Carbon Sequestration in Desertified Rangelands of Hossein-Abad, Iran: A Participatory Approach

The Hossein-abad (H.A) area is located in Southern Khorasan Province of Iran and covers some 148,000 ha. This is one of the poorest regions in the country and has a large area of degraded rangelands. Following a request from local people and in line with national and global goals, a carbon sequestration initiative has been funded by I.R.Iran and GEF(Global Environmental Facility) from April 2003. The objective is to promote and model carbon sequestration through developing range species in cooperation with local people and using a participatory approach. The immediate target beneficiaries are the people living in the project area and communities living in the watershed basin

Sustainability of Wetlands in the Eyes of the New Generation of Environmental Engineering Students

This research paper investigates the general understanding and skills of young third-year environmental engineering students concerning the criteria for monitoring wetlands. Students were asked to describe approaches, data, and final solutions to identify and/or eliminate wetland odor. Over half of the students (55%) did not consider the “identification” strategy by which to determine the source of unexpected odors. The rest gave answers focused on “restoration” (24%) and “prevention” (15%) strategies, while 6% of the answers were unrelated. In fact, without knowing the causes and without thinking about the necessity/importance of visiting/surveying the site, students came up with a priori solutions. In their mind, the immediate cause of the odor could be a disturbed or unbalanced distribution/composition of ions, salts, or microbes in the water. Indeed, most data types (71%) were those related to “water”. As the final solution, 50% of responses considered “physical” followed by “legal and planning” solutions (32%). Each factor, including “Chemical” and “Biological”, constituted 9% of the answers. This research highlights engineering students’ communication skills, critical thinking and problem-solving abilities by contemplating class activities that simulate real-world situations. The research presumes that these engineering student cohorts represent typical student communities worldwide. Such findings contribute to policymaking in the engineering education system on a larger scale

Climate Change and Urban Citizens: The Role of Media in Publicising the Conservation of Green Spaces and Mitigation of Air Pollution

Urbanisation has become a challenge as the urban population grows while cities’ land areas, amenities, and green spaces have remained relatively unchanged or even declined. While urban areas are growing, the link between humans and nature is fading. Increasingly, cities are being affected by climate change impacts and so, the role of media in providing updated and correct knowledge to the public is becoming more valuable. Based on this theoretical ground, the research evaluated two printed Iranian newspapers’ functionality in informing the public on Tehran climate based on two main themes of air pollution and greenery spaces, spanning seven years (2007–2014). The paper evaluated the tone, style, and outline of messages publicised by the press media to explore the following questions: Which types of news are dominantly conceptualised as the significant debates and concerns on Tehran’s climatic issues? Who is mainly writing about Tehran’s climatic issues? Is the public being informed effectively on the surrounding arguments and issues by reading newspapers? As such, five self-descriptive indicators were developed: ‘Layout’ (Title, Subject, Content), ‘Message’ (Public Awareness, Educating, Alarming), ‘Contributor’ (Columnist, Researcher, Authority), ‘Spatiality’ (Local, Provincial, National, International), and ‘Allocated space’ (10% to 100%). A text analysis of Persian newspapers using a Structured Query Language (SQL) was employed to extract data. It was found that the news articles mostly covered public awareness, followed by alarming messages on climate. The findings highlighted the critical role of researchers in generating scientific news while encouraging media for disseminating more educating messages on climate change in urban areas

‘Environmental Impact Assessment’ in Drylands: Late Knowledge Penetration or a Deliberate Ignorance for Megaprojects?

Despite the paramount role of drylands in supporting people’s livelihoods and rendering ecosystem services, legislation on Environmental Impact Assessment has been introduced belatedly after several decades. By exemplifying Iran, the author proposes two main reasons for such a delayed action. First, drylands are misleadingly considered as barren lands where biodiversity is relatively low. In one classification, deserts are even categorized along with rocks. Second, the author emphasizes that drylands have been subjected to unprecedented changes due to the expansion of infrastructure and urbanization that started in the 1970s. These growing pressures have been beyond the ecological resilience of drylands and have not been monitored, assessed, and modified correctly. Further scrutiny regarding EIA undertakings in drylands and the way they can be improved is now needed