The assessment of the ecological potential of the environment is to determine and measure the potential power and the natural use type of the land. Therefore, the environment power assessment is a tool for the management of geographical space and strategic planning for sustainable development and correct use of land sources. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ecological potential of agricultural and rangeland use in Kangavar city with an area of ​​883.9 km2 using Makhdoom ecological model. To this end, the required data and ecological resources were collected and generated. After creating and combining the maps in the ArcGIS system in a multi-hybrid way, the maps of environmental units were constructed and the ecological potential of the area was evaluated using the features of each environmental unit. To do this, the indicators and variables that could be involved in each of these models were examined. To classify the ecological potential of the area for agricultural and rangeland uses and to produce the map of different classes potential, 15 parameters were used as criteria for weighting and measuring the power. The results of Kangavar city ecological potential assessment led to the extraction of 58 environmental units in 7 classes with completely suitable, suitable, weak, and unsuitable power classes for agricultural and rangeland use. An area of about 356.79 Km2 was found to have suitable and completely suitable power for agricultural use. In addition, it was estimated that an area of about 72.23 Km2 would be appropriate for rangeland and rainfed agricultural use with suitable power. An area of about 483.26 Km2 of Kangavar city is currently allocated to agricultural use, while the optimal area for this means is 356.79 Km2. Thus, the land use of an area of about 126.47 Km2 has been converted to agricultural purposes. According to the results, the lands of the region have been exploited more than their potential for agricultural use (irrigated and rainfed) and the lands with rangeland use have been changed to agricultural use.

Hospitals are among the most essential human services whose role in the health of the citizens is very important. One of the important issues related to hospitals in developed cities is determining the optimal location for their construction. In this study, in order to select the optimal hospital location, a combination of expert opinions, GIS, and MCDM was used. For this purpose, 12 criteria were selected for the spatial modeling of the potential areas of hospital establishment, and then the weight of each criterion was calculated using the weighting method of Analytic Network Process (ANP). Then, a map of the potential areas for the hospital establishment was prepared and 11 sites in the potential areas were selected. In the next step, the weight of each criterion was determined again using Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method. Then, by the integration of two weighting methods, i.e., ANP and CRITIC, with two MCDM methods, i.e., EDAS and VIKOR, these sites were ranked. The results of spatial modeling showed that the western half of the district is more suitable for the construction of a new hospital than the other areas. According to the results of the ANP, the distance from hospitals, and according to the results of the CRITIC, the seismic vulnerability were the most important criterions in determining the optimal hospital location. Based on the ranking results coming from CRITIC-EDAS, CRITIC-VIKOR, and ANP-EDAS, the site No. 1, and according to the ranking results of the ANP-VIKOR, the site No. 8 have been the most suitable places for the construction of a new hospital. In the light of the results of the site evaluations by experts, CRITIC-EDAS and CRITIC-VIKOR methods are more accurate for hospital location selection.

Up until now, Islamic Republic of Iran – rising from among people and adopting a religious and divine discourse – has provided a unique model of the administration of people’s affairs in various dimensions through the creation and enhancement of institutions and structures appropriate to its political system. Accordingly, the consideration of ideals in the form of structures, institutions, and approaches is an issue that has a unique role in strengthening the internal structure of this political system. In this article, using the descriptive-analytical method and collecting data through document analysis, library research, and survey methods, city council – as an institution rising from the public vote and a phenomenon similar to local parliament – are defined as the dependent variable. Moreover, in line with the identification of the dimensions and history of these councils, the position of council in Islamic thought is discussed. According to the obtained results, it can be maintained that councils’ importance has four important and effective aspects, namely participation in, distribution of, penetration in, and formation of the identity of power and internal structure strength. To this end, they play roles in four directions, namely strengthening the internal structure cohesion through providing identity to individuals’ roles, enhancing the influence of the Islamic political system in various layers of people and society, fulfilling the maximum participation of people and the role of people in governance, and the just distribution of resources based on reality and the local and national desires. It was found that councils have had greater effectiveness in the fulfillment of maximum participation and involvement of people in governance compared to other directions.

Various spatial instances and outcomes can be shown for every social phenomenon in the urban arena, and this indicates the spatial behavior of social phenomena. The examination of suchlike phenomena from the viewpoint of correlation and synergy reveals the existence of an interactional pattern among them. In this article, it is tried to provide a brief description of the spatial distribution of variables related to social harms such as joblessness, addiction, etc., in the form of spatial statistical analysis. The research method is descriptive-analytical, and it can be categorized as an applied study. In terms of data collection method, the study adopted library research. In order to analyze the data, we used spatial statistics tests in ARC GIS. In the light of the spatial structure of the social class and the spatial pattern of the variance of the rich and poor areas of Tehran, it was found that poverty and dispersion are among the main stimuli of the concentration of various social harms in poor neighborhoods.

Demographic changes in recent decades have led to rapid changes in Iran's urban system and its hierarchy, with one of its consequences being the increase or decrease in the ranking of cities in this system. The present study examines the position of Tabriz metropolis in the urban system of Iran from 1335 to 1395, and by forecasting the population of this metropolis by 2031, it tries to determine the future position of this city in the urban system of Iran. This study is practical in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of nature and research method. The data in the present study were obtained through document analysis and field study (questionnaire and interview). Interviews were used to understand the causes of emigration and a questionnaire was used to understand the causes of fertility decline in Tabriz metropolis. The sample sizes for both instruments were determined based on the saturation principle. The exponential model, Spectrum software, and rank mobility index were used to predict the demographic factors, population forecast, and the study of metropolitan rank changes in the urban system, respectively. The obtained results showed that the decrease in fertility rate and migration are the main reasons for the sharp decline in population growth in the metropolis of Tabriz, with the economic reasons being the main reason. In addition, assuming the fertility rates of 1.5, 1.8, and 2.1 in Tabriz, we will see 1.64, 1.69, and 1.74 million increases in the population of the city, respectively, as well as a decrease in the population of minors and a doubling of elderly population over 65 by the year 2031. The results of population forecast show that the position of Tabriz metropolis will be stabilized as the sixth largest city of Iran's urban system by 2031, but its distance from the seventh metropolis (Qom) will be less, which requires special attention and proper management to prevent its rank from falling again.

The goals of the present study were to analyze changes in land cover and to estimate a future scenario for 2028 using an artificial neural network in the Karaj Metropolis. To this end, the effects of land use changes in response to urban expansion on landscape patterns were investigated in three baseline, current, and future scenarios using landscape metrics and gradient analysis. The results showed that during a 22-year period, the agricultural and Garden lands have been severely damaged due to urban expansion. The results of the evaluation of changes in landscape also indicate that urban expansion in in development in the north-south transect to the margins (especially northward) and the east-west transect with a gentle slope to the west of the region. It is also anticipated that in the future scenario, if the current trend continues, the northern margin of Karaj metropolis will be changed from natural environment to a completely human-made one. Therefore, considering the results of the Pd and Ed metrics in both transects over the three examined years, it can be said that the area has expanded to the margin and there has not been much changes in the landscape of downtown. In addition, the decrease in the Pd and NP in all three scenarios indicates the consistency of urban landscape. In general, population growth and urban development have made the landscape pattern in Karaj metropolis to be a more regular and less varied one. The results indicate that spatial heterogeneity has altered the landscape patterns. Therefore, the growth of construction land in some areas should be restricted, and balanced development should be adopted to prevent the fragmentation of the landscape.

The habitat development and establishment are directly related to the natural bedrock and geomorphologic complications. Due to topographical and geological conditions, the area under study has certain limitations in locating and developing human settlements. In order to reduce the hazards in the southeast of Khorasan Razavi province and modify plans for the development and establishment of human settlements, the feasibility of the area under study for residential development was investigated. After conducting library and field studies and selecting appropriate criteria, the fuzzy logic model was applied using the GIS software to identify areas for habitat development and establishment. In this study, to identify the potential areas for habitat development and establishment based on geomorphologic landforms, eleven parameters – including slope, slope direction, elevation, soil, land use, elevation, distance from fault, distance from river, distance from road, distance from settlement, and geomorphology – were used as independent variables in identifying geomorphological abilities and bottlenecks in the area. The results of zoning based on the fuzzy model showed that about 61% of the study area is located in very inappropriate and inappropriate classes, which means that geomorphological conditions in this part of the study area are unfavorable for the development and establishment of human settlements. About 14.58% of the study area has moderate conditions and about 24% of the study area shows favorable geomorphological conditions for construction activities and creation of new habitat areas. Alluvial fan units and alluvial plains are the most suitable sites for habitat development and establishment.

Investigating the changes in groundwater aquifers in planning the sustainable management of water resources in each region is of particular importance. Therefore, reducing the level of groundwater aquifer changes requires proper management and planning to exploit water resources. In this study, the level of groundwater aquifer changes in Urmia Lake basin was examined for the period from 2002 to 2017 using GRACE satellite data (JPL, GFZ, CSR triple bands, CRI Filtered model, time and space filter, and Lew-Thiknth uncertainty dry product) in the Google Earth Engine. The results of the triple bands showed that the JPL band estimated the average level of groundwater aquifer changes on May 1, 2004 as 14.947 cm, while the GFZ band on estimated this as -30.558 cm on September 1, 2015 and the CSR band estimated this amount as -28.206 cm. Therefore, CRI Filtered model can very accurately identify the boundary between land and water zones. The results showed that this model estimated the maximum thickness of liquid water in the groundwater aquifer at March 31, 2002 as about 11.599 cm and its uncertainty at about 9.767 cm. It can be said that the least amount of thickness of liquid water is estimated on 13 August 2015 as 12.309 cm with an uncertainty level of 10.759 cm. According to the results, the level of groundwater change in aquifers in terms of liquid water thickness parameter (Lew-Thiknth) in the northern parts of the Urmia Lake basin and in terms of uncertainty in the northeastern part of the Urmia Lake basin is experiencing a strong decline in the aquifer water levels.

The land-use changes and urban development are among the fundamental topics of spatial planning. Monitoring changes in previous years and predicting these changes in the coming years have a significant role in planning and organizing urban spaces. The purpose of this study was to investigate land-use change and urban development in Ahvaz with a landscaping approach based on balanced urban development. .Images of TM (1989), ETM+ (2002), and OLI (2019) of the Landsat satellite are the basis for analyzing this trend. LCM model was used to identify the past changes, while CA-Markov chain model was applied to predict the future changes. These images were classified using a support vector machine algorithm of the object-oriented method, and the land-use maps were prepared using three sensors with four classes of vegetation, barren areas, constructed areas, and water zones. The accuracy of maps was improved separately using NDVI and SAVI indexes in the classification of the images. The efficiency of the indexes was measure by kappa coefficients and the overall accuracy of land-use maps, and then changes were investigated using maps related to the superior index. The results showed that maps related to the SAVI index were more accurate and accordingly, they were used in assessing land-use changes. The LCM model showed that in the periods 1989-2002 and 2002-2019, 2602.92 hectares and 31174.77 hectares were added to the built areas, respectively. In both periods, the most changes were about converting barren lands to built-up areas and the least changes were related to the transformation of the built-up areas to water areas. The results of the CA-Markov model until 2029 showed the continuity of the increasing trend of built-up areas, such that in ten years, 2238.82 hectares will be added to the built-up areas, and it is anticipated that the area will reach approximately 12345.63 hectares by 2029.

Nowadays, problems related to the environment, society, and identity of cities derives from their expansion and the increasing penetration of natural space by human-made space. Green spaces are deemed not only as a green patch at the disposal of the masses, but also as a factor for the improvement of citizens’ life. On the other hand, the destruction and removal of homogeneity and continuity of natural infrastructures and green networks threatens the biological diversity and brings about limitations for development. Therefore, continuity of the urban green spaces provides habitats and corridors that help the preservation of biological diversity. To develop green space networks, increase continuity, and revive biological diversity, urban planners have used landscape ecology principles. Adopting a descriptive-analytical method and review of the scientific resources, this study investigated landscape connections and their importance for the preservation of biological diversity. Maragheh city green space network was modeled in GIS according to Graph theory. Then, the ecologic continuity analysis was carried out through Conefor software along with Integral Continuity (IIC) measure and point picking algorithm, and the urban green patches were valuated. At the end, the potential corridors in Maragheh city were identified using the least cost method, which then developed and improved the green space networks. The results of this study reveal that the majority of the built corridors are located around the city like a green belt. The main reason for this is the positioning of the main habitats in the city outskirts. Moreover, the green space network developed based on Graph theory made the complex landscape simpler and more organized, and helped with the identification of green space and the guidance of urban planning for the protection of biological diversity.