Mehdi Gharakhlou’s research while affiliated with University of Tehran and other places

Having access to locations struck by natural environmental disasters is one of the chief necessities in urban disaster management. This paper aims to study different physical and semi-physical patterns for increasing access to different districts in a city through applying changes to the present network of routes. To attain this goal, District 6 of Tehran Municipality was selected for the case study. The technique used in this research is based on multi-criteria decision- making methods. Thus, the patterns and indices were extracted by means of AHP method, and then the indices were assigned weights. These patterns were, then, analyzed and ranked through TOPSIS, FUZZY and SAW techniques respectively. Next, the results were combined by means of Borda method. The results indicated that A4 pattern which obtained 7 maximum scores was the most efficient pattern in increasing access through changes in the network of routes. Next to it is A3 pattern which ranked second. It is, therefore, suggested that in order to increase access for rescue operation in urban disasters, parallel routes in directions of the first and second priority, east to west and north to south, must be constructed so that arterial roads in the district offer better services in normal and emergency conditions.

The present paper studies the objectives and functions of constructing the new towns before and after the revolution in Iran. Before the revolution, new towns were established based on political – bureaucratic objectives, for the operation of huge oil resources and affiliated industries, to accommodate the workforce in industrial complexes, to implement the policy of regional decentralization, to provide housing for the government employees, to attract the surplus population of large cities and to reconstruct the cities destroyed by earthquake. A type of economic and social development strategy was involved in establishing new towns. Although these towns function differently, they are mainly well-populated and active towns. After the revolution, fewer towns were planned. One of the strategies of urban development was to absorb part of the population of the overpopulated cities to provide housing to low-income groups, to accommodate employees of industrial sectors, and to decentralize anatomic and industrial sectors of large cities. Except the new town of Baharestan, which has achieved the 10-year objectives behind its construction for population and housing purposes, other towns which have merely succeeded to attract less population as they were planned, the new town have generally failed to achieve the 10-year envisaged goals and have converted into housing warehouses. At present these 17 new towns has been able to attract only 320548 persons while the three new towns of Ramin, Ramshahr, Tis, have not yet been successful to attract population.

Rapid assessment of the damaged buildings in a disastrous event is a drastic measure to be taken in order to allocate shelter to unsheltered people as quick as possible. Natural disaster as earthquake may cause considerable losses to the cities and prevent development processes. Urban planning as well as city designing projects aims to decrease vulnerability of buildings against earthquake. In this direction, the first step is to recognize and analyze the rate of damages exerted to every urban element using proper models. Spatial data along with attributes of building elements and their behaviors against earthquake shocks has been employed using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to evaluate the vulnerability of the city against earthquake shocks. Also the weight of every criterion in building destruction has been determined through this method using GIS analysis. Damages and life looses in different districts of the city were assessed and an earthquake zoning map of the city prepared for different earthquake intensities. The results disclosed that region 3 of Zanjan are due to very high degree of damage because of the old building as well as using low quality building material while region 2 of the city is the least vulnerable area due to using the stronger building material and applying the construction standard as the 2800 construction act.

International migrants are confronted with a series of complex regulations related to the departure from their country of origin, their arrival in their country of destination, and the conditions of their residency in the receiving country. A rapidly increasing number of migrants today are Iranians. Major destinations of Iranian migrants are Canada, Australia, the United States, and most European countries. This study will focus on the migration of Iranian to Canada. Iranian (also referred to as Persians) is one of many cultural groups in Canada. The purpose of this article is to understand the number and general situation of Iranian immigrants in Canada, and to provide sound and interesting information to Canadian government officials and to the Iranian public in general. Census data 2001 and custom tabulations (purchased from Statistics Canada) will be used to analysis data. Arc View software will also be used for creating the necessary map and figures. Our finding will enable the researchers to provide policy guidelines for immigration and other officials in Canada. It is also identifying avenues for future research on Iranian-Canadian immigration.

This paper investigates the effect of external factors and migration in the cultural change of the Qashqa'i neighbourhoods in Iranian cities. The Qashqa'i are a nomadic group of Turkish-speaking people in the south-central part of the country, and have a different language and culture from other Persian-speaking Iranians. The Qashqai Population is around one million, and 100,000 of this total still have a nomadic lifestyle (Nomad Organization, 2002). The Qashqa' i cultural change is a cause for concern in several regards. First and most critical, the urban Qashqa' i may lose their culture. Second, the Qashqa' i people played a key role in the history of southern Iran which involved vital contributions to national autonomy. Since census data do not track city-ward nomad migrants, survey questionnaires with systematic sampling were used to gather data. SAS ١ procedures were then used to analyse and explain cultural change of the Qashqa'i Neighbourhoods in the urban areas. Introduction There are many ways to view cultural change, and most researchers have been involved in the quest to understand the dynamics of this change. However, the underlying factors affecting cultural change vary among different societies. Beck (1981) states that government sponsored change in Iran from the 1950's to the 1970's had a great impact on the Qashqa' i lifestyle. Land reform, pasture nationalization, the dismantling of the socio-political organization, and education of nomads were main factors which played a central role in this regard (Gharakhlou, 2001). Bates & Plog (1991) state that handicraft is another way to study the culture of a society. The main purpose of this article is to address the processes of cultural change among the Qashqa'i regarding their migratory behaviour. The main elements of traditional Qashqa'i culture, are explained first. Then, the neighbourhoods of the Qashqa' i migrants are described to show how their intensified traditional culture practices have shaped separate geographical places in urban areas. In addition, the socio-cultural variables of the survey questionnaire are discussed to contrast changes in the Qashqa'i culture between place of origin and destination. Following this, we look at some common factors among the Qashqa' i such as language, clothing, music, food, hobbies, and carpet design to compare nomadic and urban Qashqa'i. Finally, with regard to a general profile of Qashqa'i cultural change, some anthropological concepts such as segregation, acculturation, integration, and assimilation are outlined as a means to evaluate the current state of Qashqa'i culture.