Geography

The present study sought to explore the characteristics of domestic tourists in Jordan in terms of patterns, motivations, challenges and opportunities. A sample of 556 residents was collected through online survey technique. The quantitative approach was employed to analyze the data. The results indicated that coastal tourism beside adventure tourism and curatives tourism are the major patterns of domestic tourism. The main challenges of domestic tourism are related to economic, services, and socio-cultural aspects respectively. The results from One-Way ANOVA and t-tests revealed that there are no significant differences in respondents' perceptions between demographic groups in terms of age, gender, income, car ownership, and level of education for challenges of domestic tourism. Moreover, possible opportunities could be generated through involving private sector in promotional campaigns for the least known destinations, encouraging investment at small and medium accommodation enterprises with reasonable prices, and increasing the level of awareness for local community toward domestic tourism.

Petra is a mature tourism destination in the south of Jordan with a degree of seasonality over the last 10 years. Despite the recognized importance of Petra for the tourism industry in Jordan, there has been a lack of studies that discuss seasonal demand variations and its impacts on other related industries in the region. Yet, this study aims at analyzing patterns and effects of seasonality of tourism demand in Petra for the period 2006-2017. The required data was obtained from Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA). Four methods were used to measure tourism seasonality in Petra. These are: Seasonality indicator; Seasonality ratio; Gini coefficient; and Seasonality index. The results of the study showed a modest level of tourism seasonality in the study area. Among methods, Seasonality index appeared to be the appropriate and simple way to calculate seasonality patterns at tourism destinations. The results showed that there are two peaks of seasonality in tourism demand of Petra. The first and the highest one was in April and the second took place in the months of October and November. In addition, seven months represented the low season of tourism demand in Petra. These are December, January and February as well as June, July, August and September. The tourism seasonality in Petra based on that is mainly due to the weather in these months which represent the coldest and warmest months in the year respectively.

This study analyzes the characteristics of land use/land cover change in Jordan's Irbid governorate, 1984-2018, and predicts future land use/land cover for 2030 and 2050 using a cellular automata-Markov model. The results inform planners and decision makers of past and current spatial dynamics of land use/land cover change and predicted urban expansion, for a better understanding and successful planning. Satellite images of Landsat 5-thematic mapper and Landsat 8 operational land imager for the years 1984, 1994, 2004, 2015 and 2018 were used to explore the characteristics of land use/land cover for this study. The results indicate that the built-up area expanded by 386.9% during the study period and predict further expansion by 19.5% and 64.6% from 2015 to 2030 and 2050 respectively. The areas around the central and eastern parts of the governorate are predicted to have significant expansion of the built-up area by these dates, which should be taken into consideration in future plans. Land use/land cover change and urban expansion in Irbid are primarily caused by the high rate of population growth rate as a direct result of receiving large numbers of immigrants from Syria and Palestine in addition to the natural increase of population and other socioeconomic changes.

This study analyzes the characteristics of land use/land cover change in Jordan’s Irbid governorate, 1984–2018, and predicts future land use/land cover for 2030 and 2050 using a cellular automata-Markov model. The results inform planners and decision makers of past and current spatial dynamics of land use/land cover change and predicted urban expansion, for a better understanding and successful planning. Satellite images of Landsat 5-thematic mapper and Landsat 8 operational land imager for the years 1984, 1994, 2004, 2015 and 2018 were used to explore the characteristics of land use/land cover for this study. The results indicate that the built-up area expanded by 386.9% during the study period and predict further expansion by 19.5% and 64.6% from 2015 to 2030 and 2050 respectively. The areas around the central and eastern parts of the governorate are predicted to have significant expansion of the built-up area by these dates, which should be taken into consideration in future plan...

Petra is a mature tourism destination in the south of Jordan with a degree of seasonality over the last 10 years. Despite the recognized importance of Petra for the tourism industry in Jordan, there has been a lack of studies that discuss seasonal demand variations and its impacts on other related industries in the region. Yet, this study aims at analyzing patterns and effects of seasonality of tourism demand in Petra for the period 2006-2017. The required data was obtained from Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA). Four methods were used to measure tourism seasonality in Petra. These are: Seasonality indicator; Seasonality ratio; Gini coefficient; and Seasonality index. The results of the study showed a modest level of tourism seasonality in the study area. Among methods, Seasonality index appeared to be the appropriate and simple way to calculate seasonality patterns at tourism destinations. The results showed that there are two peaks of seasonality in tourism demand of Petr...

The aim of this study is to identify the economic effects of the educational tourism in Jordan. Behavioral and descriptive and analytical statistical approaches were used. The results of the study were based on a questionnaire, which was designed for collecting the required data and was distributed to a random sample of (1000) international students, who study at the (the University of Jordan, Mu'tah University, Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Philadelphia University, Isra University and The World Islamic Science University). 844 questionnares were analyzed using SPSS. The results indicated that the highest percentage of international students were at the University of Jordan, and their field of study usually is in medicine and health majors, and the largest number of international students were Iraqi students. The economic effects were represented in spending rates for international students that include spending on: university fees; food and drink; communications; housing; books ...

SRTM DEM (shuttle radar topographic mission digital elevation model) and ASTEMR DEM (advanced space-borne thermal emission and reflection radiometer digital elevation model) are now freely available in two resolutions: 90 m and 30 m. DEM is a computerized representation of the Earth's relief, and is used in many applications such as hydrology, climatology, geomorphology and ecology. There are some important differences in assessing the accuracy of digital elevation models for specific applications. The purpose of this study is to investigate the errors in digital elevation models obtained globally from DEMs 90 m, 30 m ground resolution, and the extracted DEM from a topographic map by digitized contour lines of 1:50,000 scale in a rugged mountainous region and a heterogeneous landscape, using KS (kernel smoothing) interpolation method. For validation purposes, datasets of 250-GCPs (ground control points) distributed over the study area were used to evaluate and compare the accuracy of the two global Dems and the DEM extracted from TM. The main results showed that the 30 m resolution global (DEM) is the most accurate one among the three. According to the validation results, SRTM with maximum (+) and minimum (-) error elevation is-10_9. M, with mean deviation of KS is-0.00238667, and RMS (root-mean-square) error of 0.98, and currently the most accurate model is 30 m DEM of the study area with no significant differences compared with DEM 90 m.

The present study illustrates the Spatial-temporal dynamics of Land use/Land cover (LULC), and locate land suitability for agricultural use. Landsat satellite images of three different years 1990, 2000 and 2018 over 28 years were acquired from Global Land Cover Facility Site (GLCF) and earth explorer. Land suitability for agriculture use was assessed on five criteria; rainfall, temperature, slope percentage, soil types and water Wells distribution. The different geospatial layers were transferred using suitability coding system to produce the suitability maps for rainfed and irrigated areas using weighted overlay method. Ma'an Governorate covers approximately 37% of the total area of Jordan, and consists mostly of unculti-vated land 33304.66 km 2 (99.49%). Three main LULC classes were identified of the three years; 1990, 2000 and 2018; forest and irrigated areas have been fluctuated between 86.00 km 2 (0.26%), 108.06 km 2 (0.32) and 102.68 km 2 (0.31%), built-up area increased by 24.00 km 2 , (0.07%), 41.88 km 2 (0.13%) and 68.66 km 2 (0.21%), while the bare land has been decreased from 33366 km 2 (99.67%),33476 km 2 (99.55%) and 33304.66 km 2 (99.49%) during 1990, 2000 and 2018 respectively. land suitability for the agricultural use (rainfed areas and irrigated crops); Data from the five parameters (mentioned above) are used for spatial analysis applying weighted overlay method. The results showed that only about (0.2%) from the total area of Ma'an is highly suitable for agriculture dependent on rainfall. While about (1.4%) is high suitable for the irrigation crops. The main reason of the low levels of land suit-ability for agriculture is very low soil fertility, and the water scarcity. Ó 2020 National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B. V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

The study goal is to monitor and evaluate the significant changes in land use/land cover (LULC) in Al-Yarmouk basin (YB) within only 8 year. (YB) is shared between Syria, Jordan, Palestinian Authority, and Israel. (YB) has been affected not only by water scarcity, frequent drought conditions; But nowadays provide proof that the major factor responsible for the current of the significant changes in (LULC) in the study area is the Syrian civil war that began in mid-2011, and the Syrian refugee influx into Jordan has been massive, more than 660,935 Syrians were registered in three camps; Za’atri the largest refugee camp in the world, Azraq and the Emirate, according to the Official figures, with the highest density about 58 not 50 person look; Fig.5 in YB. Landsat Thematic Mapper Landsat 5 (2010) and 8-OLI (2018) covering a period of 8 years. An on-screen digitizing methodology has been employed. The images of the study area were categorized into four different classes: vegetation, bui...

The main target of this study is to classify the landforms of wadi Al-Mujib Canyon, as considered one of the main wadi draining towards the Dead Sea. Based on Topographic Position Index (TPI), and depend upon Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data for preparing digital elevation model (DEM) which is available with 30*30 m ground resolution. By using the TPI, the landforms were classified into both Slope Position index and landform types. Landform categories were generated by combined two TPI grids at different scales (neighborhoods: (a 1km radius and 2km radius). TPI defended as: algorithms of Weiss and Jenness used to measure the topographic slope positions and automated landform classifications. TPI values are depended upon the cell size, type, elevation, and the standard deviation (SD) of TPI. By using TPI, the study area classified into slope position index with 6 classes; Valley, Lower slope, Flat slope, Model Slope, Upper Slope, Ridge, and the Landform categories with 10...