Objective(s): To study characteristics and opium use pattern in patients attended to Ardabil addiction treatment center.Methods: In this retrospective and descriptive analytic study the characteristics of the self-introduced addicts attended to Ardabil admission and treatment office of the welfare organization were studied using their records (n=384).Results: 97.8% of the clients were male with mean age of 38.4 years old and 86.9% were married with average of 4 children. 85.3% of the samples were smoker and 10.7% of the cases had the history of opium consumption in their first-degree family members. The mean age of starting drug abuse was 28.8 and the average time between addiction and attending for giving up was 8 years. 37.9% of the samples had 1-2 times history of abandonment of addiction; 3.6% of them had used syringe in common and 8% of them had committed other offences in addition to addiction. The consumed narcotics were opium (81.9%), heroin (9.9%), both opium and heroin (1.9%). The common ways of consumption were: fumigation (41.7%), eating (30.5%), injection (6.7%), and both eating and fumigation (21.1%). There was a significant relation between kind of consumed narcotics and age, consumption way and marital status (P<0.05).Conclusion: It is necessary to carry out similar epidemiological studies to understand precise status of addiction throughout the Ardabil province, its cities and townships.

Tourism planning requires understanding the interaction between supply and demand and the impact of each in relation to the other; Therefore, planning the destination of tourism is one of the important factors of development planning. In the meantime, network analysis is one of the most up-to-date and efficient analytics that enhances their power over superior centers by linking small centers. Given the weakness of the attraction and the diffusion of many tourism destinations, their arrangement in the form of a network helps to synchronize the potential of these destinations; Therefore, network analysis and its applications in regional tourism development are essential. This study aimed to increase the competitiveness of these attractions within the framework of network theory by using a descriptive-analytical method, and the research data were collected by field survey method. The statistical population of the study consisted of 79 villages around 5 tourism centers of ARDEBIL district. Data are analyzed using NODEXL software, and density, degree, contrast, self-centered computational networks and gravity relations graph. According to the study of tourism network and presenting the spatial pattern in ARDEBIL area, the research findings show that most single cell villages were studied in south east and southwest part of the region. The central and western part of the region, large multicellular villages, are located in the central, western and northeastern parts of the region. The region's multi-celled villages are located around the tourist centers of the region (ARDEBIL and Sareen). Therefore, regional development and tourism management should strive to strengthen the link between the region's attractions, and establish a complete network and linkage for optimal use of the region's attractions.

The expansion and growth of cities is a remarkable phenomenon in urban planning literature, so that unpredictable developments have become more evident in recent decades, especially in cities that have undergone changes in their physical structure following the promotion of their political role. The present paper seeks to identify the factors driving growth in the developed areas of ARDEBIL city and extract basic factors and variables by investigating development of ARDEBIL. In this study, 27 variables have been tested in 920 expansion blocks during the years 1996 to 2011 using GIS and factor analysis. Four main groups including congestion factor, external factor, access factor and facilities are identifi ed as driving forces of growth. The fi nal combination of four factors in the Arc GIS environment show that the north, east and south east blocks of ARDEBIL had a higher score than the other blocks; in other words, these factors have the most effect on the growth of these areas. In addition, the Southwest blocks with the lowest score of between 0 and 2 have had the least impact from among the factors mentioned.

Formulation of development strategies, identification of capabilities and shortcomings, and determination of the level of development based on appropriate indicators are necessary for effective regional planning. This study aims to use the component-oriented approach to evaluate the development of Ardabil (according to various aspects of development). This study has analyzed the developmental condition and comparative comparison of the parameters of different parts of development in ARDEBIL province using 60 indicators (in sectors of health, infrastructure, cultural, and economic). The research method is descriptive-analytical using a Multi-attribute technique for data analysis. Following the overall results achieved, the developmental condition of Ardabil province was unbalanced and this situation proved to be evident in various developing sectors (health, infrastructural, cultural, and economic). Following the results of the parameters of development in SAW, the highest average development of ARDEBIL is the cultural elements. This implies health sector is leading in the development of Ardabil province.

Nowadays, with a growing population and the increasing trend of recent droughts, scientific attention to the mentioned drought phenomenon is inevitable. In this study the Stream flow Drought Index (SDI) was used for analyzing the hydrological droughts over the last three decades in the northwest of Iran (ARDEBIL province). The periods of 3, 6, 9, and 12 months and also 5 and 10 years were selected for the spatiotemporal monitoring of the hydrological droughts. The temporal drought analysis showed that the most of drought events over the reference periods have occurred in the last 15 years. In other words, there was an approximately normal status in the most of stations in the first study period of 15 years. The most severe hydrological droughts occurred in the Poleh Almas and Poleh Soltani on the Balokhlo-Chai and Khiav-Chai gauging stations, respectively, at the 3- and 6-month scales in 2010. The results revealed that the most severe hydrological drought periods occurred in 2010.

In order to analyze the synoptic origin of frost days of ARDEBIL the daily temperatures of the four synoptic stations ARDEBIL, Pars- Abad, Khalkhal and Meshkin-Shahr of the province were obtained from the Meterological Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the 1995-2004 period. From the frost periods only three frost periods were selected. These were the earliest, the longest, and the latest frost periods. These periods were analyzed thoroughly on the daily weather maps of surface and 500 hPa.The analysis showed that the pronounced factor in producing the synoptic frosts of the area are mainly moving western anticyclones and Siberian High. The westerly systems are the frequent factor, but the strong and widespread frost happened when a ridge from Siberian High was extended to the province. On the 500 hPa level the extension of a deep arctic through over the area brings very cold air to the region.

Background & Objectives: Monitoring and quality control of water resources are important tools to manage and protect these valuable resources. Hiroo River is the principal source of water supplies for Khalkhal and Kosar cities. The purpose of this work was to investigate water quality of Hiroo River by NSFWQI and WILCOX indices.Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study; pH, DO, BOD, TS, NO3, PO4, turbidity, temperature, fecal coliform, EC, Na, K, Ca, and Mg were determined. NSFWQI and WILCOX indices were applied. Data were analyzed by determining the above mentioned quality indices.Results: In the optimum situation, NSFWQI was related to S1 with the value of 74 in February 2009 indicating good water quality. Minimum value of 53 was determined for NSFWQI at S3 in August 2009 representing medium water quality.Conclusion: Water quality was good in upstream (S1) due to lack of contamination sources, however, discharging wastewater of Khalkhal and Givi cities to the river decreased water quality gradually in downstream (S2 and S4). Average of data obtained indicates that all the monitoring stations fall in C (medium) category based on NSFWQI classification.

Tourism as a civilizational phenomenon is associated with numerous economic, social, cultural and environmental influences, and its prosperity and development are due to several factors such as favorable climate conditions, rich culture of nations, spectacular landscapes, utilization of communication networks, accessibility of recreation centers and, most important of all, historical works and civilizations of the past. Meanwhile, Ardabil is one of the provinces with a great potential in tourism, and the evaluation of its geographical characteristics of tourism, and its historical attractions and architecture is a step towards the development of its deprived areas. Recognition of existing tourist attractions and ranking tourist areas are the important dimensions and initial steps for tourism planning. In this research, based on library resources and field observations, in order to rank ARDEBIL towns in terms of tourist attractions, 19 indices have been employed in three groups of geo-tourism attractions, historical–architectural attractions, and wildlife and protected areas. Analytic hierarchy process was used to determine the indices weights, and Prometheus method was used to rank towns. Among the indices used in performing the ranking, the presence of springs and mineral springs, the most important and most influential index is considered among the indices of geo-tourism and historical–architectural. Results indicate that despite the lack of some important historical–architectural attractions, Sarein has been ranked first in the towns of the province, and ARDEBIL, Meshkinshahr, Namin, Parsabad, Bilehsavar, Nair, Germi, Kowsar, and Khalkhal are in the next ranks of this comparison. Finally, suggestions have been made to increase the tourist attraction by reference to the study results.