Application of Geographical Information Systems to Promote Environmental Education in Iran

This paper focused on the application of geospatial technologies in the form of global positioning systems (GPS) and geographical information systems (GIS) to collect, analyze, and visualize environmental survey data from the Islamic Republic of Iran. This research demonstrates and target those areas and regions with inadequate levels of educational attainment. Data from 9,062 survey questionnaires were first analyzed with loglinear modeling techniques. After statistically identifying that educational attainment, age, gender, and location, were major factors influencing concern for the environment and sustainability issues, GIS was used to map and visualize the spatial differences in education and concern for the environment. The GIS provided results which permitted not only the visualization of spatial disparities in education and personal concerns for the environment, but also identified provinces where there were deficiencies in environmental education. Numerous areas throughout Iran thus, were identified as having low concern for the environment. These areas could be considered as hotspots and should be the focus of spatial targeting. Obviously, all the provinces where respondents have low concern for the environment should be targeted with effective environmental education programs.

Keywords:

Environmental education , Geospatial Technologies , Geographical Information Systems , Sustainability , Iran