Background & Objectives: The situation of hospitals relative to other urban land uses especially roads network and population density has an important role on physical and mental health of urban dwellers. This research, attempts to provide geographical evaluation of present hospitals and determine the best locations for these hospitals in the city. Methods: Methodology of the research is descriptive-analytical. At first geographical location of present hospitals and then the areas that need hospitals (based on the criteria exist for locating hospitals) were determined using Weighted Linear Combination model of ARCGIS software. Due to high number of criteria involved in finding optimal location for hospitals, in present paper combination of the GIS capabilities and WLC model were tested to provide suitable positioning model for these hospitals. Results: Results show that location of hospitals in Ardabil city does not follow a logic and scientific process. Concentration of these environments in south west and the city centre has caused various problems in these areas and has resulted in the lack of hospital land use in other parts of the city. Conclusion: General conclusion expresses that in the case of hospital construction Danesh Abad, Karshnasan, Islam Abad, and Golestan neighborhoods have the first priority. The second priority areas are Yousef Abad, Salman abad, Javadiye, Abbasiye and Zainabiye. The last priorities are Shahid Rajaee and Sayed Abad areas. The areas having priority in the output of WLC model showed that these areas have preferred conditions based on the given criteria. This fact demonstrates the capabilities of these techniques and tools on playing roles as a decision support system (DSS) for selection of the appropriate options.

Background & Objectives: In addition to supplying the needed water of human body, drinking water contains salts and minerals that are essential for the human body. Deficiency or excess of some of these minerals cause different problems and diseases. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of home water treatment systems on reducing or eliminating the physical and chemical parameters in 2013. Methods: This was an analytical descriptive study. 12 water treatment units with different characteristics, in terms of the number of filters and filter life were selected from different locations that have different water sources including wells and surface water. Results: The results showed that mean removal efficiency of nitrate, nitrite, sulfate, chloride and fluoride by home water treatment systems, respectively are 79.16, 24.19, 48.5, 83.48, 72.86%.The average efficiency for removing of total hardness, calcium hardness, magnesium, Na, K, turbidity, and residual chlorine were respectively 82.41, 87.10, 65.78, 95.05, 79.48, 98.57, and 100%. Conclusion: Obtained results showed that home water treatment systems have very high efficiency to remove water physicochemical parameters. Using these systems are not necessary since most of the drinking water parameters are blow the Iran drinking water standards. In most cases they reduce the parameters to lower than the standard limits and decrease the taste and fluoride concentration to less than the standard values.