https://jhsci.ut.ac.ir/ Environmental Management Hazards en daily 1 Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0330 Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0330 https://jhsci.ut.ac.ir/article_107599.html Objective: Prioritizing sub-watersheds is a key component of watershed management, particularly in regions prone to hydrological extremes. This study investigates the influence of morphometric characteristics on flood hazard assessment in the Kan watershed, located in northwest Iran.Methodology: To achieve this, the weights of morphometric parameters were determined using three different weighting approaches, and ArcGIS 10.2 was employed to derive 17 morphometric indices for flash-flood modeling. Subsequently, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) models were applied to rank the sub-watersheds based on their flood-generating potential.Findings: The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) identified the Imamzadeh Davood, Talun, and Sangan sub-watersheds as the highest-priority zones with scores of 0.74, 0.50, and 0.41, respectively. Using the Analytic Network Process (ANP), the highest rankings were assigned to Imamzadeh Davood (0.97), Talun (0.51), and Doab (0.48). The Shannon Entropy method similarly ranked Imamzadeh Davood, Talun, and Rendan as the top three sub-watersheds with scores of 0.97, 0.68, and 0.52. Imamzadeh Davood and Talun consistently appeared as high-priority areas across all methods. Validation using the HEC-HMS hydrological model and statistical analyses confirmed the reliability of the MCDM techniques, with TOPSIS, ANP, and Shannon Entropy emerging as the most robust approaches.Conclusion: Overall, the findings demonstrate that integrating morphometric analysis with MCDM frameworks provides an effective and practical tool for flood hazard prioritization and watershed management in arid and semi-arid regions. https://jhsci.ut.ac.ir/article_107600.html Objective: This study investigates the automated and rapid monitoring of floods using remote sensing data and the Google Earth Engine (GEE) system in the Abdullah Abad watershed, Semnan Province. The aim of this study is to develop an efficient and automated method for identifying and monitoring floods in the shortest possible time using satellite data and rapid processing within the GEE platform. Methodology: This research was conducted using time-series data from Sentinel-1 and Landsat-8 satellites, along with other auxiliary datasets, within the GEE system. To monitor floods, the physiographic characteristics of the watershed were first examined, and the hydrological soil groups of the region were extracted to analyze the relationship between geological features and flood occurrence. Subsequently, an interactive web-based user interface was developed within the Earth Engine Apps platform, which automatically identifies and displays flood-affected areas. This interface, by integrating radar and optical data, detects water surface changes and classifies flood probability into three levels: low, medium, and high. Findings: The results demonstrated that the developed method can accurately identify flood-affected areas. Comparing flood monitoring maps with hydrological soil group maps confirmed a direct correlation between soil permeability and flood intensity. Areas with low permeability exhibited the highest likelihood of flooding, with flood-affected regions mainly located upstream of Abdullahabad village. Additionally, the low-slope plains in the region provided favorable conditions for flood expansion. Conclusion: This study revealed that the use of satellite imagery and automated processing in online systems can serve as an efficient tool for rapid flood monitoring and crisis management. The proposed method enables timely access to critical information for planning preventive measures and emergency response actions. https://jhsci.ut.ac.ir/article_107802.html Today, the world is exposed to unprecedented natural hazards, and floods are one of the most important of them, which, given the spatial extent of their occurrence, have the potential to become hazards with a high level of vulnerability. Therefore, one of the significant issues with the risk assessment approach is urban floods, which needs to be examined from a systemic perspective in urban areas. Accordingly, the present study assessed and zoned flood risk in the urban area of ​​Noorabad. In this regard, the research process was a combination of steps including determining the study area, identifying effective criteria in urban flooding including slope, slope direction, elevation, distance from the river, land use, lithology, precipitation, and slope curvature, weighting and prioritizing the floodplains based on their impact on the research problem, fuzzing the information layers based on fuzzy functions, and finally preparing a flood risk potential zoning map based on the FAHP model, and finally validating the model and field evidence. The results of the research showed that each criterion with its related sub-criteria played a role in the flood risk process in Noorabad to varying degrees, and among them, the criterion of distance from the river with a coefficient of 0.219 played the greatest role in flood risk. The final results from the zoning map showed that the majority of the study area, equivalent to 38%, is located in areas with high and very high potential for flood risk. Therefore, a significant part of the urban area of ​​Noorabad has the potential for flood risk, and these flood zones are significant in the river areas and adjacent to rivers throughout the city. The more complementary results of this study showed that apart from the areas mentioned above, due to the cumulative role of effective parameters, especially topographic and physiographic conditions, a significant part of Noorabad city has medium to high flooding potential. Therefore, the present study serves as a database and in the process of completing data from previous studies regarding flood risk potential and identifying flood-prone areas in the urban area of ​​Noorabad, and is useful for urban managers. https://jhsci.ut.ac.ir/article_107803.html This study aims to quantify seismicity parameters and characterize the spatiotemporal evolution of earthquake activity in Northwestern Iran (35°–39° N, 44°–47° E), a region of significant seismotectonic importance due to its active fault systems. Utilizing the Iranian Seismological Center (IRSC) catalog for the period 2006–2025, we determined the magnitude of completeness (Mc​=1.9) and calculated the b-value using the Gutenberg–Richter relationship. Furthermore, Z-value statistical mapping was employed to identify anomalies in seismic activity rates. The analysis yielded a b-value of 0.79±0.01, suggesting a relatively higher probability of large-magnitude seismic events in the region. Spatiotemporal assessment revealed that sectors surrounding Lake Urmia, particularly the western and southern margins, exhibit positive Z-values, indicating seismic quiescence and potential stress accumulation. Conversely, regions intersecting major fault systems, such as the Tabriz and Sofian faults, demonstrate negative Z-values, reflecting persistent seismic activity. Additionally, the analysis of seismic energy release from 2006 to January 2025 identifies the 2012 East Azerbaijan earthquake (Mw=6.5) as the most significant seismic event of this period. The observed seismic quiescence surrounding Lake Urmia, coupled with localized stress accumulation indicators, highlights a heightened potential for future seismic ruptures. These findings provide critical evidence for refining seismic hazard assessments and developing more accurate regional earthquake forecasting models in Northwestern Iran. https://jhsci.ut.ac.ir/article_107875.html Geological structures such as faults, fractures, and other tectonic lineaments are among the key factors controlling the formation and development of dolines. These structures enhance permeability and intensify dissolution processes in carbonate rocks. The Novakoh anticline is located in the Folded Zagros Belt, Kermanshah Province, which is influenced by the convergence of the Turan and Arabian platforms and is mainly composed of the Asmari-Shahbazan limestone unit. The present study investigates the influence of tectonic structures and topographic slope on the formation and morphometric characteristics of dolines in this area. A total of 36 dolines were analyzed using drone-based mapping, and the parameters of area, depth, elongation ratio, and orientation angle were calculated for each doline. Dolines were divided into two groups based on axis orientation: the first group trends northeast–southwest (52.7%), and the second group trends northwest–southeast (36.1%). Dominant elongation trend of dolines (NE–SW) is closely corresponds to the main trend of lineaments of Noakoh anticline (NE-SW). Comparative analysis indicates that the dolines in the first group have higher mean area (5825 m²), depth (6.91 m), and elongation coefficient (1.69) than those in the second group. In addition, rose diagram analysis revealed that the orientations of lineaments, doline axes, the topographic slopes surrounding the dolines, are predominantly northeast–southwest, indicating the effects of fold axis, fractures orientation and topographic slopes on their formation and morphology. https://jhsci.ut.ac.ir/article_107915.html Environmental crimes are considered among the most complex forms of contemporary criminality, which, due to the extensive scope of their impacts, the gradual nature of their consequences, the multiplicity of victims, the difficulty in establishing causal relationships, and sometimes the transboundary nature of damages, have created significant challenges in the field of liability and compensation. These crimes, in addition to causing economic and environmental damages, also affect public health, social security, and the rights of future generations. Therefore, traditional models of civil and criminal liability alone are not capable of fully addressing the various dimensions of these harms, and the development of comprehensive and multi-level compensation mechanisms appears to be necessary. The present study aims to examine the mechanisms for compensation of damages resulting from environmental crimes in the Iranian legal system and to evaluate their capacities in light of international environmental instruments. This research is fundamental-applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of method. It analyzes the subject through library-based studies, examination of domestic laws and regulations, relevant legal opinions, and international instruments, including the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992), the Aarhus Convention (1998), and other related documents. The findings of the study indicate that the concept of compensation in the field of environmental law is not limited solely to the payment of financial damages, but also includes a set of measures such as restoration of damaged ecosystems, environmental rehabilitation, removal of pollution effects, ensuring effective access to justice, public participation, and adopting preventive measures to avoid recurrence of damages. The examination of Iranian law demonstrates that despite the existence of capacities such as Article 50 of the Constitution, the principle of La Zarar (prohibition of harm), criminal and environmental regulations, and Article 66 of the Criminal Procedure Code regarding environmental protection and the possibility of participation of non-governmental organizations, the environmental compensation system still faces challenges such as the absence of specialized compensation mechanisms, lack of supportive funds, limited restorative tools, and difficulties in ensuring effective access of victims to justice. The results of the study indicate that achieving environmental justice in Iranian law requires moving beyond the traditional model of financial compensation toward an integrated and multidimensional system that simultaneously considers economic compensation, environmental restoration, restorative justice, participation of civil society organizations, and effective mechanisms for access to justice. The innovation of the present study lies in presenting an integrated framework for compensation of damages resulting from environmental crimes, which, by establishing a connection between judicial, administrative, and participatory mechanisms, can provide a basis for reforming environmental criminal policy and strengthening victim protection.