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Wetlands play an important role in the life of the planet. In order to preserve and revive the wetlands, decision-makers need to employ appropriate approaches and tools to identify the main driving forces and this could be an important step toward adopting effective strategies and making critical decisions. The current study used the combined analytic network process with driving forces-pressures-state-impacts-responses framework in mulino decision support system. The Parishan wetland, located in Iran, has been selected as the case study. After an initial study of the conditions of Parishan wetland and identifying the stakeholders, the opinions of experts and local residents were gathered to identify the most important parameters influencing the conditions of the wetland. The analytic network process model was used to improve and reduce the number of input parameters to mulino decision support system. Then, the most important and the best responses associated with the management of Parishan wetland were identified through questionnaires and imported into mulino decision support system along with other components. Finally, the mulino decision support system decision algorithm was run. The findings revealed that reduced precipitation, land-use change, competition of farmers in the wetland to use water resources, and increased temperature were the main driving forces. Moreover, water transfer from the Nargesi Dam was chosen as the most effective response. The results suggest that the driving forces-pressures-state-impacts-responses framework in mulino decision support system algorithm combined with analytic network process model can be used as an integrated tool to study and manage wetland socio-ecological ecosystems.

Due to the fact that urban environments and population demands are evolving rapidly and species selection is inevitable, it is possible to gain substantial environmental benefit by implementing more effective urban tree planting programs, especially with the aim of increasing the upcoming provision of multiple ecosystem services (ES) through proper species selection. In this paper, we used a new approach to improve the potential of urban trees in optimizing more desirable environmental benefits. This was done by selecting the most appropriate tree species among a vast range of species based on their potential environmental function (both services and disservices) in Tabriz city, Iran. Also, three main planting scenarios (divided to six sub-scenarios) were developed so as to understand the long-term effectiveness of introducing the selected tree species in improving the environmental benefits (both urban forest structure and ES) in comparison with planting the existing tree species. The results indicate that regardless of the quantity of planting, the benefits of introducing the selected trees will be more than planting the existing species. Moreover, as the amount of the annual planting of the recommended species increases, so does the improvement in the projected tree characteristics and ES. This approach creates more opportunities which enable urban forest managers and policymakers to understand the importance of selecting the proper urban tree species when looking for a nature-based solution to promote the wellbeing of the urban population, to create more livable and ecologically sustainable cities and to mitigate urban environmental problems.

Promoting urban greenery through tree planting strategies has been considered as a measure to mitigate climate change. While it is essential to understand the temporal dynamics of urban forest structure as well as its services and contribution to human wellbeing in cities, it has hardly ever been examined whether the future contributions of these services after different possible planting strategies can comply with climate change policy goals; these are topics rarely discussed in urban planning and management. In this paper, the ecosystem services currently provided by urban trees (through carbon sequestration and storage), as well as those potentially provided in the future, were quantified using the i-Tree Eco model, and their contribution to climate change mitigation was evaluated. As a case study in Tabriz, Iran, we developed four possible scenarios. Synergy (urban temperature regulation by UF) and trade-off (tree water requirements) were also analyzed. Future carbon sequestration and storage potential of urban trees was compared with the estimated future carbon emissions. The current contribution in Tabriz is relatively modest (about 0.2%), but it can be tripled through long-term tree planting strategies. Additionally, the temporal cooling effects and tree water requirements increase as climate change mitigation improves through tree planting. We conclude that urban tree planting has a small impact on carbon mitigation in the study area, most likely because of the young age of trees in Tabriz as well as the fact that the planted trees cannot deliver all their benefits over a 20-years period and need more time. Thus, the use of urban trees serves only as a complementary solution rather than an alternative climate mitigation strategy. Our quantitative approach helps urban environmental policymakers to evaluate how much they can rely on urban forest strategies to achieve climate change mitigation targets.

Tree planting practices are being increasingly advocated as measures to improve the air and living quality in urban landscapes around the world. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of quantitative understanding of the effects of the increases in tree cover on the future potential of urban forests when it comes to air quality improvement. Therefore, this research aims to assess and quantify the current and future biophysical and monetary value of the regulating ecosystem service provided by urban forest in Tabriz, Iran (as a case study). Both the current conditions and future prospect are assessed through tree planting scenarios based on the i-tree Eco model. The results indicate that the trees and shrubs removed 238.4 t of pollutants during a year (in 2015), which suggests only a modest potential in air purification when compared with other cities around the world. However, through appropriate – though feasible – urban forest management and development practices, they may improve up to 814.46 t cumulatively over the next 20 years. Tree planting schemes have different efficacies in terms of providing air purification services. Our data-rich temporal approach allowed identifying the optimum tree planting strategy, taking into account the growth and mortality dynamics. Thus, the paper illustrates a methodology to assess the current and future potentials of urban forests to reduce air pollution at the city-scale, which helps the development of future urban tree planting strategies in cities to improve air quality as well as the management of the green infrastructure. Our approach paves the way for the quantitative assessment and optimization of the future condition of (urban) ecosystem services.

Information on sustainability can be used for future development planning. This study presents an approach for assessing urban sustainability. Delphi and fuzzy logic methods and the Kruskal–Wallis test were the discovery and verification techniques used. The city system comprised social, economic, and environmental subsystems. The seven orientors of existence, effectiveness, freedom of action, security, adaptability, coexistence, and psychological need were measured using different indicators. The final sustainability output was obtained by aggregation of the multiple orientors and subsystems sustainability values into a unified measure. A fuzzy sustainability index was developed to compare the importance of the sustainability orientors and subsystems. The model was applied to Mahshahr, an industrialized coastal city in Iran. The model output for the subsystems showed significant differences between the economic and environmental subsystems and the social subsystem. The final sustainability output showed ...

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.

Industrial development has lead to higher energy consumption, emission of greenhouse gases, as well as air pollutants. Cement factories play an important role in over all greenhouse emissions. This study aims to investigate the role of Iranian cement industries and their contribution of greenhouse gases contribution. The measured emission factors for oil and fuel gas shows that carbon dioxide contribution from fuel oil based cement industries is almost 2.7 times higher than gas based cement factories. The strength, weakness, opportunity and threat technique analysis showed that the best strategy to combat greenhouse gases from Iranian cement factory is to implement energy efficiency measures. Further, strategic position and action evaluation matrix analysis indicates that Iranian cement industries fall within invasive category. Therefore, exploitation of opportunities must carefully be used. One of these opportunities is the utilization of financial assistance provided by clean development mechanism. The results show that replacement of ball mills with vertical roller mill can reduce the electricity consumption from 44.6 to 28 kWh/ton. As a result of such substitution about 720 million kWh/y of electricity would be saved (almost a power plant of 125 MW capacities). Though implementation of new mills may not be economic for the cement industries' owner, but the overall gain for the government of Iran will be about US$ 304 million. If the duration of such efficiency measure is considered as about 12 y, then the overall CO 2 reduction/phase-out would be around 4.3 million tons.

Due to the high potential of petrochemical industry in the creation of environmental impact, environment impact assessment of the development of petrochemical industry is very important. The aim of this study is to provide and test a fuzzy model for environmental impact assessment of petrochemical industries as a decision support system in planning process and the development of petrochemical industry. To test this model, the Lorestan province was chosen as the study area. In order to assess the impact of petrochemical industry in Lorestan, the combination of RIAM method and fuzzy theory was used. First, using check lists and holding meetings with experts, the type of petrochemical industry impacts on environmental factors was determined. Next, the effects of project activities on environmental factors were scored; the fuzzy scoring was done using defined criteria in MATLAB software. Environmental components considered in the method used were divided into 4 main factors including physicalchemical, biological-ecological, social-cultural and economic-functional and 33 sub-factors, assessment of nonimplementation, construction and operation stage was carried out individually. The results show the most important environmental impacts of petrochemical projects, water and soil pollution, air and noise as well as its socioeconomic consequences. The results showed that the operation in petrochemical industry will create more important implications than the construction stage, some of them in terms of lack of control and environmental management, are irreversible and damaging.