Geographic Data
Mojtaba Ghadiri Masoum; Hamid Afshari
Abstract
Extended AbstractIntroductionNowadays, tourism is widely accepted as a fundamental basis of development. As a sector of economy, tourism is considered to be one of the most important activities of contemporary human beings, which not only makes dramatic changes to the landscape, and political, economic, ...
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Extended AbstractIntroductionNowadays, tourism is widely accepted as a fundamental basis of development. As a sector of economy, tourism is considered to be one of the most important activities of contemporary human beings, which not only makes dramatic changes to the landscape, and political, economic, and cultural condition, but also transforms lifestyle of many individuals. The contemporary world considers tourism as one of the most important sectors of the tertiary industry which affects job creation and income generation, results in significant economic growth, and consequently provides the prerequisites for sustainable development of different societies. Iran is among the top 10 countries of the world in terms of tourist attractions, possessing many sites with potential attractions. Thus, tourism can be considered as an effective tool in dealing with economic problems of the country. As the basis of sustainable development, tourism can solve some problems of the country and thus, development of its infrastructure results in optimal allocation of available resources. The present study seeks to investigate the overall condition of tourism infrastructure in Markazi province. Previous studies in France, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Thailand and Japan indicate that their tourism sector has developed rapidly and now aids other sectors of the economy. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of necessary infrastructure for the development of this industry can result in a more dynamic rural economy. Materials & MethodsThis applied study has a descriptive-comparative design and its study area includes all counties of Markazi Province. Library method and questionnaires were used for data collection. Statistical data and information were collected from the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts of Markazi Province and the statistical yearbook (2015) of this province. In accordance with Delfi method and targeted sampling, related indices were sent to 17 rural development experts and specialists via Email. It should be noted that some of these experts had previous experience in tourism. Finally, 10 completed questionnaires were received. PROMETHEE multifunctional decision-making model was also used to determine the overall condition of counties in Markazi Province in relation to tourism infrastructure.Since the present study seeks to classify counties in Markazi province, the first function of this technique has been used. An appropriate weight is first assigned to each of the 20 indices of tourism infrastructure using Delphi method. Then, these weights are evaluated and measured along with the value of each component and option in Visual PROMETHEE software. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate relations between variables more comprehensively. SPSS 26 and Smart PLS 3 software were also used to analyze the data. Results & DiscussionFindings indicate that Arak with a value of 0.7739 has ranked first among the counties. Several factors can be the reason: First, as the capital of the province, Arak possesses better facilities, larger population, etc. Second, as the main access road connecting neighboring provinces, Arak has developed more than other counties. With a value of 0.4673, Saveh has the second rank. Saveh also contains the access road connecting some of neighboring provinces and is located near Tehran. Thus, a strong industrial town has developed in this county attracting many workers with different ethnicities seeking employment and income. Due to these factors, relatively good facilities have developed in Saveh. With a value of 0.3536, Shazand has ranked third. Due to its proximity to Arak (the capital of the province), this county has attracted large industries such as petrochemical industry along with suitable facilities and infrastructure. Khomein (0.3166), Delijan (0.0168), Mahalat (-0.1023), Tafresh (-0.1634), Khandab (-0.3002), Zarandieh (-0.3266), Farahan (-0.3320), Ashtian (-0.3514) and Komijan (-0.3523) are next in rank.Analyzing the relationships between variables indicates that service-related components (0.279) and transportation-related components (0.096) have the most powerful direct influence on the level of development and other variables are next in rank. ConclusionFindings of the present study and previous studies indicate that centrality and population can be considered as influential factors resulting in easier access to desirable and appropriate facilities in different countries of the world. However, such a difference is not observed between different regions in developed countries due to their integrated development. Developing countries such as Iran lack such an integrated development environment and thus, the condition in provincial capitals is much more different from other counties. As indicated in the present study, the level of development in Arak was much higher than other counties of Markazi province. Therefore, an appropriate plan is required for other counties to achieve sustainable development, and especially sustainable tourism development.
Mohammad Eskandari; Mahdi Modiri; Babak Omidvar; Aliasghar Alesheikh; Mohammadali Nekooie; Ali Alidoosti
Abstract
Abstract The earthquake phenomenon is a natural disaster that causes many fatal, financial and environmental damages every year. Iran is extremely vulnerable to earthquakes due to its seismicity and its location on the earthquake belt. Also, a large number of facilities were built before the formulation ...
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Abstract The earthquake phenomenon is a natural disaster that causes many fatal, financial and environmental damages every year. Iran is extremely vulnerable to earthquakes due to its seismicity and its location on the earthquake belt. Also, a large number of facilities were built before the formulation of earthquake resistant standards and, unfortunately, the quality of construction in some cases in the country is not optimal. Therefore, considering the suspicious behavior of the networks regarding the occurrence of possible earthquakes, the issues of assessing the seismic vulnerability of critical infrastructure are of particular importance. In this paper, a model has been presented in which, first, the risk analysis of the area of interest (based on the two existing attenuation relations for the country) is carried out, which, given the uncertainties involving in the earthquake occurrence (including magnitude of earthquake, focal depth and position of the earthquake epicenter), this operation is randomly selected at each time of the analysis, and after each hazard analysis, the outputs resulting from the earthquake hazard including the maximum acceleration values, the maximum speed and the displacement of the ground are calculated. If the area has a landslide or liquefaction potential, then the outputs resulted from the earth fault risk, including the values of liquefaction and landslide displacements, should be introduced into the model for each feature. Then, seismic vulnerability functions are used which are placed on the model database for both ground shaking hazard and ground failure for the arteries. At the end, based on the existing vulnerability functions, the network damage analysis is dealt with. All these steps are for a single analysis. Therefore, based on the Monte Carlo simulation, all of these operations are repeated 10,000 times to include all uncertainties and failure states, and the outputs in the database are averaged to account for all failure states. For this purpose, due to the large volume of descriptive and spatial data, on the other hand, large spatial analysis of data and the high volume of mathematical equations for repetition of operations, coding in the Visual Studio environment with the C # programming language was done, using the Net Framework and Arc Engine libraries which led to the production of a software system using a database and with spatial analysis and deduction capabilities based on spatial information systems (GIS) that could assess the possible slight, moderate, extensive and complete failure rates of each artery separately in the form of maps and tables for each feature. In this paper, to better illustrate this research, the existing model for the city of Neyshabur was implemented and analyzed.