Due to the vast changes it brings about in the land use and land cover, the rapid expansion of cities has had many negative effects on the environmental quality at global level. Examples include air quality, increased temperature, changes in perspective, and the alteration of agricultural lands into barren lands that leads to the loss of biodiversity. Since land use changes happen at extensively, remote sensing technology is a necessary, efficient, and valuable means to monitor changes. In this study, the effect of land use changes on the temporal-spatial patterns of land surface temperature in the urban lands of Ilam city in a 30-year period (1990-2020) was examined using Landsat satellite images and simulation of changes using fuzzy ARTMAP neural network model. Landsat satellite sensors (TM, OLI, ETM) were used to investigate the longitudinal and spatial changes (LST) in Ilam city.  To provide the land use map, the pixel-based classification for all periods (1990-1995-2000-2005-2010-2015-2020) was applied using ENVI and Ecognitio software packs and then estimations were made using NDVI and LST models. The results showed that Ilam city ecosystem has moderate levels of NDVI. The average temperature of residential land use level in June is 35.8 degrees centigrade, and the temperatures of three land uses of horticulture, agriculture, and other uses (uncovered lands) were 32.22, 37.25, and 38.46, respectively, with the main lands with the minimum temperature being green highlands. In city, existence of high rise buildings and building shading, use of materials with less heat absorption such as Isogam, urban green space and furniture, and air pollution lead to lesser absorption of energy. On the other hand, the spatial distribution of NDVI was aligned with LSP values. The results regarding land use areas using fuzzy-neural network show that residential land uses has risen from 19.18 percent in 1990 to 39.35 percent in 2020, which shows the city expansion and development. On the other hand, the horticultural land use has declined from 8.64 in 1990 to 3.49 in 2020, which can be attributed to the development of urban space.

Many years have passed since the initiation and implementation of sustainable rural development projects in the country of Iran, however, rural communities in many regions of the country still face numerous challenges. In this regard, government planners and administrators have made efforts to address the issues and problems of rural areas by presenting new approaches. Accordingly, the current research aims to provide a different approach to rural development by critically and comparatively analyzing traditional approaches in rural development planning. Therefore, the present research is of a developmental type, and the research method is analytical-interpretive, with data collection primarily based on library and documentary research. The findings of the study indicate that the top-down approach based on the endogenous approach and sectoral planning still dominates the rural development system in Iran, and as a result, the desired development of rural communities nationwide has not been achieved. The results show that sustainable rural development can be facilitated at the national level by incorporating the characteristics of a territorial approach. This suggests that a proposal beyond agriculture should be based on the participation of all stakeholders, emphasizing the importance of social factors and rural institutions, and incorporating both agricultural and non-agricultural occupations, considering the interrelationships between agricultural, industrial, and service sectors, and most importantly, it should be inconsistent with a spatial perspective on urban-rural relations. Therefore, the process of rural development in the country would be economically rational, socially equitable, and environmentally responsible.

Spatial justice of uses, or in other words, fair, wise, and balanced distribution of urban uses is one of the most important issues of urban planning. The present study is research in terms of purpose and analytical in nature. The library information of this research is collected from books and articles. For the analysis, the per capita index of service users was used, which was calculated and obtained in the GIS software. The statistical population of the research is the eight districts of Qom City. This research has tried to analyze the Spatial justice of service uses in the eight districts of Qom City with the ORESTE technique, based on indicators that are service uses per capita. For this purpose, the indicators were first weighted using Shannon's entropy method, the highest weight was assigned to tourism, and the lowest weight was assigned to the park. After weighing, the ORESTE technique was performed, and Region 7 had the highest and Region 6 had the lowest amount per capita. Then, with the dispersion coefficient, the two-by-two distribution per capita of the service uses of the regions was calculated, and the results showed that regions 2 and 8 have the highest and regions 5 and 7 have the lowest spatial distribution of service uses. Also, with the Spearman correlation coefficient, the correlation between the population of each region and the per capita service users was calculated, which showed a negative correlation, which means that as the population increases, the service users per capita decreases.

The most obvious example of human activities on the land due to the increase in population and the need for development is land use changes, which lead to changes in the provision of ecosystem services. To that end, the present study was done with the aim of quantitatively evaluating the carbon storage capacity and habitat quality and showing their spatial distribution to achieve social-ecological stability, sustainable use of land resources, and develop appropriate plans and policies in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. The modeling of selected ecosystem services was calculated using InVEST software models and the capacity to provide them in land use classes using Zonal Statistics analysis in a GIS software environment. The results indicated that high-value carbon storage areas are focused in areas with forest cover, which have strong carbon storage capacity and are the largest carbon sinks in ecosystems. Likewise, the highest habitat quality was also observed in these areas, and in places where the vegetation is fragmented and the surrounding environment is occupied by human threat sources, the quality of the habitat has decreased. Spatially, carbon storage and habitat quality Indicated a low-high-medium spatial distribution pattern from north to south. The maps of ecosystem service created in this study can be useful in identifying potential areas of carbon storage supply and habitat quality, and provide a scientific basis for further discussion by policymakers about future land use planning, from the perspective of minimizing climate change and increasing biodiversity.

The present study is a combination of documentary and survey methods in terms of applied purpose. Documentary and field methods have been used to collect the required information and data. Also, according to the purpose of the research, among the households of selected villages, 352 households have been determined as a sample using Cochran's formula. In particular, in this study, using Gephi and GIS spatial analysis software and network analysis methods, the flows and relationships mentioned in the study area have been analyzed in order to form a regional network based on links. And to integrate integrated rural-urban development. The results show that there is a direct correlation between flows and the level of development of rural settlements to form a regional channel. Spatial flows, especially economic flow, and population, have provided the background for urban-rural interactions in the study area, and in the first level network hierarchy, all cities and rural centers are subordinated to the Hanza urban center with the highest score in providing services. In fact, the lack of spatial development planning to regulate the relations and connections, and consequently the lack of attention to the role of the surrounding villages of Hanza, has caused us to not be able to direct the currents and factors that shape and influence these connections which pave the way for the development of the whole system.

Metropolitan regions as a new form of urbanization are expanding rapidly and under the influence of different factors, have different growth patterns. The main purpose of this article is to investigate the evolution of form in the metropolitan area of Tehran under the influence of urban land expansion during the years 1986 to 2016 using the urban land density function. The results of this study show that the trend of urban land expansion in recent years has shifted the shape of the region to a scattered and decentralized pattern. The results of the study of the expansion of urban land in the form of the region at the middle and micro level show that other cities around the metropolis of Tehran have become wider and more scattered over time. Findings show that over time, urban density in urban areas and rural areas and around the metropolis of Tehran has increased under the influence of urban expansion waves.  In the metropolitan area of Tehran, the increase in the boundary between the urban edge and the surrounding areas over a period of thirty years describes the vast urban expansion. In the metropolitan area of Tehran, in recent years, the slope, changes in barren lands, distance from built-up areas, changes in agricultural use, and distance from main roads have had the greatest impact on the expansion of urban land. The rapid growth and urban sprawl in a metropolitan area in metropolitan areas, above all, affect the peripheral areas and cause a disruption of the spatial order, the destruction of natural lands around, increasing marginalization and informal settlement and integration of areas. It becomes a village in the urban space.

Despite having abundant wealth, power, and resources and making great efforts to bring about regional balance, there is a deviation from spatial equality in Iran’s structure, which has led to the establishment of center-periphery structure as the dominant model in Iran. This structure has been created due to many factors, forces, and currents. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to present a theoretical model of spatial inequality in Iran using Lynham’s theorizing method. There were five steps in the application of this method. In the first method, i.e., conceptualization, the theoretical model was developed using meta-synthesis method and MAXQDA software. The obtained model entailed a host of concepts and components. These included  context-based  theory-driven discourse, centralization and making the periphery dependent, the reverse results of development plans, unequal power relations, inequality of benefits and wealth (economic inequality), inappropriate policymaking and management, weak local and regional management as opposed to central power, unbalanced distribution of population and activity in geographical spaces, and unbalanced distribution of natural resources. These concepts, grouped into ideological, economic-political, and contextual discourses, have created spatial inequality and center-periphery relationship in Iran.

As one of the most important and influential urban planning approaches, comprehensive plans can be considered from the different and relevant dimensions and aspects such as the planning system, the content of plans, preparation-approval process, and execution procedure. Hence, this research focuses on the reasons for the inefficiency of comprehensive plans, especially concerning the nature and the substance of this urban planning approach. To this end, in addition to reviewing relevant theories and views, objective instances of the mentioned reasons have been pursued. Therefore, Nowshahr’s Comprehensive Plan was assayed for the ex-post evaluation of plan implementation to assess its efficiency and feasibility in certain aspects, including social and physical dimensions. Following a linear and one-way procedure, inflexibility and lack of realism, single vision and mostly physical solutions, providing too many details based on static and solid frameworks, and the impossibility of accurate predictions are the substantial critical reasons for the inefficiency of urban planning based on comprehensive plans approach. These factors are the challenges that Nowshahr’s Comprehensive Plan also suffers from them identically. The unrealistic approach in determining the city limit, an incorrect policy of using open spaces and increasing density in contradiction with the ecological, touristic, and port nature of the city, failure to realize most of the proposed land uses, and consequently, a severe shortage of service spaces, are among the most apparent objective instances regarding the inefficiency of Nowshahr’s Comprehensive Plan according to the mentioned substantial reasons. Considering the reasons for inefficiency and analysis of the objective instances are an essential strategy that can differentiate the substance of urban plans, especially ones prepared based on the evolution in urban planning and substitution of new approaches, from the old and traditional cases and make them successful more than before.

The usefulness of many forms of spatial studies relies on the nature of the topics under study. Geographers and urban planners have a long-lasting tradition of studying the data derived from spatial issues at regional and urban levels. Nonetheless, no standard has been offered so far on the provision of statistical results in the form of spatial units. Therefore, the results of the previous studies in this field have been influenced by the scale and zoning effects. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of scale and zoning on the spatial unit results. To this end, the rural areas located in the southern parts of West Azerbaijan province were selected. This study adopted the critical positivism approach and used quantitative data collection and analysis. Moreover, this research project was descriptive-analytical in terms of method and applied in terms of purpose.  The statistical population of the study included 1143 villages with an overall population of 418948 in 9 southern cities of West Azerbaijan province. The study was done using 8 indices of rural services, which were composed of 77 indicators in total. Then, the effect of scale and zoning on the results was analyzed. The results showed that the value of Moran’s statistic related to the overall index of rural service distribution level has been 0.39 at city, 0.06 at rural district level, and 0.05 at village level. Accordingly, the distribution of rural services has been clustered at the city level, but has been random at rural district and village levels. Moreover, the results of the rural services overall index was 15.09 at city level, 10.88 at rural district level, and 2.31 at village level. This shows that by changing the spatial unit scale, the results of the spatial distribution of services has totally changed. This finding is true for zoning, too; with a change in the zoning pattern, the results of spatial units have changed. These findings show that the nature of rural service distribution alters with the change in the scale and zoning models.

The growing role of science and technology in economic development makes the necessity of policymaking and planning for the science and technology system more important. In line with centralized, top-down planning approaches to science and technology policymaking, the spatial planning approach is a bottom-up effort to identify regional capacities and potentials in order to provide an endogenous and balanced model for the development of science and technology. Although the spatial planning approach in its general form has a multi-decade history in the planning literature, the optimization of this approach in the science and technology governance needs methodological innovations. The purpose of this study was to provide a science and technology spatial planning methodology using institutional mapping. To this end, we used two cross-sections. On the one hand, we took into account innovation within a regional system, and on the other hand, we adopted the institutional mapping to attain a method for its analysis and estimation. In this system, first the institutions of the science and technology institution including the science institution, the technology institution, and the market institution were identified, and then the interconnection capabilities of these three institutions and their subsidiaries were evaluated. This was done through the extraction of the similarity graph. The similarity graph, which was obtained through the quantification of binary relationships of the science and technology system sub-institutions, expressed the diversity and intensity of the connections of each institute with other institutes. The more diverse and intense the relationships among the institutions were in general, the more optimal the science and technology system would be. Ultimately, observing this graph, the policymaker can design a scenario for moving toward regional balance for each of these institutions so that in the predetermined chronological horizons, the institutional proximity is increased and the agreement and accord of the institutions are enhanced.