Geographical Research

Urban sustainable financing is one of the main challenges faced by politicians and urban planners.  Municipalities are concerned with decreased revenues and controlling their costs on one hand and due to the income limitation, the inability to finance many urban projects on the other hand. Developing countries, including Iran, which have inefficient economies, poor tax systems and lack of mechanisms for citizen participation in the provision of urban costs, municipal revenue system, is drawn mainly to the unstable and unhealthy resources. This problem showed itself mainly in Iran after implementation of the 1980 municipal self-sufficiency policy and especially took place in Tehran more seriously than other cities. The two major challenges of Tehran Municipality Revenue System consist of: Unstable and unhealthy municipal revenue system and failure of Tehran’s Municipality to achieve the financial and monetary markets to cover the costs of the construction of urban infrastructure and urban projects. Therefore, it is necessary to modify the structure. For this reason, this paper has proposed two models to solve these two challenges. Model No. 1 will bring stabilization of municipality’s income and revenue system in long term in form of two patterns as "Controlling, reducing and phasing out unsustainable and unhealthy sources of income" and "managing, improving and increasing the role of sustainable revenue sources". Model No. 2 also focuses on providing new ways in order for Tehran Municipality to gain access to the financial and monetary markets. Data was collected for the period of 2008 to 2014 including codes of Tehran Municipality revenues and the amount of revenue generated by each code. We also conducted structured and semi-structured interviews with 30 specializing experts in the research topic. The results showed that during the study period, 58% of Tehran Municipality’s earned income has been achieved from unstable and unhealthy sources and 20% from relatively stable resources. Only 22% of revenue is obtained from healthy and sustainable resources. So, Tehran Municipal Income System is quite unstable and unhealthy in the present situation. The most important approaches presented in model 1 are: Replacing the Renovation Duties, Value Added Tax, Unused Land and wasteland complications with income derived from fines and other unhealthy sources, using green taxes, very high increase in the building density fine rate, reducing the number of permits granted for density, the use of new rigs charges, create clearances database for building crime offenders, getting out the user fees for municipal services, getting the infrastructure networks ramifications fee, improving relations between governments and municipalities, enabling sub-codes which have low income or zero income, using a combination of taxes, considering the municipal tourism revenues and reforming the structure of municipality’s identifying and collecting taxes. Of the most important approaches presented in model 2, may also include the creation of the Metropolitan Development Fund, taking advantage of the potential of domestic banks, using foreign borrowing, direct-entry of Tehran Municipality to the OTC, and using the potential of financing companies. 

The correlation between humans and place or "Place Attachment" is the basis of satisfying many of the human needs and also giving meaning to human life. Especially attachment to places that are significant for people, the most notable of which is the residence place. The open spaces between residential buildings are the places that link inhabitants with nature and the place of enjoyment in the instant outdoor space of the house. Therefore, there is a need to review and pay particular attention to the design of open spaces in residential complexes. This paper is trying to identify effective factors in organizing open spaces of residential complexes in order to increase sense of place attachment. This is an applied research and in terms of method, it is descriptive/analytical. Data collection has been done through library study, document study, field study and distribution of questionnaires. The statistical population of this study consists of 100 residents of Sheshsad Dastgah residential complex in Mashhad. In order to analyze the descriptive and inferential statistics of the present study, SPSS software and linear regression have been used. The results of the tests indicate the significance of all factors of the independent variable (open spaces in residential complexes) on the dependent variable (sense of attachment). In each of the indices of open space, the components that create attachment, have the highest impact on index of green spaces, and after that children’s playground, pavements, street furniture, roads and finally sitting spaces. The frameworks designed in this research are practical and can provide frameworks for awareness of the designers toward the impact of open spaces of residential complexes on place attachment of the residents.

Though city life and machining living of human beings has some advantage and facilities, yet it has caused a lot of problems as city heavy traffic, along with unanticipated growth of population and unusual development of cities, on the one side and the increasing number of motor vehicles on the other to reduce the heavy traffic in central city areas,building public parking in appropriate place seems very effective,it helps traffic to run smoothly and using better the streets and passages and this seems the only way to solve the city traffic.In this article after surveying and studying the not passages and streets and the existing public parking in the city centre area and also studying the capacity of the existing parking,regarding the value of demands for parking by applying AHP model and by using polygon drawing by Tiesen and Buffering Method, I have defined appropriate place to build parking, consequently, this research shows that parking situated in the city centre of Isfahan do not have any balancer distribution and should be paid attention to building new public parking.

In the comparative market of tourist, attempt for tourist from different destinations is a strategically goal. One method of attracting tourist to destination is attention to preferment of destinations quality. Because tourists are search the destinations whit height quality for rest and pleasure. Therefore in this study, the samples had been selected from 16 rural of small Lavasan rural district from Shemiranat County That has been counted as a Tehran tourism destination. This study is based on practical- explorative methodology from aspect of data gathering and identifying the effective dimensions of rural environmental quality in attraction and tourism development. From aspect of community characters description, this study is descriptive and is analytical from aspect of correlation between destination rural quality of environment with tourism development and attraction. In this study, for data gathering had been used of Library resources and field techniques and methods of observation and questionnaire based on indicators derived from the theoretical framework. For sampling had been used of Cochran formula with 0.05 coefficient error rate that estimated sample community were 384 people. Gained result of data analysis show that tourist had satisfaction from rural quality of environment in all of 4 dimension of environmental quality of tourism (with 0.05 rate of meaningful) and after the semantic quality in first place (with an average of 4.18), Experimental – aesthetic Quality (with 3.49 average) lay on second place. Also, Pierson correlation shows that there are meaningful relations among all dimensions of environmental quality of destination and tourist attractions. Result of regression too; show that most effective dimension is related to Semantic quality with 0.645 and most ineffective dimension is related to ecological quality with 0.241, on tourist attraction to rural tourist destinations. Based on the result of study, it could be said that destinations environmental quality in different aspect is effective on tourist attraction and its improving could be useful for rural in comparative market of tourist attracting and tourist choosing.

The growth pattern of a city is the most critical matters of the recent century. So, recognition of the spatial growth pattern of main cities of regions and countries such as Tehran metropolis is necessary for drawing up suitable policies and achieving sustainable development. In this regard, in the framework of sustainable development and urban smart growth theories, three hypotheses offered about the quality of spatial growth pattern of the Tehran metropolis and then were evaluated in the framework of the analytical-descriptive research method. In this framework, for testing the first hypothesis, the Holdren model was used. For testing the second hypothesis, Gini and Entropy's indexes were used, and for testing the third hypothesis, Moran, Geary and General G indexes were used. The necessary data was collect by librarian method. The results of testing the first hypothesis showed that despite compact and regular growth of the Tehran metropolis during 1335-1355, this city have had a sprawl growth of 75 percent during 1355-1365. But since then this procedure has changed to compact city. In the case of the second hypothesis, the results despite un-confirming this hypothesis, showed that though there are imbalance in population and employment distribution, there are not tend to its increasing. Moreover the results in confirming third hypothesis showed that the Tehran metropolis have had a random development pattern tending to Clustered pattern by forming a hot-spot in its south- south eastern part and a cold spot in its north- north western part. 

Medical tourism is a branch of health tourism that has grown considerably in many parts of the world now days. Mashhad city with regard to  the Holy Shrine, More than 300 thousand foreign tourists per year, more than 31 public and private hospitals and specialties of cardiology, ophthalmology, pediatrics and. ..,which is one of the centers of attracting tourists and religious - health tourism in Iran. cost of medical services in these hospitals are 75% less than those of European and American hospitals in terms of the quality of similar services they offer and this could be a big advantage for developing such activities in the region. The research methodology has been a descriptive-analytical one which employs a SWOT analysis model in exploring the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats which are considered as internal and external factors critical for treatment tourism in this city. This paper Prepared by using the library documents and the field study and interviews with experts, has been considered as descriptive - analytical. The results show that infrastructure and expertise in Mashhad by the Holy Shrine are the main strengths of this research. And the other hand non-governmental organizations, investment and support and develop the bilateral relations between the Middle East countries are the main opportunities in this research. In conclusion the strengths and opportunities for developing such activities outweigh the weaknesses and threats.

Geographical spaces and political units affected from its location and natural environment and with the surrounding environment have interaction. It seems that security, especially societal security as the most fundamental concept of as social life affected by the location and generally geographical factors. This study sought to examine the impact of geographical factors on societal security in Kerman province. Therefore, this study performed by systematic approach and integrated regional approach to issues of security and descriptive method. Data needed for research collected by library method and from United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Statistics Center of Iran and Kerman Province’s Applied Research Office of police commander. In regional scale referred to drug trafficking and terrorism and in local scale (province) indicated to indicators of social insecurity such as armed robbery, robbery rape, kidnapping and murder, and the amount of drugs seized. The results show that societal security of Kerman province affected by the location of the resources of transnational, sub-national and inter-provincial threats. Also, it influenced by topographical conditions and the remoteness and proximity to centers of crisis. Townships in the western half of the province than half East of the state of societal security have better.

Urban development based on the principles of sustainable development has been one of the main concepts of urbanization in the last decade. The term sustainable urban development means providing the necessary grounds for the balanced and efficient utilization of urban resources so that all citizens can benefit from urban economic, social and environmental infrastructure in accordance with their needs. The aim of this research is to investigate the sustainability status in Tabriz metropolis. This is a descriptive-analytic research. The statistical population of this research is the inhabitants of all ten regions of Tabriz, and 500 individuals over 15 years old are selected as sample size using simple random sampling by the classified method. The validity of the questionnaire was verified by experts and the reliability of the different parts of the questionnaire obtained the score of 0.876 to 0.881 using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Fuzzy TOPSIS Method is used to evaluate the variables in order to assess the sustainability, the model of barometer sustainability is used. Also to infer and testability of data the statistical tests such as Anova test, T test and Tukey and Scheffe tests are used. Drawing of maps related to the stability of Tabriz urban areas has been done using GIS software. According to the results, region 8 is the most sustainable region and region 3 is the most unstable region. Also, all 10 regions of Tabriz with sustainability value of 0.591 are in medium sustainability status. The status of the regions in terms of human welfare and ecosystem well-being was also equal to 0.548 and 0.515 respectively. The results of T and Anova tests also showed that according to the sustainability barometric results, physical, social, economic and environmental dimensions are of the most importance respectively. Tukey and Scheffe tests also demonstrated the stability gap between different dimensions of sustainability. Finally, according to the findings of the research and taking into account the situation of the tens of ten regions of Tabriz, practical suggestions are presented in accordance with different dimensions of sustainable urban development.

The beginnings of social justice rooted in spatial and environmental justice. Since the civil service is considered as a public good, the estimation and the correct positioning is in the area of urban management, so it cannot deprived some parts of the society. Spatial justice as the fair distribution of urban services and facilities is one of the justice society approaches to achieve a harmonious society and social justice. Lack of proper distribution services make injustice and dissatisfaction among citizens of their location and city managers. The research method is descriptive-analytic. In order to analyze the distribution of municipal services in 19 District of Tehran, Vikor model was used. The results show that the services are not distributed in 19 district of Tehran, so that in terms of spatial equity of presented indicators, North Shariati neighborhood with a score of 0.042 has the highest level of the facilities and services and Shahid Kazemi neighborhood with a score of 1, has the lowest enjoyment of facilities and services of 19 district

Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the most important countries, accepting immigrants and refugees from around the world. The immigrants are mostly from the neighboring countries.These immigrants had to leave their countries due tosecurity issues and difficult economic and social conditions. Most of these immigrants are Afghans.The greatest wave of immigration from Afghanistan to Iran startedwith Soviet attacksince 1978.
Mashhad the center of Khorasan-Razavi province sharing the eastern borders with this country,is one of the most important centers accept these immigrants. The population of Mashhad is about 3 million. And about4 decades after the first waves of Afghans' refugees, several million immigrants are periodically or permanently reside there. According to statistics provided by the authorities in 2012 about 150 thousand Afghan immigrants legally live in Mashhad, and have been estimated to be as many as illegal immigrants are living in this city.During these years, the facilities forimmigrants in the various fields are provided, including education, insurance, training, professional skills, etc.
The immigrants entering Iran has created many changes inthe economic, social, educational and cultural both for the immigrants and the host society.
 Alongside with the given facilities and changes taken place during decades in Iran, there have been different positive or negative views on the acceptance and residence of these immigrants. What is important is, despite the large amount of these immigrants mostly from Afghanistan and their long -term residence in Iran, how welcomed are they in the host society? How the immigrants and the host society’s people interaction is? What is the people's views over acceptance or reject these immigrants?
This research aims to find Mashhad’s citizens attitude as an important center accepting foreign migrants and connection of these attitudes with factors such as gender, education, income, job variety, location in the city and ethnicity.
Research Methodology
The methodology of this research is based on survey. The needed data have been gathered using the questionnaire. The assessment of these variables has been done using Likert and Bougardos scale. According to the aim research,the dependent variable analyzed by independent variables, is the respondentsattitudes over foreign immigrants. These attitudes have been analyzed due to economic, sanitation, traffic, education, housing and social harms.
Result
Results show that the most negative attitudes are about social harms variable. According to respondents view, the migrants impact on education variableis not positive either. The housing indicator has less negative views compared to education and shows 57.6% of respondents as negative attitude. But the respondents view on economic factors is more positive. In total, 32% of the respondents view on foreign migrants is negative.60% isneither positive nor negative and 8% of the view is positive.This research also analyses the connection between citizen’s view and independent indicators. These indicators are built upon economic, social and personal features of respondents such as gender, marital status, education, residence (on foreign migrants’ existence levels), age, nationality, income, religion and relations form with foreign migrants.
Results show that indicators such as gender, age, job and residence of respondents on number of foreign migrants and access level is meaningfully related to respondents views over foreign migrants.
Men have more negative attitudes over the issue than women and it shows the gender and views on foreign migrants are related.Relation between respondents’ age and their views shows that the older the respondents are, the more negative their views are. Relation between respondent’s job and their views shows that the industrial jobs, business and governmental jobs have mostly negative views.The respondents city zone (on welfarelevels), influences their views. Meaning that the more their residence has lower levels on sustainability, the more negative their views on foreign migrants are.The respondents city zone (on the number of foreign migrants) influences their views too. Meaning the people living in areas with a large number of foreign migrants has a more negative view than the people with fewer migrants in their neighborhood. The type and level of relationship with foreign migrants also influences their views. The more connected are the citizens to foreign migrants, the less negative views they have.Items such as marital status, education, income, religion, and ethnicity have no concern with Mashhad citizen attitudes

The market status in this context consists of the measures that affect the performance of financial units. Measures that are beyond the control of the managers of these units. The financial market is one of the defining factors of the financial status of each country, based on which the economical situation of each country could be assessed. Transparency and competitiveness are the factors that lead to a healthy market, foreign and domestic investment in industry, success of productive financial activities and elimination of counterproductive activities. A major reason for the recession that has overshadowed the financial market in recent years, is the lack of interest to invest in industrial sections due to discouraging statistics in this context. This not only directs capital into non-productive sections, but also seriously affects employment in all regions of the country. Which leads to a lot of unemployed people who engage in non-productive activities. The high rate of immigration to Tehran is due to the fact that large amounts of capital are invested in Tehran instead of being invested in productive sections throughout the country. This situation has directly and indirectly affected Tehran and it makes the efforts for organizing Tehran futile. The present study is seeking to analyze the effect of improving financial markets on the vibrancy of industrial units throughout the country with a descriptive and analytical approach. It also seeks to analyze and elaborate the relationship between satisfactory financial markets and decreased immigration rate to Tehran and balanced financial prosperity in various regions of the country as well as relieving the pressure on Tehran and making it easier to organize

These days, cities are the most important places for human life, hence we have faced the concentration of population, capital, and infrastructure in cities. This concentration not only has a lot of economic, social, political and environmental ramifications, but also has made cities into strategic military and terrorist attack targets. Past experiences and the present experience of wars in countries like Iraq, Kosovo and Yemen, shows that urban centers and the critical infrastructure of the cities, such as water, electricity and energy infrastructure are the main and primary targets in case of an invasion.Passive defense is a series of principles and precautions relating to defense and security which can assure stability and survival of a system. Accordingly, this paper deploys an analytical method to review the vulnerability level of various parts of water infrastructure in case of a potential military or terrorist attack. The results of the study show that, despite the vital role of water in human life in the cities,  different aspects of water infrastructure, including transport, storage, refining, administration and distribution are very vulnerable in case of a potential military or terrorist attack. Especially considering the fact that the protection and security of this infrastructure are very weak.Undoubtedly considering defense and security precautions in location, design, construction and management of these centers is a very important factor in minimizing the risks of a potential military or terrorist attack

With the rapid increase in world population it is observed that most of this population is concentrated in cities. Nowadays about half of the world's population live in cities and it is estimated that from 2.2 billion people that will be added to earth’s population in the next 30 years, 2.1 billion will be living in cities. And 2 billion of these people are expected to be born in developing countries (UNDP Annual Report, 2003), which is one of the most significant security issues. So understanding passive defense and the factors that shape it have a strong impact on the security of the country and minimizing the potential damages to the country. Since our country Iran has unique political circumstances and geographical location, in the last three decades it has always been threatened from different aspects which shows the importance of passive defense in urban planning of different cities. Among the outstanding issues that are important in passive defense and crisis management is the location of strategic or vulnerable facilities. The aim of this research is to achieve recognition of applications that could be affected in times of crisis and to identify criteria of user location affected in times of crisis from the perspective of spatial-physical indicators (effective in positioning applications) for preparation and development of projects based on rules and regulations, and this has been done for the city of Sabzevar. Therefore, the literature and concepts related to passive defense, crisis management and mapping applications are analyzed, and then the appropriate definition of vulnerable facilities has been presented, as well as guidelines for locating these types of applications for protection in the time of crisis. The next step is to review the documents and maps of Sabzevar to prioritize the indicators identified by order of importance. At the end with the help of AHP-GIS method optimized sites have been identified for these centers. The results suggest that, given the circumstances and characteristics of Sabzevar compatibility standards, comfort, performance, utility, health and safety standards in locating vulnerable facilities are the most important.