Introduction Previous studies on visual landscape assessment mainly involved landscape perception and preference. The visual landscape assessment queries the extent landscape meets a set of specified criteria. In landscape perception assessment, these criteria generally include aesthetic or landscape preferences.1,2 The concept of aesthetics has often been ignored by rational planners.3 Contrary to basic planning approaches, visual assessment studies attempt to integrate esthetics into planni

Introduction The term carbon footprint was not familiar few years back but now it is being widely used by the government and business world. Carbon footprint is a term that can lead to reduced carbon emissions by altering the activities or processes or products to those which are environmental friendly in order to decrease the global climate change1. Climate change has now become a major concern leading to serious issues such as increase in earth’s temperature, increased flood an

Introduction Monitoring of the state of the environment in the waterway itself and in the entire catchment area is an important tool that should enable decision-makers to correctly determine the priorities in Environmental Management Plans to achieving benefits for its sustainable development 1,2,3,4,5. The Drina River basin extends to 4 countries (Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia), and the state border between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina is located in the middl

Introduction Air pollution in North Africa and the Middle East is receiving increase attention due to its health consequences.1,2,3,4 The Middle East is impacted by frequent dust storms in addition to regional long range transport of air pollution, carried by winds from three neighboring continents: Europe, Africa, and Asia.5 The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan with a population of eleven million and a land area of 89,000 square kilometers, has undergone an unprecedented rate of growth in the

Introduction In most of period, human settlements are going through progress and revolution. Universal Changes, that appear in all of the world, have most significant impact on the development and formation of cities.1 These progress and revolution have affected several urban problem in political, cultural and economical, and managed to arise of environmental problem. Today urban identity in all aspect of city characteristics 2 depend on the entire history and social charact

Introduction It is an acceptable fact among the scientists that there is a relationship between anthropogenic activities and accelerated climate changes such as greenhouse gases which are produced from using the fossil fuels and changing the vegetation cover for the seek of urbanization and development.1 Hence, discussion of the global environmental change (GEC) has been increased among the scientific communities which proved its existence in various parts of the world.2 The

 Introduction In Islamic written and documents Ahar has been introduced as a developed city and the location of mystics and thinkers. Its location in the connecting path of Ardebil and Tabriz has contributed to the enhancement of the city’s significance. The religious-cultural, political, commercial issues, and the short distance from Tabriz, are among other factors contributing to Ahar’s gaining significance in the course of history. The monastery of Sheikh-Shaha

Introduction In the present scenario urban air pollution becomes a prime concern across the world in both developed and developing countries. Urban sprawl, industrialization and extensive transportation in the urban areas have resulted the poor air quality that affects the both human health and the surrounding environment.  Atmospheric nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) are major groups of air pollutants in the urban atmosphere.1 NMHCs are a group of natural and anthropogenic a

Introduction Lung diseases are the pinnacle of occupational diseases. Chronic exposure to irritants at work site can lead to pulmonary disease that may persist for prolonged period, even after the exposure ceases. Occupational lung diseases (OLDs) are a broad group of pulmonary diseases developing either from repeated or persistent inhalation of particulate matters, which causes morbidity and even mortality of the workers. The prevalence of OLDs are a major health issue in the workers exposed

Introduction Historical urban areas. Having cultural values, is a part of social identity and is the identity of every country. This texture is a memorial of old people and must be preserved like a precious cultural treasure. In other words, historical centres require special attention for its value, proximity to city identity and remembrance .Features of open urban spaces, particularly central spaces such as plaza situated at the core of historic city, are directly related to rising selected

Introduction In the urban atmosphere nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) are most important groups of air pollutants.1 It is an important precursor of ground level ozone (O3)2–6 and  peroxy acyl nitrates (PAN) formation which can injurious to human health and vegetation.7–11 These NMHCs are emitted from both anthropogenic and natural sources in the ambient atmosphere. Thus, major anthropogenic sources are fossil fuel combustion12 automobile exhaust,

Introduction Ulmus wallichiana, the Himalayan Elm, is a fast growing tree species which grows in Himalayas from Kashmir to Uttarakhand between the elevations of 900 to 3000m amsl. The Himalayan Elm grows to a height of about 30m, with a broad crown having several ascending branches. The bark of the trunk is vertically furrowed and grayish brown in colour. Before the introduction of populous deltoides, it was the most cultivated tree species of the Kashmir valley having multifarious uses viz.,

Introduction Terminalia arjuna is a fast growing tree having high biomass production potential and ability to grow on marginal and degraded lands. It has immense economic importance in various industries viz., pharmaceutical, timber, paper, soap, match, food, fodder and fuel. The dried stem bark of Terminalia arjuna has been used widely as a drug in Ayurvedic medicine as a cardio-tonic, for injury or wound, blood disorders, obesity, urinary disorders and ulcer or wound. The tree spec

Introduction The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was drafted in Rio in 1992 and since then the issue of conservation of forests has become a major concern worldwide. About 40% of the Earth’s surface is covered by forests and woodlands which form the biodiversity rich areas occurring throughout the world.1 The global biodiversity is concentrated in the forests.2 Tropical dry deciduous forests are one of the largely neglected natural resources all over the w

Introduction Pesticides used to protect crops have led to increased crop yield in the modern world. However, unscientific use of various types of pesticides as affected various forms of life in the environment directly and indirectly. Persistent Organochlorine Pesticide (OCPs) has been applied continuously in the last century to improve the agricultural productivity. These OCPs being persistent organic pollutants and their metabolites are still present in the environments which are having mut

Introduction The Himalaya mountain region is one of the richest and most unusual ecosystems on Earth.1 Indian Himalayan region covers about an area of 4,19,873 Km.2 The unique physiography, climatic conditions, and soil features of the area have resulted in a mixture of habitats and a substantial biological diversity. The Himalayan region affirmsapproximately 8000 plant species (47.06% of the total flowering plants of India) of which 30% are endemics among natives, 10.2% tre

Introduction Aerosol and air pollution play a crucial role in the urban climatology. Urbanization, industrial development, biomass burning and fossil fuel combustion processes due to growing anthropogenic activities have led to increasing the air pollution that also interferes in the microclimatology of a city.1,2,3 Increasing aerosol loading has caused health related problems associated with air quality problems and has also impacts on the aviation safety due to reduction in the vis

Introduction Human beings are vulnerable to more than half of the dose exposure from natural radiation sources1,2 ­­of the radon (222Rn) and its progeny, produced during the radioactive decay chain of uranium (238U) contributing approximately 55% of internal radiation exposure to human life.3 Radon coming on to contact with the land surface get mixed with the groundwater depending on various factors and its level depends on the radium concentration. Groundwater can

Introduction Climate change is also one of the threats among several other impacting on water resources. Scarcity of water resources, pollution and climate change will be the major emerging issues in the current and next century. Climate change and global warming is the result of a build-up of greenhouse gases (GHG), chiefly carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere. Global climate models (GCMs) are fundamental tools for predicting future climate to enable developing a better understanding of climate

Introduction Atmospheric particulate matter represents a complex mixture of organic and inorganic substances of varying size and may enter an organism or plant in a number of ways. Roadside vegetation communities are greatly affected by the dust from highways and roads due to changes induced in biochemical parameters (ascorbic acid content, pH, Relative Water Content, total chlorophyll content).Particulate pollutants can cause many lethal effects on plants like stomatal clogging, reduced phot

Introduction In rough set, data analysis starts from a table referred to as decision or information table representing an information system.30 A wide range of scientific and medical applications, especially in the field of pattern recognition, data mining, machine learning and process control systems adopted the rough set as a suitable tool.29 Zadeh introduced Fuzzy set theory to the researchers and mathematicians in 1967 stating that, it is not required to have a precise,

Introduction Water is one of the most precious resource on earth without which there would be no life on this planet.1 Inspite of enormous volume of water on the planet, only a small portion is available for use.  About 97 per cent of total water is present in oceans and seas which is saline water, and is not useful while fresh water makes up only 2.6 per cent and 4/5 of that is immobilized as ice.2 This small quantity of fresh water is responsible for sustaining al