Turists and Their Effects on the Temprature Changes inside the Alisadr Cave,Hamedan

Caves are so vulnerable and fragile that manipulating them without careful investigation , planning and inclusive understanding of their characteristics is impossible because ignoring these facts leads to unpleasant consequences for microorganisms living in the cave and damages the dead carbonate forms. One of the ways that humans damage the caves and disturb the ecological elements inside the cave is uncontrolled presence of tourists inside the caves to visit these sites. Based on these realities of the caves, this study aims at investigating the changes in the temperature inside Ali Sadr Cave in Hamedan and daily and monthly effects of tourism in rising the temperature inside the cave. To this end, the inside part of the cave was divided into two areas: the experimental area (where tourists’ accumulation is observed) and the control area (the prohibited area for the visitors and the recently discovered corridors). The temperature inside the cave has been measured using a three- functional (dimensional) carbon dioxide detector, model AZ (77535). This has been done three times a day in the morning (before the arrival of tourists) in the low, medium, and high areas inside the cave. The results showed 1 to 2ᵒC increase in temperature inside the cave that can be attributed to the presence of the tourists. In addition, the results showed that increase in temperature and more daily fluctuations in temperature are observed during the weekends when more tourists visit the cave.

Keywords:

Ali Sadr Cave , Temperature , Tourists , Experimental Region , Control Group