).

## **2.6. Determination of Vtg concentration in purified samples**

The absorbance of the each purified sample was measured at 280 and 260 nm and the following equation was used for calculating the Vtg concentration in the purified samples.

Vtg concentration = (1.55 × O.D. 280 nm) – (0.76 × O.D. 260 nm)

## **3. Results**

## **3.1. Purification of Vtg by anion-exchange chromatography**

Anion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-Sepharose was carried out for the purification of beluga Vtg. Result presented in fig. 1.A show that this column *was not able* to separate Vtg from plasma proteins. Accordingly, we tried to optimize chromatography conditions to purify Vtg (e.g. binding and elution buffers concentration, pH and volume). Fig. 1.B *shows the best result* of anion-exchange chromatography. Eluted Fractions containing significant amounts of protein were evaluated for the presence of Vtg by denaturing gel electrophoresis (fig. 1.B). As shown in fig. 1.B this anion-exchanger resin was not able to purify low plasma Vtg levels.

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**Fig 2.** SDS-PAGE (7.5%) of male and female beluga Plasma. 1- beluga female plasma; 2- selective precipitated (EDTA-Mg+2) beluga female plasma; 3- High molecular weight markers; 4- selective precipitated

might be the main reseems of the current results.

(EDTA-Mg+2) beluga male plasma.

**4. Discussion**

of beluga Vtg.

Turkey, September 10-12, 2012

**Fig 3.** SDS PAGE (7.5%) of purified Vtg. 1- high molecular weight markers; 2- purified beluga Vtg.

In the current study we investigated the efficiency of the anion-exchange chromatography, selective precipitation and preparative electrophoresis for the purification of the low levels

The anion-exchange chromatography was the first method which used for the purification of beluga Vtg. *As represented in the results (fig. 1), DEAE based column was completel*y unable to purify low Vtg levels and modification of some operational features couldn't to change the results. Various chromatographic methods have been used for the isolation of the fish Vtg [7] and some have used DEAE-Sepharose for purification of fish Vtg [9]. Low levels of Vtg in loading samples and low performance of DEAE-Sepharose for isolation of this levels of Vtg may be the *main reasons* why this column was *not* very *effective* in purification of beluga Vtg. As presented in fig. 2, selective precipitation was caused to the significant precipitation of the plasma Vtg. But structural similarity between Vtg and albumin in calcium binding properties was caused to the precipitation of the plasma albumin. Wiley H. S. [13] applied the selective precipitation procedure for purification of Xenopus laevis Vtg. Low plasma Vtg levels and less phosphorylation of fish Vtg

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**Fig 1.** A: Elution profiles of plasma proteins from vitellogenic beluga on a DEAE-Sepharose chromatography column. Proteins bound to the column were eluted with a gradient of 0-0.8 M of NaCl in 20 mM Tris–HCl buffer. B: SDS-PAGE analysis of elution peak fractions in 7.5% reducing gel stained with coomassie brilliant blue. Lanes 1- molecular weight markers; 2- vitellogenic beluga plasma sample; lanes 3-12 are different elution fractions [24-42] from the column.

#### **3.2. Purification of Vtg by selective precipitation (EDTA-Mg+2)**

We observed that the addition of bivalent cations to plasma samples containing Vtg in the presence of EDTA was caused in the precipitation of the plasma Vtg (Fig. 2). The *SDS-PAGE results show* that Vtg has a molecular weight of about 200 kDa. A visible impurity of albumin with a molecular weight of approximately 75 kDa was present. Therefore, presence of impurities in the purified samples represents the inefficiency of this method for the purification of beluga Vtg. Nevertheless, this method could be a suitable way to identify Vtg among the plasma proteins.

#### **3.3. Purification of Vtg by preparative electrophoresis**

After termination of the preparative gel electrophoresis, slices related Vtg were excised from the gel. Proteins were extracted from the gel slices and electrophoresed for evaluating of the Vtg presence. As shown in fig. 3, purified Vtg was appeared as single major band of 200 kDa, along with some minor bands with lower apparent mass (fig. 3). It seems to be the degraded products of Vtg. With respect to protein patterns obtained from SDS-PAGE, this method has considerable ability in the purification of the beluga Vtg. To validate this method, we determined the concentration of protein in the purified sample that contained the appropriate levels of Vtg (232 µg/ml).

**Fig 2.** SDS-PAGE (7.5%) of male and female beluga Plasma. 1- beluga female plasma; 2- selective precipitated (EDTA-Mg+2) beluga female plasma; 3- High molecular weight markers; 4- selective precipitated (EDTA-Mg+2) beluga male plasma.

**Fig 3.** SDS PAGE (7.5%) of purified Vtg. 1- high molecular weight markers; 2- purified beluga Vtg.

#### **4. Discussion**

In the current study we investigated the efficiency of the anion-exchange chromatography, selective precipitation and preparative electrophoresis for the purification of the low levels of beluga Vtg.

The anion-exchange chromatography was the first method which used for the purification of beluga Vtg. *As represented in the results (fig. 1), DEAE based column was completel*y unable to purify low Vtg levels and modification of some operational features couldn't to change the results. Various chromatographic methods have been used for the isolation of the fish Vtg [7] and some have used DEAE-Sepharose for purification of fish Vtg [9]. Low levels of Vtg in loading samples and low performance of DEAE-Sepharose for isolation of this levels of Vtg may be the *main reasons* why this column was *not* very *effective* in purification of beluga Vtg. As presented in fig. 2, selective precipitation was caused to the significant precipitation of the plasma Vtg. But structural similarity between Vtg and albumin in calcium binding properties was caused to the precipitation of the plasma albumin. Wiley H. S. [13] applied the selective precipitation procedure for purification of Xenopus laevis Vtg. Low plasma Vtg levels and less phosphorylation of fish Vtg might be the main reseems of the current results.

This method is specific for calcium binding proteins such as Vtg that carries the large amounts of the calcium ions. So, applying this method to the male and female plasma can help with the identification of Vtg.

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[7] Maltais, D. and R.L. Roy., 2009. Purification and partial characterization of vitellogenin from shorthead redhorse (Moxostoma macrolepidotum) and copper redhorse (Moxostoma hubbsi) and detection in plasma and mucus with a heterologous antibody. Fish Physiol. Biochem. 35,

[8] Mommsen, T.P., Walsh, P.J., 1988. Vitellogenesis and oocyte assembly. In: Hoar, W.S., Randall, D.J.

[9] Mosconi, G.O., Carnevali, R., Carletta, M., Nabissi and A.M. Polzonetti-Magni., 1998. Gilthead Seabream (Sparus aurata) vitellogenin: Purification, partial characterization and validation of an

[10] Purdom, C.E., Hardiman, P.A., Bye, V.J., Eno, N.C., Tyler, C., AND Sumpter, J.P., 1994. Estrogenic effects of effluent from sewage treatment works. Chemistry and Ecology. 8, 275-285.

[11] Shi, G.Q., Shao, J., Jiang, G.B., Wang, Q.X., Lu, Y.Q., Liu, J.F., Liu, J.M., 2003. Membrane chromatographic method for the rapid purification of vitellogenin from fish plasma. J.

[12] Watts, M., Pankhurst, N.W., Pryce, A., Sun, B., 2003. Vitellogenin isolation, purification and antigenic cross-reactivity in three teleost species. Comp. Biochem. Physiol., B. 134, 467-476. [13] Wiley, H.S., Opresko, L., Wallace, R.A., 1978. New Methods for the Purification of Vertebrate

enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Gen. Comp. Endocrinol. 110, 252-261.

(eds) Fish physiology, vol XIA. Academic Press, San Diego, p: 347.

241-254.

Chromatogr., B. 785: 361-368.

Vitellogenin. Analytical Biochemistry. 97, 145-152.

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Purification of beluga Vtg using preparative electrophoresis was the last procedure which was used in this study. According to our results (fig. 3), preparative electrophoresis was an appropriate procedure for purification of beluga Vtg. In this procedure, selective precipitation (EDTA-Mg+2 ) showed good efficiency with regard to the precipitation of Vtg from beluga plasma samples, helping to acquire highly pure Vtg from the preparative electrophoresis. Inoculation of Vtg prepared from preparative electrophoresis has some advantages and disadvantages. Disadvantages of this procedure are partial degradation and the loss of secondary and tertiary structures of Vtg [12]. On the other hand, the Vtg purification method that has been developed in this study has clear advantages with regard to speed, low cost and simplicity when compared to current purification methods.

In conclusion, the efficiency of chromatographic methods are depend on the using of an appropriate resin that can be costly. In addition, they presented a disadvantage of being time consuming and generally are inefficient for the purification of low levels of plasma Vtg. So, such procedures need to stimulate of the Vtg production by an estrogen treatment. Selective precipitation of Vtg needs to the very high concentrations of plasma Vtg and essentially is efficient in purification of Vtg with high contents of the phosphate groups. Finally, preparative electrophoresis is a suitable method for the purification of the low levels of fish Vtg, especially when combined with selective precipitation (EDTA-Mg+2). However, the loss of native structure of Vtg is the main disadvantage of this method.

#### **5. References**


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**Evaluation of the Effects of Climate** 

and S. Poormohammadi

**Evapotranspiration in Iran**

Faculty of Natural Resources, Yazd University, Iran

used scenarios and the selected time periods.

M.T. Dastorani\*

**1. Introduction**

**Abstract**

\*Corresponding author

**Change on Temperature, Precipitation and** 

The purpose of this research is a comprehensive evaluation of climate change effects on temperature, precipitation and evapotranspiration over the country of Iran in next time periods of 2010-2039, 2040-2069 and 2070-2099, and under scenarios of A2 and B2. After preparation of measured temperature and precipitation data and calculation of evapotranspiration for the base time period of 1960- 1990 in 46 meteorological stations (with a nationwide distribution), it was tried to have initial zoning of these three parameters over the country. Then after receiving of maximum and minimum temperature and the values of precipitation from HadCM3 model under scenarios A2 and B2 for the mentioned next three time periods, these data were downscaled. By evaluation of uncertainties, most critical parts of the country that would be affected by climate change were specified. Results show that the highest increase in temperature occurs in west parts of the country, but the highest increase of evapotranspiration belongs to central regions of Iran. However, variation of precipitation is different in different parts of the country depending on the

**Keywords:** Climate Change, Iran, Precipitation, Temperature, Evapotranspiration.

the space. This causes to rise the earth's temperature, gradually (Takara et al., 2009)

The climate change phenomenon is caused by greenhouse gasses, which affect the greenhouse properties of the earth's atmosphere. Emissions of greenhouse gasses have been increased since industrialization in the 1900s, due to increasing in fossil fuel burning. These gasses allow solar radiation to travel from the sun to the ground but prevent the reflected heat from the surface into

It is expected that climate change would strongly affect the hydrologic cycle of water in future decades (Gedney et al, 2006, Milly et al, 2005). It will also have significant impacts on the availability, as well as the quality and quantity of water. Among the climatic variables, precipitation (P) and evapotranspiration (ET) have the great importance in long term changes of water resources (Piao et al, 2006). In this regard, many researchers predicted that climate change accelerates water cycles with more ET and increased precipitation (Betts et al, 2007, Oki and Kanae, 2006). But increased precipitation does not necessarily lead to sustainable water resources because less frequent but heavier precipitation may lead to extremely flood or drought occurrence (Andreadis

> © 2012 Dastorani and Poormohammadi.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Turkey, September 10-12, 2012

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## **Evaluation of the Effects of Climate Change on Temperature, Precipitation and Evapotranspiration in Iran**

M.T. Dastorani\* and S. Poormohammadi

Faculty of Natural Resources, Yazd University, Iran \*Corresponding author

#### **Abstract**

The purpose of this research is a comprehensive evaluation of climate change effects on temperature, precipitation and evapotranspiration over the country of Iran in next time periods of 2010-2039, 2040-2069 and 2070-2099, and under scenarios of A2 and B2. After preparation of measured temperature and precipitation data and calculation of evapotranspiration for the base time period of 1960- 1990 in 46 meteorological stations (with a nationwide distribution), it was tried to have initial zoning of these three parameters over the country. Then after receiving of maximum and minimum temperature and the values of precipitation from HadCM3 model under scenarios A2 and B2 for the mentioned next three time periods, these data were downscaled. By evaluation of uncertainties, most critical parts of the country that would be affected by climate change were specified. Results show that the highest increase in temperature occurs in west parts of the country, but the highest increase of evapotranspiration belongs to central regions of Iran. However, variation of precipitation is different in different parts of the country depending on the used scenarios and the selected time periods.

**Keywords:** Climate Change, Iran, Precipitation, Temperature, Evapotranspiration.

#### **1. Introduction**

The climate change phenomenon is caused by greenhouse gasses, which affect the greenhouse properties of the earth's atmosphere. Emissions of greenhouse gasses have been increased since industrialization in the 1900s, due to increasing in fossil fuel burning. These gasses allow solar radiation to travel from the sun to the ground but prevent the reflected heat from the surface into the space. This causes to rise the earth's temperature, gradually (Takara et al., 2009)

It is expected that climate change would strongly affect the hydrologic cycle of water in future decades (Gedney et al, 2006, Milly et al, 2005). It will also have significant impacts on the availability, as well as the quality and quantity of water. Among the climatic variables, precipitation (P) and evapotranspiration (ET) have the great importance in long term changes of water resources (Piao et al, 2006). In this regard, many researchers predicted that climate change accelerates water cycles with more ET and increased precipitation (Betts et al, 2007, Oki and Kanae, 2006). But increased precipitation does not necessarily lead to sustainable water resources because less frequent but heavier precipitation may lead to extremely flood or drought occurrence (Andreadis

© 2012 Dastorani and Poormohammadi.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

and Lettenmaier, 2006). Therefore, it should be emphasized that to monitor and assess the impact of climate change on drought occurrence, ET and P should be considered together as two major climatic variables. Kirono et al. (2011) study is an example of RDI application for characterization of Australian droughts under enhanced greenhouse conditions. In their study, RDI was applied to simulate climate variables from 14 GCMs performed for the IPCC 4th assessment report. The results showed a general increase in drought areal extent and frequency for most regions of the country. Karamouz et al.(2009) simulated the flood flow under climate change phenomenon using GCM models in Kajoo river basin located in arid and semi-arid region of south-east Iran.

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26.58 54.83 81 26.1 Tehran 35.68 51.32 226 16.65

Bam 29.10 58.40 67 22.3 Tabas 33.60 56.90 74 21.05 Bandarabbas 27.22 56.37 139 27.4 Tabriz 38.08 46.28 222 11.85

Birjand 32.87 59.20 161 16.95 Torbat- Hey. 35.27 59.22 237 14.45 Bushehr 28.98 50.83 256 24.25 Varamin 35.35 51.68 156 16.5 Chabahar 25.42 60.75 87 26.1 Yazd 31.90 54.40 57 18.85 Dezful 32.40 48.38 366 24.35 Zabol 31.33 61.48 54 21.75 Esfahan 32.62 51.07 110 15.8 Zahedan 29.47 60.88 108 18.25 Fasa 28.97 53.68 219 19.25 Zanjan 36.23 48.48 320 11.45 Garmsar 35.25 52.17 100 17.55 Khoramabad 33.50 48.30 516 17.95 Ghazvin 36.25 50.00 285 14.5 Khoy 38.55 44.97 269 12.5 Gorgan 36.82 54.47 655 17.8 Mashhad 36.27 59.63 239 13.6 Iranshahr 27.20 60.70 81 26.6 Nowjeh 35.20 48.72 343 11.5 Jask 25.63 57.77 152 26.7 Orumiyeh 37.53 45.08 367 12.3 Kashafrud 35.98 60.83 284 17.15 Ramsar 36.90 50.67 1234 15.9 Kashan 33.98 51.45 134 19.5 Rasht 37.25 49.60 1278 15.6 Kerman 30.25 56.97 164 15.9 Sabzevar 36.22 57.67 155 16.5

**Station Lat. Long. P** 

**Table 1.** Main properties of stations used in this research

In this study three main sources of data were used which are as follows:

Third Assessment Report (TAR) based on the IPCC-SRES scenario of A2.

4- Calculated evapotranspiration for each time period using Tmin and Tmax.

and P), 2070 to 2099 (Tmin, Tmax and P), based on scenario of B2**.** 

1-Historical daily temperature and precipitation data of the selected meteorological stations from

2-Projected monthly data of HadCM3 for projected period of 2010 to 2039 (Tmin, Tmax and P), 2040- 2069 (Tmin, Tmax and P), 2070-2099 (Tmin, Tmax and P) that were resulted from GCM-runs for the

3-Projected monthly data of HadCM3 from 2010 to 2039 (Tmin, Tmax and P), 2040 to 2069 (Tmin, Tmax

Figure 1 illustrates the procedure for study the impact of climate change on temperature, Precipitation and Evapotranspiration in this research. After downscaling of the temperature and

**2.2. Methodology**

1961 to 1990 (Tmin, Tmax and P).

Bandarlengeh

**(mm)**

Turkey, September 10-12, 2012

**T (ºC) Station Lat. Long. P(mm) T (ºC)**

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The purpose of present research is the evaluation and mapping of the impacts of climate change on the parameters of precipitation, temperature and evapotranspiration in Iran under the scenaries of A2 and B2 for the periods of 2010-2039, 2040-2069 and 2070-2099. Awareness about the type and the amount of the impacts would help the authorities and planners to take more optimized and effective management strategies on water resources to cope with the expected condition.

## **2. Materials and methods**

#### **2.1. Study area**

The study area of the research is the country of Iran. Climate condition varies considerably over the country especially from north to the south. In a narrow strip in north of Iran annual precipitation is over 1000 mm and in some parts of it reachs over 1700 mm covered by dense forests. However the most parts of Iran especially central and south east regions are very warm hypper arid areas with less than 100 mm annual precipitation and over 3500 mm potential evapotranspiration. This considerable variations in climate condition causes wide range of biodiversity in animal and plant communities. In this study it was tried to use data from different parts of Iran to cover these variations.

Table 1 presents general information of 46 meteorological stations used in this research. As it is seen from the table, the highest mean annual precipitation belongs to Anzali station with 1780 mm, while Zabol station recievs only 54 mm per year as the lowest value through the selected sites. The warmest site is Bandarabbas with annual average temperature of 27.4 ºC while the value of this parameter is Saghez as the coldest site in northwest is 11.5 ºC.



**Table 1.** Main properties of stations used in this research

#### **2.2. Methodology**

In this study three main sources of data were used which are as follows:

1-Historical daily temperature and precipitation data of the selected meteorological stations from 1961 to 1990 (Tmin, Tmax and P).

2-Projected monthly data of HadCM3 for projected period of 2010 to 2039 (Tmin, Tmax and P), 2040- 2069 (Tmin, Tmax and P), 2070-2099 (Tmin, Tmax and P) that were resulted from GCM-runs for the Third Assessment Report (TAR) based on the IPCC-SRES scenario of A2.

3-Projected monthly data of HadCM3 from 2010 to 2039 (Tmin, Tmax and P), 2040 to 2069 (Tmin, Tmax and P), 2070 to 2099 (Tmin, Tmax and P), based on scenario of B2**.** 

4- Calculated evapotranspiration for each time period using Tmin and Tmax.

Figure 1 illustrates the procedure for study the impact of climate change on temperature, Precipitation and Evapotranspiration in this research. After downscaling of the temperature and precipitation data for three time periods of 2010-2039, 2040-2069 and 2070-2099 in all selected sites, the values of reference evaporanspiration were calculated for the base time period as well as the mentioned future time periods. Then the nationwide maps of mean temperature, precipitation and the evapotranspiration of the mentioned future time periods were prepared. Based on these maps the effects of climate change phenomenon on the studied parameters (T,P and ETO) has been analysed.

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the type of compatible species and growing period for crops especially in rainfed farming. Results also show that under both scenarios highest decrease in precipitation amount occurs in west and northwest parts of the country. Therefore, according to the results of this research, west and northwest parts of Iran will be affected by precipitation decrease and water scarcity in time period of 2010-2039. This necessitates specific planning and management of water resources for

**Figure 2.** Maps of evapotranspiration values in base and the future time periods under scenario A2.

**A)** Base time evapotranspiration **B)** A2 Scenario (2010-2039)

**C)** A2 Scenario (2040-2069) **D)** A2 Scenario (2070-2099)

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**Figure 1.** Proposed methodology for study of climate change impacts on temperature, precipitation and evapotranspiration in this research.

#### **3. Results and discussion**

**Scenario A2:** As a sample, figure 2 shows the maps of evapotranspiration rate of Iran in the base time period of 1961-1990 and the next periods of 2010-2039, 2040-2069 and 2070-2099 under the scenario A2. It must be mentioned that several maps for studied parameters including temperature, precipitation and evapotranspiration unber both scenarios were prepared and interpreted, which is not possible to show here due to page limitationjh.Comparing the map 11-B and 11-A, it is understood that evaporanspiration increased in all time periods of 2010-2039 2040-2069 and 2070-2099 and almost in all stations.

Results show that under scenario A2, stations located in north parts of Iran would experience the highest increase of precipitation. However, under scenario B2 Bushehr and other stations located in south coast show the highest increase in precipitation during next decades. Therefore, north and south coasts are the regions experiencing highest increase in precipitation under both scenarios and therefore, management of water resulted from extra precipitation in agriculture, natural resources, storage and hydropower plants are important. In the other hand, increase in precipitation in these regions would increase the risk of flooding, soil erosion as well as land slides that needs affective management and planning strategies. In this regard investigation on seasonal variation of precipitation is of importance, as seasonal variation of precipitation affects

**Figure 2.** Maps of evapotranspiration values in base and the future time periods under scenario A2.

the type of compatible species and growing period for crops especially in rainfed farming. Results also show that under both scenarios highest decrease in precipitation amount occurs in west and northwest parts of the country. Therefore, according to the results of this research, west and northwest parts of Iran will be affected by precipitation decrease and water scarcity in time period of 2010-2039. This necessitates specific planning and management of water resources for these regions to overcome the problem of water shortage especially in drought periods when water availability would be more limited due to climate change effects. West and northwest regions of Iran are the main parts of the country for rainfed agriculture (especially for rainfed wheat production) which will be considerably affected by precipitation decrease caused by climate change. Estimation and analysis of seasonal variation of precipitation under climate change scenarios is of importance for sustainable agricultural planning in these parts of the country. Results also show that under both scenarios, in 2010-2039 the highest increase of temperature would be occur in west half of the country, where is mostly mountainous and cold. Temperature increase in these regions will considerably affect agricultural and natural resources, and due to population density that are mostly dependent on agricultural activities in this regions, the effects of climate change on precipitation decrease and temperature increase (in 2010-2039) on people life cannot be ignored.

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[1] Andreadis K. M. and D. P. Lettenmaier, 2006, Trends in 20th century drought over the continental

[2] Betts R. A., O. Boucher, M. Collins, P.M. Cox, P.D. Falloon, N. Gedney, D. L. Hemming, C. Huntingford, C. D. Jones, D. M. H. Sexton, and M. J. Webb, 2007, Projected increase in continental runoff due to plant responses to increasing carbon dioxide, Nature, Vol.448, pp. 1037-1041 [3] Gedney N., P. M. Cox, R. A. Betts, O. Boucher, C. Huntingford, and P. A. Stott, 2006, Detection of a direct carbon dioxide effect in continental river runoff records, Nature, 439, pp. 835-838. [4] Karamouz M., M. Fallahi, S. Nazif and A. Ahmadi, 2009, Long lead flood simulation using downscaled GCM data in arid and semi-arid regions: A case study, Journal of Desert, V. 14 No. 2.

[5] Kirono D. G. C., D.M. Kent, K.J. Hennessy, F. Mpelasoka, 2011, Characteristics of Australian droughts under enhanced greenhouse conditions: Results from 14 global climate models,

[6] Milly P.C.D., K.A. Dunne, and A.V. Vecchia, 2005, Global pattern of trends in streamflow and

[7] Oki T. and S. Kanae, 2006, Global hydrological cycles and world water resources, Science, Vol.313,

[8] Piao S., P. Friedlingstein, P. Ciais, N. de Noblet-Ducoudre, D. Labat, and S. Zaehle, 2006, Changes in climate and land use have a larger direct impact than rising CO2 on global river runoff trends,

[9] Takara K., S. Kim, Y. Tachikawa and E. Nakakita, 2009, Assessing Climate Change Impact on Water resources in the Tone River Basin, Japan, Using Super-High-resolution Atmospheric

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol.104, No.39, pp. 15242-15247

United States, Geophysical Research Letters, Vol.33, L10403

Journal of Arid Environments 75 (2011), pp. 566-575.

Model Output, Journal of Disaster Research, Vol.4, No.1.

water availability in a changing climate, Nature, 438, pp. 347-350.

**5. References**

pp. 1068-1072.

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#### **4. Conclusions**

Climate change modeling is usually with many uncertainties. As was seen in this research, the results of model for three parameters of temperature, precipitation and evapotranspiration under two scenarios of A2 and B2 were different in different areas over the Iran. The extreme values produced by scenarios A2 were higher than those of B2. Although in all stations, and for all three time periods of 2010-2039, 2040-2069 and 2070-2099 under both scenarios, temperature is increasing but the rate of increase under scenario A2 is higher than B2. Evapotranspiration is another parameter that is increasing in all three studied time periods under both scenaeios and in all stations (except few stations in time period 2010-2039), but the rate of increase under scenario A2 is again higher than scenario B2. Therefore, it can be said that duing next decades and under both scenarios, temperature and evapotranspiration are increased, and this increase is internsified from 2010-2039 toward 2070-2099. This condition will limit water availability and increase the demand for water in different sectors. However, about precipitation, the results do not follow a clear asending or desending trend like what was seen about temperature and evapotranspiration. For example, under both scenarios in time period of 2010-2039, some stations show increase but in some other decrease in precipitation occurs. From 2010-2039 toward 2070-2099 more stations show decrease in precipitation, and in 2070-2099 except few of them, in all other stations decrease of precipitation will occur comparing to the base time period. Variation of precipitation under scenario A2 is hgher than B2. Athough results produced under scenarios A2 and B2 are different but the general trends for all three parameters of temperature, precipitation and evapotranspiration for both scenarios are almost the same. This indicates that Iran will be strongly affected by global warming and climate change during next decades. As the main parts of Iran are hyper arid, arid and semi-arid regions, water shortage is even now a big problem against social and economical development. Mean annual precipitation over the country is about 250 mm where mean annual potential evapotranspiration is over 2100mm, showing high sensitivity of the state to water related problems. Climate change will definitly intensify this condition over next decades. Therefore, to be able able to cope with the next expected hard condition, more research as well as efficient management and planning strategies are required especially for risky zones where the higher effects are expected to take place.

## **5. References**


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**Artificial Neural Networks: A Non-Linear Tool** 

, Farhad Nejadkoorki

Environmental problems including air pollution have increased in recent years. Due to the complexity and nonlinear nature of these phenomena and problems, this paper was prepared to explore the application of Artificial Neural Networks as a nonlinear model effective to tackle these problems. This paper applied main neural networks to atmospheric science, creation process, examples, limitations and advantages. Advantages of the model are its effective capacity to relate underlying relations between input and output variables and high tolerance to errors of input variables. Some disadvantages are that the model's success is dependent on both the quality and

Artificial neural networks, as a branch of artificial intelligence, can model highly non-liner functions. Neural networks have been shown to be an effective alternative to more traditional techniques of statistical analysis when the complexity of a problem increases and theoretical understanding decreases. Neural networks approximate highly non-linear functions between input features and output features and require no prior knowledge of the nature of that relationship [1]. The basic element of a neural network is the neuron; several neurons are organized into layers; input, hidden and output. Each neuron has a simple structure that mimics the functionality of neurons found in a human brain. All connections between neurons are weighted and these interconnections are the basic parameters of a model and due to the difference between the target and the model output, they are adjusted during the learning or training process. Artificial neural networks can be divided into several groups according to their topology. Multilayer perceptron artificial Neural Network (MPNN) and Kohonen neural network (KNN) are the main artificial

**for Air Quality Modeling and Monitoring**

\*Corresponding author, Tel.: +989171027763, Email: a.s.banankhah@gmail.com

**Keywords:** Artificial neural networks, air quality, predict, unique approach

Department of Environmental Engineering, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

Amirsasha Bnanankhah\*

**Abstract**

quantity of data.

**1. Introduction**

**Figure 1.** Tipical ANN structure

© 2012 Bnanankhah et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

provided the original work is properly cited.

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## **Artificial Neural Networks: A Non-Linear Tool for Air Quality Modeling and Monitoring**

Amirsasha Bnanankhah\* , Farhad Nejadkoorki

Department of Environmental Engineering, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran \*Corresponding author, Tel.: +989171027763, Email: a.s.banankhah@gmail.com

#### **Abstract**

Environmental problems including air pollution have increased in recent years. Due to the complexity and nonlinear nature of these phenomena and problems, this paper was prepared to explore the application of Artificial Neural Networks as a nonlinear model effective to tackle these problems. This paper applied main neural networks to atmospheric science, creation process, examples, limitations and advantages. Advantages of the model are its effective capacity to relate underlying relations between input and output variables and high tolerance to errors of input variables. Some disadvantages are that the model's success is dependent on both the quality and quantity of data.

**Keywords:** Artificial neural networks, air quality, predict, unique approach

## **1. Introduction**

Artificial neural networks, as a branch of artificial intelligence, can model highly non-liner functions. Neural networks have been shown to be an effective alternative to more traditional techniques of statistical analysis when the complexity of a problem increases and theoretical understanding decreases. Neural networks approximate highly non-linear functions between input features and output features and require no prior knowledge of the nature of that relationship [1]. The basic element of a neural network is the neuron; several neurons are organized into layers; input, hidden and output. Each neuron has a simple structure that mimics the functionality of neurons found in a human brain. All connections between neurons are weighted and these interconnections are the basic parameters of a model and due to the difference between the target and the model output, they are adjusted during the learning or training process. Artificial neural networks can be divided into several groups according to their topology. Multilayer perceptron artificial Neural Network (MPNN) and Kohonen neural network (KNN) are the main artificial

#### **Figure 1.** Tipical ANN structure

© 2012 Bnanankhah et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

neural networks that can cover a huge variety of air pollution and meteorological modeling applications [8].

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better performance of the model is achieved. Then the training and testing process is carried out periodically on the testing set and the training algorithm is used to determine the model's interconnection weights for the best results on the optimization and testing set. Finally when the model is trained it is validated by the production set to determine the expected error in further on line use. Feature determination and pattern selection are therefore the most crucial steps in a model's construction and usually determine a model's ability [8].

**4. Examples of studies by artificial neural networks in the field of atmo-**

**4.1. Application of backpropagation neural network in predicting emissions from** 

In Malaysia, the palm oil industry is one of the major main industries and it occupies a large sector of the country's economy. The industry produces air pollution from emissions that can contribute to health problems in nearby communities especially when fuels are mixed disproportionately. It is therefore necessary to reduce air polluting emissions either by using air pollutant removing devices or by improving the combustion efficiency of boilers used in the industry by detecting effective parameters to emission pollutants. Input variables were fiber flow, shell flow, steam capacity, feed water, steam pressure, power output, main pressure, flue gas temperature and output variables were carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and particulate matters. Finally the trained data by NN agrees well with the measured data almost within 8 %

**4.2. Forecasting extreme PM10 concentrations using artificial neural networks**

Particulate matter has a major effect on public health because of air pollution, this has been a major concern in Tehran for recent years and the city has been suffering from PM10 :. an artificial neural network was used to forecast estimates for maximum PM10 concentrations 24 hour ahead in Tehran from meteorological and gaseous pollutants. Input features were date, day of week, month of year, mean of solar radiation, mean and max temperatures, mean wind direction and speed, mean CO, mean NO and mean and max of PM10 from the day before and mean solar radiation, mean temperature, mean wind direction, and mean of wind speed for the next day. Results showed that forecasting PM10 was promising with an index of agreement of up to 83%[5] .

**4.3. Measurement and prediction of ozone levels around a heavy industrialized** 

It is well known that ozone is formed from the complex chemical interaction of primary pollutants and a presence of solar radiation. Therefore a neural network was applied to forecast ozone levels near an industrial area in Kuwait. The inputs to the network were wind speed and direction, relative humidity, temperature, solar intensity and concentrations of methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, non-methane hydrocarbons and dust. It was found that those precursors having the most effect on predicted ozone concentrations and temperature played an important role. In addition neural networks

**spheric science**

**a palm oil mill** 

error for emission pollutants [4].

**area: a neural network approach**

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## **2. Multilayer perceptron And Kohonen neural networks**

A multilayer perceptron consists of a system of simple interconnected neurons. A multilayer perceptron is able to learn during the training process. Training requires a set of training data, which consists of a series of input and associated output features. There are many algorithms that can be used to train a multilayer perceptron. The back propagation algorithm is the most computationally straightforward algorithm for training this network. When a network is trained with suitably representative training data, the multilayer perceptron can generalize to new, unseen input data. Therefore it has three main applications in atmospheric and meteorological sciences; prediction, function approximation and pattern classification.


Kohonen neural network (KNN) significantly differs from multilayer perceptron and the main purpose of KNN is to sort multivariable patterns into groups of similar patterns. It is important that the grouping criteria need not be known, therefore this is unsupervised learning. So the kohonen neural network is a very practical and effective tool to establish groups of similar patterns in data sets [8].

## **3. Model creation process**

The first stage is feature determination in order to define a model's domain. It is done to enable incorporation of all the important information; to simplify multilayer perceptron and therefore achieve more effective learning and to reduce the number of learning patterns needed. Then, the database of measurements is divided into several sets for construction of the model. The model includes a training set that is used to adjust the interconnection weights of the multilayer perceptron neural networks: a testing set that is used to periodically during the learning process to test a model's generalizing capacity and its is optimization during learning; a production set that is used for model verification to determine expected error, when the model has been trained; it can be used on patterns with unknown output values. This set of patterns is the on line set. In the next step, pattern selection can be used to sort patterns into groups to show which ones are the more important. These patterns contain all the information about the studied phenomenon. Network topology determination is another step; whereby numbers of neurons in the input, hidden, and output layers are determined and it is from the number of features and number of patterns that better performance of the model is achieved. Then the training and testing process is carried out periodically on the testing set and the training algorithm is used to determine the model's interconnection weights for the best results on the optimization and testing set. Finally when the model is trained it is validated by the production set to determine the expected error in further on line use. Feature determination and pattern selection are therefore the most crucial steps in a model's construction and usually determine a model's ability [8].

#### **4. Examples of studies by artificial neural networks in the field of atmospheric science**

#### **4.1. Application of backpropagation neural network in predicting emissions from a palm oil mill**

In Malaysia, the palm oil industry is one of the major main industries and it occupies a large sector of the country's economy. The industry produces air pollution from emissions that can contribute to health problems in nearby communities especially when fuels are mixed disproportionately. It is therefore necessary to reduce air polluting emissions either by using air pollutant removing devices or by improving the combustion efficiency of boilers used in the industry by detecting effective parameters to emission pollutants. Input variables were fiber flow, shell flow, steam capacity, feed water, steam pressure, power output, main pressure, flue gas temperature and output variables were carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and particulate matters. Finally the trained data by NN agrees well with the measured data almost within 8 % error for emission pollutants [4].

## **4.2. Forecasting extreme PM10 concentrations using artificial neural networks**

Particulate matter has a major effect on public health because of air pollution, this has been a major concern in Tehran for recent years and the city has been suffering from PM10 :. an artificial neural network was used to forecast estimates for maximum PM10 concentrations 24 hour ahead in Tehran from meteorological and gaseous pollutants. Input features were date, day of week, month of year, mean of solar radiation, mean and max temperatures, mean wind direction and speed, mean CO, mean NO and mean and max of PM10 from the day before and mean solar radiation, mean temperature, mean wind direction, and mean of wind speed for the next day. Results showed that forecasting PM10 was promising with an index of agreement of up to 83%[5] .

#### **4.3. Measurement and prediction of ozone levels around a heavy industrialized area: a neural network approach**

It is well known that ozone is formed from the complex chemical interaction of primary pollutants and a presence of solar radiation. Therefore a neural network was applied to forecast ozone levels near an industrial area in Kuwait. The inputs to the network were wind speed and direction, relative humidity, temperature, solar intensity and concentrations of methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, non-methane hydrocarbons and dust. It was found that those precursors having the most effect on predicted ozone concentrations and temperature played an important role. In addition neural networks were compared against linear and non-linear regression models and it was found that the neural network model provided superior predictions [6].

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[1] Gardner, M. W. Dorling, S. R. ,Artificial neural networks( The multilayer perceptron) A review of applications in the atmospheric sciences. Atmospheric Environment.1998,32: pp. 2627- 2636. [2] Basheer, I. A. Hajmeer, M. Artificial neural networks: fundamentals, computing, design, and

[3] Chan, C. W. Huang, G. H. Artificial intelligence for management and control of pollution minimization and mitigation processes. Engineering Application of Artificial Intelligence.

[4] Azid, I. A. Yusoff, A. R. Seetharamu, K. N. Application backpropagation neural network in

[5] Nejadkoorki, F. Baroutian, S. Forecasting extreme PM10 concentrations using artificial neural networks. International Journal Of Environmental Research,.2012, 6(1):pp. 277-284.

[6] Elkamal, A. Abdul-Wahab, S. Bouhamra, W. Alper, E. Measurement and prediction of ozone levels around a heavily industrialized area : a neural network approach. Advances in Environmental

[7] Kurt, A. Gulbagci, B. Karaca, F. Alagha, O. An online air pollution forecasting system using

application. Journal Microbiological Methods . 2000. 43: pp. 3-31.

predicting palm oil mill emission. AJSTD. 2003, 20: pp. 71-86.

neural networks. Environmental International. 2008, 34:pp. 592-598.

[8] F. Nejadkoorki. Advanced Air Pollution.InTech.2011.

**7. References**

2003,16: pp. 75-90.

Research. 2001, 5: pp. 47-59.

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#### **4.4. An online air pollution forecasting system using artificial neural networks**

Urban air quality management and information systems are required to predict the next days air pollution levels to implement the appropriate action and control strategy, therefore neural networking was applied to develop an online air pollution forecasting system for the greater Istanbul area. The system predicts three air pollution indicator levels for the next three days. The inputs were general condition, wind direction, pressure, day temperature, night temperature, relative humidity and wind speed. Output parameters were sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and carbon monoxide. The results showed that quite accurate predictions of air pollutant indicators are possible with a simple neural network and further optimization of the model can be achieved using different input parameters and better forecasts are observed using day of week as an input parameter [7].

## **5. Limitations and vantage of neural networks**

#### **5.1. Limitations**

One of the limits of artificial neural networks in practice is that they are difficult to implement and interpret. The success of an artificial neural network depends on both the quality and quantity of data. Deciding on a network structure or architecture, determining a number of layers and neurons is another problem and there are no rules to help in this process. The lack of physical attributes and relations is another limitation. The inability to explain in a comprehensible form the process through which a given decision was made by the neural networks. Neural networks are not a miracle to all real world problems; therefore other traditional techniques are powerful in their own way [1,2].

#### **5.2. Advantages**

The ability of artificial neural networks is to gain an understanding of underlying relations between input variables and output variables and to solve complex and non linear problems and high tolerance to data containing noise and measurement errors due to distributed processing within a network [2].

## **6. Summary and conclusion**

This paper has briefly reviewed techniques of artificial neural networks. According to performance of the networks in this study the results demonstrate that artificial neural networks can be useful a tool to model hidden phenomenon, particularly in atmospheric science and there are many freely available software packages to implement neural networks easily. Therefore the current approach can be extended by further research to model environmental and air pollution problems.

## **7. References**


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**The Study of the Urban Environment in Old and** 

From a sustainable point of view, social justice and environmental parameters should be given similar attention to economical aspects. However, similar to many developing countries there have been less attention to these compared to economical part in Iranian cities. Iranian cities have mainly two forms, old and modern. While the city limits are expending continuously, the old and historical forms are vacated and in this way a great amount of public capital is wasted. The growth model of Yazd, a city in center of Iran is not environmentally friendly. In the second half of the last century there were changes that led to cultural and historical inconsistency. This paper studies the urban environment in both old and new forms of Yazd , as well as horizontal

Historical, cultural, economical, social, and environmental factors are all important in architecture. Iran contemporary architecture is influenced continuously by modernization, industry. Technology has changed the people's life and their environment. It can be said that modernization has been started about one century ago, and it is keeping on now[1]. The contemporary architecture of Iran has followed modern architecture, such as in expanding wide and straight streets, suburban and intra urban highways, high buildings, urban chess forms, but in many cases the rules and norms have not been considered. Segmentation in Iranian cities especially ones with old forms has left the country with massive destruction. The modern architecture fails to design environmentally friendly constructions. In other words some of the valuable conceptions that the modernization used for rejection the simplicity and strengthen the life were fainted and changed into disvalues [2]. In order to meet a sustainable city, one should not only take into account economical efficiency but also social justice and environmental protect. Today it is not regarded in Iran cities especially Yazd. Moreover, much supplication of land and wrong using has caused inactive lands with the most suitable services and installations. While city limits are expanding continuously, old and historical forms vacated and consequently a great amount of public capital is wasted[3]. Horizontal growth of the city is considered as urban dispersion. Furthermore, an imbalance between urban ecology and room lead to a fragile environment with less people in some area and more people in somewhere else and unmanaged lands. [3].In Iran

**Modern Forms (Case Study of Yazd, Iran)**

Department of Environmental Engineering, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

, Farhad Nejadkoorki

\*Corresponding author, Email: Elham.yoosefi@gmail.com

growth , noise pollution, architecture and tourism problem .

**Key words:** urban from, Yazd, environment, tourism, architecture.

Elham Yousefi\*

**1. Introduction**

**Abstract**

© 2012 Yousefi et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

provided the original work is properly cited.

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## **The Study of the Urban Environment in Old and Modern Forms (Case Study of Yazd, Iran)**

Elham Yousefi\* , Farhad Nejadkoorki

Department of Environmental Engineering, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran \*Corresponding author, Email: Elham.yoosefi@gmail.com

#### **Abstract**

From a sustainable point of view, social justice and environmental parameters should be given similar attention to economical aspects. However, similar to many developing countries there have been less attention to these compared to economical part in Iranian cities. Iranian cities have mainly two forms, old and modern. While the city limits are expending continuously, the old and historical forms are vacated and in this way a great amount of public capital is wasted. The growth model of Yazd, a city in center of Iran is not environmentally friendly. In the second half of the last century there were changes that led to cultural and historical inconsistency. This paper studies the urban environment in both old and new forms of Yazd , as well as horizontal growth , noise pollution, architecture and tourism problem .

**Key words:** urban from, Yazd, environment, tourism, architecture.

#### **1. Introduction**

Historical, cultural, economical, social, and environmental factors are all important in architecture. Iran contemporary architecture is influenced continuously by modernization, industry. Technology has changed the people's life and their environment. It can be said that modernization has been started about one century ago, and it is keeping on now[1]. The contemporary architecture of Iran has followed modern architecture, such as in expanding wide and straight streets, suburban and intra urban highways, high buildings, urban chess forms, but in many cases the rules and norms have not been considered. Segmentation in Iranian cities especially ones with old forms has left the country with massive destruction. The modern architecture fails to design environmentally friendly constructions. In other words some of the valuable conceptions that the modernization used for rejection the simplicity and strengthen the life were fainted and changed into disvalues [2]. In order to meet a sustainable city, one should not only take into account economical efficiency but also social justice and environmental protect. Today it is not regarded in Iran cities especially Yazd. Moreover, much supplication of land and wrong using has caused inactive lands with the most suitable services and installations. While city limits are expanding continuously, old and historical forms vacated and consequently a great amount of public capital is wasted[3]. Horizontal growth of the city is considered as urban dispersion. Furthermore, an imbalance between urban ecology and room lead to a fragile environment with less people in some area and more people in somewhere else and unmanaged lands. [3].In Iran

© 2012 Yousefi et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

before urbanization, there were a consistency within urban areas and the city growth was controlled by people' social, economical and safety condition needs [4,5].

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N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

In order to compare traffic noise levels, the average of traffic noise levels in the morning and evening in each street were considered. Then using SPSS and one sample T-test comparison between street noise levels was carried out. In one study [8] considering related researches about noise pollution and its effects on people in work places , a questionnaire was provided . For examining noise effects on people in commercial - official zones , ten street that their

eq was measured in 2008 , were chosen [9].This questionnaire was distributed between 500 persons in commercial places randomly .Table 1,2 show the results of study noise levels of

leq 20 72.6450 2.85228 0.63779

The output of one sample T-test is made up of two parts. In the first table (one-Sample Statistics) the Number, Mean, Standard Deviation and Standard Error Mean has been reported. It is seen that the mean of street noise levels has been 72.64 dB. In the second table (One Sample -Test), tstatistic and degree of freedom (df) has been reported. For One-Sample T-test the df equals to one

Test Value = 65

leq 11.987 19 0.00 7.64500 6.31001 8.9799

In performing the Iranian law made in (19.3, 1387), the permissible limitation of noise in commercial zone in the day is 65dB. As we see P-value is 0 that is less than 0/05. So it can be said that that noise levels with standard amount has meaning full difference and is more than standard. Fig 2 shows the relationship between noise level and the number of people. In all sampling days and different seasons, the noise levels were higher than the standard levels that can be dangerous for Yazd citizens in a long time period. It is because of the increasing number of vehicle such as motorcycles. According to a research done in 2008- 2009 the result was that People in commercial – official zones are annoyed because of the noise pollution traffic. Reaction of the persons to noise pollution was confusion, fear, anxiety, anger, headache and problems in sleeping that among them anger was the most importance of all. The environmental pollution such as soil and water because physical illnesses, while the noise pollution is important because not only its physical impacts but

20 street in Yazd ( old and new from ) with standard SPSS.

**Table 1.** Standard Deviation, standard Error , Mean of noise levels in sample stations

t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference

**Table 2.** Comparing noise levels of streets studied with standard amount ( 65dB)

subtracted from the sum of case numbers (n-1 that is 20-1=19 in here).

L

One-Sample statistics

One-Sample Test

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95% Confidence Interval of Difference Lower Upper

<sup>89</sup> ISALS

## **2. Horizontal expansion in modern form and forgetting old form.**

Yazd has two kinds of growth, organic and inorganic. The former changes both urban elements and internal population [6]. The later led to cultural and historical destruction. Though Yazd compared to other Iranian provinces has been less affected, economical and social scanning of land reform, rapid modernization and capital relationship expansion in Iran have some effects on Yazd. The physical expansion of Yazd in this period was because of the changes in population and life style. In the way that external city growth has stimulated and the signs of inorganic growth are increasing rapidly. Most recently formation of different districts especially in south, west and east of the city has decreased the distance of between the city and the other villages and connect them to the city and increase urban growth which leads to more inorganic growth. Therefore, several small towns were made around the city by different organizations.

## **3. Noise pollution as one of the environmental issues**

In one study [7] sampling noise levels campaign was carried out, in 20 areas (10 for historical zone and 10 for modern zone) during the work days of the week using a 2260 Bruel & Kjaer between August and September 2010.The instrument was installed on streets line adjacent and 80 cm above of the road and was calibrated prior to taking measurement using its corresponding calibrator, 4231B8K. A wind screen was also used, although no sensible and strong blow during sampling days was observed. Two traffic peak periods, morning peak (7:00 – 9:00) and evening peak (19:00 – 21:00) was considered. The coordinates of study stations were defined by GPS and transferred to GIS. Figure 1 shows the place of stations in the GIS platform.

**Fig 1.** Sampling stations in two zones in the study area

In order to compare traffic noise levels, the average of traffic noise levels in the morning and evening in each street were considered. Then using SPSS and one sample T-test comparison between street noise levels was carried out. In one study [8] considering related researches about noise pollution and its effects on people in work places , a questionnaire was provided . For examining noise effects on people in commercial - official zones , ten street that their L eq was measured in 2008 , were chosen [9].This questionnaire was distributed between 500 persons in commercial places randomly .Table 1,2 show the results of study noise levels of 20 street in Yazd ( old and new from ) with standard SPSS.

One-Sample statistics


**Table 1.** Standard Deviation, standard Error , Mean of noise levels in sample stations

The output of one sample T-test is made up of two parts. In the first table (one-Sample Statistics) the Number, Mean, Standard Deviation and Standard Error Mean has been reported. It is seen that the mean of street noise levels has been 72.64 dB. In the second table (One Sample -Test), tstatistic and degree of freedom (df) has been reported. For One-Sample T-test the df equals to one subtracted from the sum of case numbers (n-1 that is 20-1=19 in here).

One-Sample Test


**Table 2.** Comparing noise levels of streets studied with standard amount ( 65dB)

In performing the Iranian law made in (19.3, 1387), the permissible limitation of noise in commercial zone in the day is 65dB. As we see P-value is 0 that is less than 0/05. So it can be said that that noise levels with standard amount has meaning full difference and is more than standard. Fig 2 shows the relationship between noise level and the number of people.

In all sampling days and different seasons, the noise levels were higher than the standard levels that can be dangerous for Yazd citizens in a long time period. It is because of the increasing number of vehicle such as motorcycles. According to a research done in 2008- 2009 the result was that People in commercial – official zones are annoyed because of the noise pollution traffic. Reaction of the persons to noise pollution was confusion, fear, anxiety, anger, headache and problems in sleeping that among them anger was the most importance of all. The environmental pollution such as soil and water because physical illnesses, while the noise pollution is important because not only its physical impacts but

International Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)

scious architecture, a new architecture is appearing that is inconsistent with the climate of area. There are line houses madding up of concretes, irons and bricks. Their yard with short walls from one hand unable to make a suitable shadow, protect the buildings against strong winds and sunlight and on the other hand, using thin walls, ceilings and using bitumen on the roofs that because of darkness cause increasing temperature in summer and decreasing temperature in winter and finally using heater with fossil fuels and cooling machines used in different seasons. It can be said that the new architecture with unsuitable structure causes the residents' discomfort and with unfit construction materials it makes instability

**Fig 3.** Walking Tour **Fig 4.** An old house in Yazd with an Air trap

Exploring the city forms and its platform for different aspects of economic, social, environmental highlighted that we need a holistic approach to assess. New development should take into account problems such as negative growth, lack of facilities, increasing ruin spaces, sport and medical needing. The old from should be cared because it contains monuments, historical and cultural works and it is important in attracting tourists. It can be suggested that local authorities consider: land preparation, arid land situation, reduction of destroyed forms and transferring unsuitable using with their unequal distribution all over the city and also the differences between requiring lands in various districts. Finally we suggest further research on relationship

**6. Summer and result**

the city, climate conditions, and old from.

[15]. Figure 4 shows an old house in Yazd with an Air trap.

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<sup>91</sup> ISALS

**Figure 2** . The relationship between noise and annoyed people

mental consequences. A great number of motor vehicles are added to the transportation navy each year. Most of them in cities and for city traffic are used. City construction in Iran, especially Yazd, has a traditional system that is related to geographical, cultural and religious conditions. These two means that increasing of vehicles and traditional system are not compatible, so the condition planning should be in the way that the society can enjoy both of them in the best.

#### **4. Tourism industry**

Of the Iranian cities, Yazd is the most important one because of the historical structure in old form, with valuable architecture and unique features [10]. Although the old form has some problems such as destruction, the less wide of pavements and migration of people, it has important points that have caused its reduction [11]. The old form regarding to the cultural and historical structure has attracted a lot of tourists. Diplomacy and programming for new and better construction as well as old form reconstruction protect historical and cultural heritage and paying attention to their suitability and fitness with environmental and cultural structure causes constant expansion of cities. Old sections of Yazd need a controlled movement for continuing the life [12]. Figure 3 shows one of the tourist programs in Yazd old form (Walking Tour).

#### **5. Architecture**

One example of architecture elements in Yazd is Air trap. As its name shows it is an important part of the buildings in hot and dry or hot and humid areas, that causes wind blow and using pure energy in mild temperature in the houses to a comfortable degree[13]. The other examples are old houses in Yazd, which are in the direction of Kiblah. With this direction summer space and winter rooms are placed around the central yard. The central yard is the main space in Yazd houses. There is a pool in the middle of the yard with small gardens around it, full of trees needing a little water such as: pomegranate, grape, fig and pistachio. They provide a green space, shadow and cool weather [14]. Unfortunately, despite this conscious architecture, a new architecture is appearing that is inconsistent with the climate of area. There are line houses madding up of concretes, irons and bricks. Their yard with short walls from one hand unable to make a suitable shadow, protect the buildings against strong winds and sunlight and on the other hand, using thin walls, ceilings and using bitumen on the roofs that because of darkness cause increasing temperature in summer and decreasing temperature in winter and finally using heater with fossil fuels and cooling machines used in different seasons. It can be said that the new architecture with unsuitable structure causes the residents' discomfort and with unfit construction materials it makes instability [15]. Figure 4 shows an old house in Yazd with an Air trap.

**Fig 3.** Walking Tour **Fig 4.** An old house in Yazd with an Air trap

## **6. Summer and result**

Exploring the city forms and its platform for different aspects of economic, social, environmental highlighted that we need a holistic approach to assess. New development should take into account problems such as negative growth, lack of facilities, increasing ruin spaces, sport and medical needing. The old from should be cared because it contains monuments, historical and cultural works and it is important in attracting tourists. It can be suggested that local authorities consider: land preparation, arid land situation, reduction of destroyed forms and transferring unsuitable using with their unequal distribution all over the city and also the differences between requiring lands in various districts. Finally we suggest further research on relationship the city, climate conditions, and old from.

#### **7. References**

[1] Ebrahimi , So , Eslami , Gh , (2010). architecture and city building during GoZar period . Journal of Shahr Hoviat .

International Conference on Applied Life Sciences (ICALS2012)

**Biodegradation of Hydrocarbons (Oil Fuels)** 

Kheira Hammadi, Mahjouba Aznouz, Miloud Halbouche

Laboratory of PAA Faculty SNV, Abdelhamid Ben Badis Mostaganem University Algeria

Among many refineries are located along the coast of Algeria, the refinery of Arzew in the northwest of Algeria is the subject of our study. Since always the sea was the universal receptacle of pollution by hydrocarbons negatively modified the natural balance of the aquatic environment and can give many problems for the environment. Our study aimed on the biodegradation as a natural elimination of these pollutants and used as control of this pollution. The aim of this work is the study of marine pollution by physical; chemical and biological methods. The species of *Pseudomonas aeruginosa, :Candida petrolium* and *Aspergillus terreus* isolated from the sea water of three stations port from Hyproc, fishing port and Marsa el Hajadj showed their capacity of adaptation and assimilation of strong concentration of the hydrocarbons oil Arabian light and crude oil of Hassi Messoud 10% in a natural environment and 3% in a synthetic medium , their roles of transformation and degradation of the crude oil of Hassi Messoud and the petrol of the Arabian light. **Keywords:** Bioterioration, crude oil;light arab oil; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Candida sp, Asper-

The rejection of hydrocarbons (HC) of oil-bearing origin in the environment constitutes one of the most alarming phenomena of pollution in the sense that these HC are toxic for the man, fauna

The elimination of the oil in marine environment requires the intervention of the various biotic and abiotic factors. Among these factors; the biological breakdown by the micro-organisms and in particular the bacteria is the natural process most important in depletion of maritime environment. Consequently, mechanisms of the biological breakdown of the substances tankers (linear alkanes, phénylalcanes, cycloalcanes, hydrocarbons polycyclic and polyaromatic) by the marine

Metabolic reactions of the bacteria and other micro-organisms which are naturally present in the

According to several authors, metabolic ways of degradation by stocks of Pseudomonas sp. were

**Line of Arzew – Oran-Algeria** 

**Abstract**

gillus terreus

**1. Introduction** 

and flora (Belhaj and *al.*, 2000).

bacteria (Soltani, 2010).

**by** *Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Candida sp* **and** 

*Aspergillus terreus* **by Isolated from the Coast** 

© 2012 Hammadi et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

provided the original work is properly cited.

seamen circles are usually called mechanisms of biological breakdown.

the first studied ways and are very known (Sutherland and *al.*, 1995).

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<sup>93</sup> ISALS

