International Journal of

Transformation of land use-land cover change occurs due to the numbers and activities of people. Urban growth modeling has attracted authentic attention because it helps to comprehend the mechanisms of land use change and thus helps relevant policies made. This study applied logistic regression to model urban growth in the Ahvaz Metropolitan Area of Khuzestan province in IDRISI Selva software and to discover what are driving forces effective on the urban growth of Ahvaz city, and with what intensity? Historical land use and land cover data of Ahvaz were extracted from the 1991and 2006 Satellite images. The following two groups of factors were found to affect urban growth in different degrees as indicated by odd ratios: (1) Constraints Distance to the Bridge, Rural Areas, Planned town and Industry activities (all with odds ratios<1_or coefficient <0); and (2) Number of urban cells within a 5·5 cell window, Distance to the Hospitals, Main Road, High Road, Rail Line, River, CBD and Secondary centers, agriculture areas in distance more than 5km of Urban area and Vacant area (all with odds ratios>1_or coefficient >0). Relative operating characteristic (ROC) value of 0.906 indicates that the probability map is valid. It was concluded logistic regression modeling is suitable for Understanding and measuring of driving forces effect on urban growth. Second, unlike the Cellular Automata (CA) model, the logistic regression model is not temporally explicit; urban growth trend in Ahvaz isn't in the event of infill development strategy. Also, variables of sprawl based agents indicate more power than to compact base agents.

Sound as a non-visual component of landscape, has a significant impact on individuals perception of space. Because unlike the landscape that seeing and looking is totally an optional action, soundscape regardless of people comes to be heard and understood. Lack of attention to quality of emitted sounds in the environment may leads to problems such as noise pollution, lack of concentration, noise annoyance, disturbance and lack of privacy in people conversation in the urban spaces. A qualitative- quantitative assessment of soundscape is essential. In this regard, Naghsh-e-Jahan square in Isfahan, Iran as an urban space needs to be studied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the physical indicators of soundscape in Naghsh-e-Jahan square and to discover people perception of sounds. For this, questionnaire (n=385) was used. Indicators of L_Aeq and L_denwere evaluated via St-8851 sound level meter. Field sound metering (429 points with 10 meters intervals near to the walls in depth of 2 and around the fountains and 20 meters intervals in the interior space) has done. In order to complete coverage of noise events and acoustic condition three temporal frameworks; day time (07-19), evening (19-22), night (22-07) were selected. All the field studies were in winter of 2016. Collected data entered into the GIS map and noise maps produced. Results of questionnaires showed that the most unpleasant sounds were motorcycle and cars and gharries and most pleasant sounds were water sound. Results showed that in some points such as around the central fountain, entrance of Qeysariyeh Bazar, loop between Sepah and Hafez St. and pass of carriages, and the mean overall L_den is higher than standard levels of noise in urban spaces 55 dB (A) and need to be controlled and reduces up to stand.