providing a model for assessing the quality of the natural environment in rural areas using knowledge-based systems

extended abstract 1. introduction human life is highly dependent on the environment and the services that are provided by the environment. environmental quality is a set of properties and characteristics of the environment, either generalized or local, as they may also impinge on human beings and other organisms. it is a measure of the condition of an environment relative to the requirements of one or more species and or to any human need or purpose. environmental quality is a general term which can refer to varied characteristics that relate to the natural environment as well as the built environment, such as air and water purity or pollution, noise and the potential effects which such characteristics may have on physical and mental health caused by human activities. 2. theoretical framework areas with better environmental conditions are more suitable contexts for life and human activities. environmental quality is dependent on understanding the interaction between man and nature as well as the concept that forms the cornerstone of sustainable development. in general, environmental quality depends on the relationship between humans and the environment as well as the dominance of man over nature. the divergence of the human and environment results in the worsening of environmental conditions, resource depletion, and pollution of all kinds as well as social and spiritual problems. 2.1. eco centrism vs. anthropocentrism the relationship between two motives underlying environmental attitudes was examined. these two environmental attitudes are eco centrism, which means valuing nature for its own sake, and anthropocentrism, which refers to valuing nature because of material or physical benefits it can provide for humans. from a philosophical viewpoint, anthropocentrism is based on this fact that human beings are the central or most significant entities in the world. anthropocentrism regards humans as separate from and superior to nature and holds that human life has intrinsic value while other entities including animals, plants, mineral resources, and so on are resources that may justifiably be exploited for the benefit of humankind. 2.2. economic growth and environmental quality the environmental kuznets curve is a hypothesized relationship between various indicators of environmental degradation and income per capita. in the early stages of economic growth, degradation and pollution increase, but beyond some level of income per capita, which will vary for different indicators, the trend reverses meaning that at high-income levels economic growth leads to environmental improvement. this implies that the environmental impact indicator is an inverted u-shaped function of income per capita. 2.3. ecosystem services and environmental quality humankind benefits in a multitude of ways from ecosystems. collectively, these benefits are known as ecosystem services. ecosystem services are regularly involved in the provisioning of clean drinking water and the decomposition of wastes. ecosystem services can be grouped into four broad categories including provisioning services (e.g., the production of food and water), regulating services (e.g., the control of climate and disease), supporting services (e.g., nutrient cycles and crop pollination), and cultural services (e.g., spiritual and recreational benefits). 3. methodology the data for the present study were collected from rural areas of ghochan in khorasan razavi and faruj in north khorasan province, iran. in order to address environmental quality in the study area, the evaluation criteria considered are as follows: 5 main components (soil and water resources, climate, physiography, environmental risk) and 15 criteria (climate, temperature, comfort, elevation, slop, landform, earthquake, flood, erosion, fault, soil, protected zones, water, vegetation cover). to assess the environmental quality, knowledge based systems, which are based on fuzzy inference system, were used. fuzzy inference is the process of formulating the mapping from a given input to an output using fuzzy logic. the mapping then provides a basis from which decisions can be made, or patterns be discerned. the process of fuzzy inference involves all of the pieces that were described in the previous sections including membership functions, fuzzy logic operators, and if-then rules. there are two types of fuzzy inference systems that can be used, namely, mamdani-type and sugeno-type. these two types of inference systems vary somewhat in the way outputs are determined. in the present study, the mamdani type was used. 3.1. procedure the data base was created for geographic information. having used arcgis10.2, base maps were produced, modeled, and then, the data were analysis. the basic unit of study is based on square regular network which is same as raster data, but it is vector. a unique code was assigned to each spatial unit. afterwards, the data were transferred to the base unit. the table of shape files were changed to text format, and then imported into excel and prepared for linking to matlab. with function 'xlsread' in matlab, were imported data into matlab. the functional operations in fuzzy expert system pass through the following steps: fuzzification, fuzzy inference (apply knowledge base), aggregation of all outputs, and defuzzification. the data for the study were collected from the counties ghochan and faruj in razavi and northern khorasan. this area is suitable for agriculture. good rainfall and fertile plains provide a good environmental quality for living. 4. discussions the results of survey have two output: 1) the knowledge base which to help the assessment of environmental quality. 2) environmental quality map of ghochan-faruj. components that are made of four input criteria such as water and soil resources, climate, and environmental risk create 81 rules ( ), and components that are made of three input criteria create 27 rules ( ). the advantage of decomposing of model is reduction of complexity of model. before decomposing, with 15 criteria have to create 1438907 rule. the rule base help to predict status of environmental quality. based on the knowledge base to assess the environmental quality in the study area have dealt. as a result of the evaluation, determined the suitability of location quality based on each of the components that encoded in the range of 0 to 1. finally, with the help of gamma phase 4 layer overlayed with γ = 0.6. given the alpha cut equal to 0.7, about 65.53 % area, characterized of very good quality and less than 9% in terms of environmental quality are poor.