Determining the Relationship Between Landscape Structure and Mental Components on Thermal Assessment

Background: The urban open spaces and their effects on the physical and mental health highlights the attention on the quality of such spaces. Thermal comfort is an environmental component affecting the reactionary behavior of people in these spaces. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between mental components and landscape structure and its effects on the thermal assessment of individuals. Methods: In this study, we used the descriptive method for explaining the mental components and landscape structure. Then, the survey method was employed for determining the correlations between research variables. Finally, we used the experimental method for testing the variables using specific tools. Thermal analysis was done by computer simulation method using ENVI-met software in the Karoon river area in Ahvaz City, Iran. UTCI (universal thermal climate index) is the index used for assessing thermal comfort. To find out the relationship between the research variables, the field data were randomly collected by questionnaires using the Cochran formula. Results: The findings demonstrated the existence of a relationship between landscape structure and different mental states in individuals. The moods of the individuals in open spaces affect their perceptions of the landscape and thermal assessment of the environment. Conclusions: Eventually, and based on the study findings, it was found that people’s mental states in different situations affect their perception of the landscape’s quality and structure and reactionary behavior. It also influences their thermal assessment.

Flow pattern study in Beshar River and its two straight and meander reaches using CCHE2D model

In this study, flow pattern in Beshar River as a main branch of Karoon River has been analyzed using CCHE2D. For this purpose, a 12-km reach upstream of Shahmokhtar hydrometric station near Yasuj city was considered. The CCHE2D model was calibrated using different Manning’s roughness coefficients and different turbulent models; for this purpose, numerical results were compared with observation data for three different discharges. The results showed that for the medium and high discharges, less Manning’s roughness coefficients (0.015 ≥ n ≥ 0.025) and for low discharge, higher Manning’s roughness coefficients (0.035 ≤ n ≤ 0.050) are more suitable. Also, k–ε turbulent model is more effective in this study. Besides, variations of hydraulic parameters like water depth, velocity, shear stress and Froude number are calculated and discussed. The analysis of the flow and velocity pattern in the straight and meander reaches of the river shows that the changes trend of the water surface gradient and velocity in the cross sections of this two reaches are different. Due to effect of secondary currents, latitude gradient of the water surface and depth average velocities increase to the outer bank of the bend. But in the straight reach, latitude gradient of the water surface is almost zero and the maximum velocities are in the center-line of flow. The R-squared (RSQ) and linear correlation coefficient (r) factors between velocity and shear stress show that there is linear and direct relationship between these two hydraulic parameters in the entire study reach.

A Study on Profit Distribution for Water Rights Cooperation Taking into Account Dominant Power of Transfer Sectors

In this paper, we explore the issue of profit distribution for water resources collaborative alliances that are composed of one single water rights transfer sector and several water resources requirement sectors. Considering the dominant position of the water rights transfer sector in water resources cooperation, we propose a novel 3-step approach on profit distribution for coalitions by applying game theory for interactions that include coalition structures and permission structures. We examine the effectiveness of this approach by a case study of water rights cooperation between the agriculture sector and agroindustrial sectors of the Karoon river basin in Iran. The results show that this approach allows players who have veto rights to obtain more payoffs from the coalition’s profit distribution in contrast to using the Owen value. In other words, the distribution results of the 3-step approach reflect the advantage held by the water rights transfer sector based on its veto power. Further, our proposed 3-step approach takes the permission structure among a priori unions into consideration when distributing the profits of the water resources coalition while the P-Owen value considers only the permission structure among players.