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Different models have been proposed for disaster management by researchers and agencies. Despite their efficiency in some locations, disasters are still a fundamental challenge in the way of sustainable development. The purpose of this research is developing a comprehensive conceptual model for disaster management using thematic analysis. In this regard, first, disaster management models are collected. In the next stage, the themes of each model are extracted and categorised in three phases. In the first phase that is descriptive coding, available elements in each model are extracted as code and the basic themes are recognised. Then, in the phase of interpretive coding, basic themes are classified in three categories that are called organising themes (i.e. hazard assessment, risk management and management actions). In the final phase, strategic management is selected as the global or overarching theme to integrate all the other themes. Based on thematic analysis, it can be concluded that disaster management has three main elements that are the three organising themes. Therefore, comprehensive model of disaster management should include these three elements and their sub-basic themes that is called the ideal or criterion type. Results showed that some scientists have looked at disaster management one dimensionally (one theme). Even in two-dimensional models, one dimension has advantage over the other one. While the proposed typology in this study showed that the comprehensive model should include all the three mentioned elements.

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Regulating ecosystem services provided by urban forests are of great importance for the quality of life among city dwellers. To reach a maximum contribution to well-being in cities, the urban regulating ecosystem services (URES) must match with the demands in terms of space and time. If we understand the matches or mismatches between the current urban dwellers’ desired quality conditions (demand) and the supply of URES by urban forests (UF) in the cities, this will facilitate integrating the concepts of ecosystem services in urban planning and management, but such an assessment has suffered from major knowledge limitations. Since it is complex and problematic to identify the direct demands for URES and the spatiotemporal patterns therein, improving the demand indicators can help to determine the actual requirements. In this paper, a methodological approach based on indicators is presented and demonstrated for two important URES: air quality improvement and global climate change mitigation provided by urban trees and shrubs. Four air quality standards and greenhouse gas reduction targets were used and compared to supplies of the URES in Tabriz, Iran. Our results show that the mean contribution of the URES supply to air quality standards and greenhouse gas reduction targets is modest. Hence, in Tabriz, there is a strong mismatch between demand and supply. Mismatches at the city scale will have to be reduced by both a reduction in pollutant emissions and an increased provisioning of URES supply through urban greenery. The presented assessment approach and the results for Tabriz make it explicit how different the demands and supplies of the two studied URES are, and we expect similar mismatches in many other cities. Therefore, our approach, relatively simple but still realistic and easy-to-apply, can raise awareness about, and the utility of, the ecosystem services concepts for urban planning and policymaking.

Among all the diverse regions of Iran, Marivan is considered one of the touring poles in the country thanks to its unique views which play an important role in providing ecotourism potential. Currently, despite the importance of the issue, no specific study and planning have been done to locate proper zones for an outing. In this regard, evaluation of the land potential for any kind of activity such as recreational planning is the first step in planning. In this study, we evaluated and zoned the ecotourism potential of Marivan in Kurdistan province with fuzzy logic, FAHP, and TOPSIS, based on 15 criteria and applying GIS, where the outcome was zoning map of areas most suitable for ecotourism development. The results indicated that a total area of 3183 km 2 (included in the study), classes 4 and 5, respectively, with 151 and 513 km 2 constitute the most appropriate zones for ecotourism development. Among points with ecotourism attraction, the Zarivar Lake claimed the top priority while Anjiran Heights received the last priority.

License: Article 25fa pilot End User Agreement This publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act (Auteurswet) with explicit consent by the author. Dutch law entitles the maker of a short scientific work funded either wholly or partially by Dutch public funds to make that work publicly available for no consideration following a reasonable period of time after the work was first published, provided that clear reference is made to the source of the first publication of the work. This publication is distributed under The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) 'Article 25fa implementation' pilot project. In this pilot research outputs of researchers employed by Dutch Universities that comply with the legal requirements of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act are distributed online and free of cost or other barriers in institutional repositories. Research outputs are distributed six months after their first online publication in the original published version and with proper attribution to the source of the original publication. You are permitted to download and use the publication for personal purposes. All rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyrights owner(s) of this work. Any use of the publication other than authorised under this licence or copyright law is prohibited. If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons.

No abstract

Lake Urmia is the second largest hypersaline lake in the world in terms of surface area. In recent decades, the drop in water level of the lake has been one of the most important environmental issues in Iran. At present, the entire basin is threatened due to abrupt decline of the lake's water level and the consequent increase in salinity. Despite the numerous studies, there is still an ambiguity about the main cause of this environmental crisis. This paper is an attempt to detect the changes in the landscape structure of the main elements of the whole basin using remote sensing techniques and analyze the results against climate data with time series analysis for the purpose of achieving a more clarified illustration of processes and trends. Trend analysis of the different affecting factors indicates that the main cause of the drastic dry out of the lake is the huge expansion of irrigated agriculture in the basin between 1999 and 2014. The climatological parameters including precipitation and temperature cannot be the main reasons for reduced water level in the lake. The results show how the increase in irrigated agricultural area without considering the water resources limits can lead to a regional disaster. The approach used in this study can be a useful tool to monitor and assess the causality of environmental disaster.