Identification and Prioritization of Environmental Hazards ‎in Sefidkuh ‎Protected Area

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Natural Resources, Lorestan University, ‎Khorramabad, Iran

2 Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Natural Resources, Lorestan ‎University, Khorramabad, Iran

Abstract

Protected areas are among the most important biological reserves and resources providing ecosystem ‎services, and the need to identify environmental hazards and preserve and optimally utilize these ‎resources is essential. Therefore, in the present study, in order to identify environmental hazards in the ‎Sefidkuh ‎protected area, the threatening factors were evaluated within the framework of the DPSIR ‎conceptual model, including driving force, pressure, status, impact, and response. Subsequently, after ‎identifying the most important environmental hazards, these hazards were prioritized and ranked using ‎the TOPSIS method. According to the results obtained, 37 factors play a role in the occurrence of ‎environmental hazards in the Sefidkuh ‎ protected area, 32 of which  have human origins, while 5 ‎factors have environmental origins. The results obtained indicate that the threatening drivers in human factors include population growth, poor management, cultural weakness, and the development of human activities, and in relation to natural factors, we can mention climate change in the region. The results of weighting and prioritizing ‎environmental hazards showed that, among the threat factors, the highest total weight was assigned to ‎the development of human activities (0.0187), while the lowest total weight was assigned to cultural ‎weakness (0.065). The major environmental risks with the highest weight and rank in the region ‎include, respectively, "the lack of protective forces and facilities," "weak monitoring and the control of ‎human activities in the region," "poor performance in law enforcement," "illegal hunting," "excess ‎livestock entering the rangelands during unauthorized and sensitive seasons," "tourism beyond the ‎region's capacity," "the development of inappropriate economic activities in the region (agriculture, ‎industry, and mining)," and "land use/cover changes (agriculture to industry, forest to agriculture)." ‎Therefore, controlling these risks requires comprehensive planning and integrated management at the ‎regional level. The results of this study can help decision makers and planners in formulating a ‎management plan and taking strategic measures in this area by providing a range of environmental ‎hazards and the degree of vulnerability of the Sefidkuh ‎protected area‏.‏

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

اسداللهی، زهرا و بیرانوند، زیبا (1403). ارزیابی و مقایسة فشارها و تهدیدات مناطق حفاظت‌شدة کوهستانی استان لرستان. مطالعات جغرافیایی مناطق کوهستانی، 1(17)، 153 ـ 168.
باهری، بیتا و دشتی، سولماز (1401). ارزیابی آسیب‌پذیری پارک ملی گلستان در جهت توسعة پایدار با استفاده از مدل DPSIR. محیط زیست طبیعی، 75(1)، 22 ـ 37.
باهری، بیتا، دشتی، سولماز، مختاری، سحر. (1402). تحلیل عوامل مؤثر بر آسیب‌پذیری منطقه حفاظت‌شده ارسباران و تدوین راهبردهای مدیریتی. جغرافیا و مخاطرات محیطی، 12 (48-4)، 51-27.
دانه‌کار، افشین؛ سبحانی، پروانه؛ البرزی‌منش، میترا و قلیچی‌پور، زهرا (1403). زون‌بندی پارک ملی گلستان با استفاده از روش‌های تصمیم‌گیری چندمعیاره. آمایش سرزمین، 16(1)، 161 ـ 185.
سازمان حفاظت محیط زیست استان لرستان (1403). گزارش سالیانة منطقة حفاظت‌شدة سفیدکوه.
سبحانی، پروانه و دانه‌کار، افشین (1402). ارزیابی مخاطرات محیطی و آسیب‌پذیری منطقة حفاظت‌شدة حرا با استفاده از مدل DPSIR. مدیریت مخاطرات محیطی، 10(3)، 215 ـ 232.
گرمایی‌پور، رقیه؛ دانه‌کار، افشین؛ علم‌بیگی، امیر؛ علی‌زادة شعبانی، افشین و پروانه، سبحانی (1403). مقایسه و اولویت‌بندی تهدیدهای محیطی در رویشگاه‌های طبیعی ‏جنگل‌های مانگرو ایران. مخاطرات محیط طبیعی، 14(44)، 37 ـ 62.
Adla, K., Dejan, K., Neira, D., & Dragana, Š. (2022). Degradation of ecosystems and loss of ecosystem services. In One health (pp. 281-327). Academic Press.
Canteiro, M., Córdova-Tapia, F., & Brazeiro, A. (2018). Tourism impact assessment: A tool to evaluate the environmental impacts of touristic activities in Natural Protected Areas. Tourism Management Perspectives, 28, 220-227.
Chakraborty, S. (2022). TOPSIS and Modified TOPSIS: A Comparative Analysis. Decision Analytics Journal, 2, 100021.
Cheng, Y., Wu, H., & Yang, B. (2023). Conserving habitat and ecosystem in protected areas amid increasing intensive human modification: A case study of China’s Pan-Pearl River Delta. Ecological Indicators, 154, 110799.
Deng, W., Li, M., & Guo, Y. (2025). Research on fuzzy evaluation of ecological safety of land resources in Pearl river Delta area based on DPSIR framework. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 8059.
Devnath, A., Islam, M. S., Rashid, S., & Islam, E. (2020). An integrated QFD-TOPSIS method for prioritization of major lean tools: a case study. International journal of research in industrial engineering, 9(1), 65-76.
Ehara, M., Hyakumura, K., Sato, R., Kurosawa, K., Araya, K., Sokh, H., & Kohsaka, R. (2018). Addressing maladaptive coping strategies of local communities to changes in ecosystem service provisions using the DPSIR framework. Ecol. Econ, 49, 226–238.
Gatiso, T. T., Kulik, L., Bachmann, M., Bonn, A., Bösch, L., Eirdosh, D., & Kühl, H. S. (2022). Effectiveness of protected areas influenced by socio-economic context. Nature Sustainability, 5(10), 861-868.
Hoffmann, S. (2022). Challenges and opportunities of area-based conservation in reaching biodiversity and sustainability goals. Biodiversity and Conservation, 31(2), 325-352.
Hummel, C., Poursanidis, D., Orenstein, D., Elliott, M., Adamescu, M. C., Cazacu, C., & Hummel, H. (2019). Protected Area management: Fusion and confusion with the ecosystem services approach. Science of the Total Environment, 651, 2432-2443.
Kazuva, E., Zhang, J., Tong, Z., Si, A., & Na, L. (2018). The DPSIR model for environmental risk assessment of municipal solid waste in Dar es Salaam city, Tanzania. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(8), 1692.
Kelble, Ch. R., Loomis, D. K., Lovelace, S., & Boyer, J. N. (2013). The EBM-DPSER conceptual model: integrating ecosystem services into the DPSIR framework. PLoS ONE, 8(8), e70766.
Li, C. Y., Hu, C. Y., Chen, Y. S., & Shih, Y. C. (2025). Application of the DPSIR model in marine ecological environmental assessment. Water Policy, 27(5), 579-595.
Liu, L., Li, J., Wang, J., Liu, F., Cole, J., Sha, J., ... & Zhou, J. (2022). The establishment of an eco-environmental evaluation model for southwest China and eastern South Africa based on the DPSIR framework. Ecological Indicators, 145, 109687.
Liu, Y., Zhao., Ch., Liu., X., Chang, Y., Wang, H., Yang, J., Yang, X., & Wei, Y. (2021). The multi-dimensional perspective of ecological security evaluation and drive mechanism for Baishuijiang National Nature Reserve, China, Ecological Indicators, 132, 108295.
Lu, C., Li, W., Pang, M., Xue, B., & Miao, H. (2018). Quantifying the economy-environment interactions in tourism: case of Gansu Province, China[J]. Sustainability, 10(3), 711.
Murshed, S., Griffin, A. L., Islam, M. A., Wang, X. H., & Paull, D. (2022). ‎Assessing multi-climate-hazard threat in the coastal region of Bangladesh by ‎combining influential environmental and anthropogenic factors. Progress in ‎Disaster Science, 16, 100261.‎
Obubu, J. P., Odong, R., Alamerew, T., Fetahi, T., & Mengistou, S. (2022). Application of DPSIR model to identify the drivers and impacts of land use and land cover changes and climate change on land, water, and livelihoods in the L. Kyoga basin: implications for sustainable management. Environmental Systems Research, 11(1), 11.
Pirasteh, S., Mafi-Gholami, D., Li, H., Wang, T., Zenner, E. K., Nouri-Kamari, A., & Ghaffarian, S. (2025). Social vulnerability: A driving force in amplifying the overall vulnerability of protected areas to natural hazards. Heliyon, 11(4).
Ruan, W. Q., Li, Y. Q., Zhang, S.N., & Liu, C. H. (2019). Evaluation and drive mechanism of tourism ecological security based on the DPSIR-DEA model. Tour. Man, 75, 609–625.
Schulze, K., Knights, K., Coad, L., Geldmann, J., Leverington, F., Eassom, A., & Burgess, N. D. (2018). An assessment of threats to terrestrial protected areas. Conservation Letters, 11(3), e12435.
Sobhani, P. (2024). Urban development impacts on natural ecosystems in urban protected areas of Tehran province, Iran. Heliyon, 10(23).
Sobhani, P., & Danehkar, A. (2025). Key Drivers of the Environment in the Development of Tehran-Alborz Urban Complex. Results in Engineering, 105803.
Sobhani, P., Esmaeilzadeh, H., & Dinan, N. M. (2025). Prioritization and valuation of ecosystem services in protected areas. Journal for Nature Conservation, 84, 126804.
Sobhani, P., Esmaeilzadeh, H., Wolf, I. D., Deljouei, A., Marcu, M. V., & Sadeghi, S. M. M. (2023). Evaluating the ecological security of ecotourism in protected area based on the DPSIR model. Ecological Indicators, 155, 110957.
Wang, J. F., Zhang, T. L., & Fu, B. J. (2016). A measure of spatial stratified heterogeneity. Ecol. Indic, 67, 250–256.
Wang, N., Du, Y., Liang, F., Yi, J., Qian, J., Tu, W., & Luo, P. (2023). Protected areas effectively resisted 33.8% of urban development pressures in China during 2000–2018. Applied Geography, 159, 103079.
Wilfred, P., Travers, H., Coad, L., Mutayoba, V., Magige, F. J., Nahonyo, C. L., & Milner-Gulland, E. J. (2025). Understanding unauthorised hunting for effective conservation interventions. Biological Conservation, 309, 111336.
Wolf, I. D., Sobhani, P., & Esmaeilzadeh, H. (2023). Assessing changes in land use/land cover and ecological risk to conserve protected areas in urban–rural contexts. Land, 12(1), 231.
Yuxi, Z., Ling-en, W., & Linsheng, Z. (2024). Measuring and reducing the ecological risk of community tourism for ecosystem conservation. Ecological Indicators, 166, 112493.
Zeng, Y., Zhong, L., Yu, H., Deng, J., & Wang, L. E. (2023). Impact of protected area management on local communities: A perspective of recreational ecosystem services. Environmental Development, 45, 100804.
Zhang, Z., Hu, B., & Qiu, H. (2021). Comprehensive assessment of ecological risk in southwest Guangxi-Beibu bay based on DPSIR model and OWA-GIS. Ecological Indicators, 132, 108334.
Town and Country Planning
Volume 17, Issue 2
Autumn & Winter
October 2025
Pages 429-444

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 31 July 2025
  • Revise Date: 13 August 2025
  • Accept Date: 31 August 2025

Share

How to cite

Statistics