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Open Access Article
1 - Identification and evaluation of geotourism potential areas with sustainable development approach (Case study: mount Damavand areas in Haraz watershed)
Kurdwan Hedayatipour Ghorban Vahabzadeh kebria Sayed Ramezan Musavi integrationthe action of incorporating a racial or religious group into a communityMore (Definitions, Synonyms, Translation) Background and ObjectiveVolcanic Mount Damavand has unique landscapes and special geomorphological phenomena, wildlife diversity, vegetati More integrationthe action of incorporating a racial or religious group into a communityMore (Definitions, Synonyms, Translation) Background and ObjectiveVolcanic Mount Damavand has unique landscapes and special geomorphological phenomena, wildlife diversity, vegetation, and unique climatic conditions and is one of the most important tourist destinations in Mazandaran province. Therefore, the protection of these unique reserves, especially geological phenomena that are the result of millions of year’s global evolution in this region, is important. Therefore, comprehensive national and international planning based on the principles of sustainable development is essential for the continuation of this world heritage. By using valuable tools such as GIS, it is possible to identify prone areas to geotourism development for sustainable development in the region and then apply the evaluation and optimal management. In addition to scientific values, geocomposites have many conservation, cultural, aesthetic, social and economic values. For the comprehensive management of watersheds, it is necessary to consider all the natural and human aspects affecting geotourism. In this study, in order to identify the potential of geotourism, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) has been used with the GIS. Materials and Methods Mount Damavand with a height of 5672 meters is located in northern Iran. It is the highest peak in Iran and the Middle East, as well as the highest semi-active volcanic peak in Asia. Damavand is a stratified and semi-active volcanic mountain that was mainly formed during the fourth geological period called the Quaternary and Holocene eras. From the point of view of country divisions, it is located in Amol city of Mazandaran province. Its altitude is 5672 meters above sea level, the average annual rainfall is 540 mm and it is mainly in the form of snow. The climate of this part of the basin is semi-humid climate according to the Koppen method and cold semi-humid climate according to the Ambrege method. In order to determine the effective indices in identifying the potential areas for geotourism development, the study of criteria is divided into two categories of effective criteria and restrictive development. Layers of development obstacles include; rivers and main roads, side roads and inter-rural roads. The effective layers studied along with the relative weight obtained from the analysis of the questionnaire were considered to superimpose the layers with a specific weight for each layer. The results of completing the questionnaire by the audience, to determine the relative weight, information layers were formed in the GIS environment. In this study, using geographic information system (GIS) tools and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, the weighting of effective criteria susceptible areas with geotourism development capability within a radius of 20 km of mount Damavand were performed. Results and Discussion The criteria inconsistency rate is less than 0.1, there is no need to reconsider the judgments. According to the final results obtained from overlaying effective layers in the development of geotourism by the Weighted Overlay function in GIS software, the study area with an area of 1256 square kilometres, after subtracting the restrictive areas, is divided into five classes; very inappropriate, unsuitable, medium, suitable and very suitable. The results showed, that the regions were classified into 5 categories: very inappropriate (1.34%), unsuitable (19.11%), medium (56.44%), suitable (20.94%) and very suitable (2.16%). then, after the field visit, 40 Alternatives were identified and examined in terms of the importance of development potential in the region. Evaluation of 40 Alternatives shows that 25, 40 and 35% of the alternatives have very good, appropriate and average potential, respectively. The results show that most of the susceptible areas with geotourism development capability, are located in the east and southeast of Mount Damavand. This can be caused by the density of various facilities, including villages, cities, roads and rivers, and so on. The high potential areas are more in the north, centre to the southeast of the protected area that has vegetation and forest, water resources and high geomorphological values and low potential areas are more in South and west is the range. This can be seen in the present study. Also, most of the area has medium to high potential, which indicates a good potential of the area. Conclusion One of the main reasons for the lack of integration in determining areas with geotourism potential is the lack of comprehensive and codified scientific criteria and indices. Geotourism, as one of the sub-branches of tourism, is a way to explain various geological and geomorphological concepts, it can be used as an industry for the construction and development of economic geology. In this study, in order to determine the susceptible areas with geotourism development capability with a view to the sustainable development of the region, the studied criteria were determined according to the availability of their information. These layers include; geology, distance from rivers, city, villages, communication roads, altitude, slope and aspect, rainfall and temperature as effective layers and road and river maps were considered as a constraint layer. In different studies, according to the availability of information of each layer in the study area and according to the purpose of the study, the layer of effective criteria and obstacles are different. After a field survey and identifying 40 alternatives, the results of overlaying the identified alternatives with the final potential map showed 35% of the alternatives in areas with very good potential, 40% of the options in areas with good potential, and 25% of the alternatives has medium development potential, respectively. This method is used to exploit natural resources and prepare tourism, welfare maps and can be a key step for the sustainable development of regions, and can provide a key step for the sustainable development of areas prone to tourism with different goals. http://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.26767082.1400.12.1.1.2 Manuscript profile -
Open Access Article
2 - Evaluating the implications of urban growth on carbon fixation ecosystem services (Case study: Karaj Subcatchments)
Sareh Alsadat Sajjadi Ghaemmaghami Romina Sayahnia Naghmeh Mobarghei Dinan Majid Makhdoum FarkhondehBackground and Objective In recent decades, natural ecosystems have undergone fundamental changes due to increasing population growth and increasing demand in order to provide the necessary facilities for human welfare. Since these changes are generally associated with MoreBackground and Objective In recent decades, natural ecosystems have undergone fundamental changes due to increasing population growth and increasing demand in order to provide the necessary facilities for human welfare. Since these changes are generally associated with environmental degradation, one should always be concerned about the damage to the ecosystem that supports human life. Therefore, the maintenance and protection of ecosystems are critical to achieving balance, equilibrium and coordination between human society and the ecosystem and their functional services. Ecosystem services have the potential to be considered as a key tool for policy-making and decision-making at the global, national, regional and local levels. Using ecosystem services, several applications including sustainable management of natural resources, land use optimization, environmental protection, nature conservation and restoration, landscaping, basic nature solutions, water conservation and weather, disaster risk reduction, environmental education and environmental research can be pursued. However, the relationship between ecosystem processes and functions and human well-being is complex and a multifaceted and preventive approach must be taken to evaluate these relationships and value the benefits. The purpose of this study was to investigate the trend of changes in ecosystem services in urban growth and development, evaluation of ecosystem services and the consequences of urban growth on carbon storage ecosystem service in the study area of Karaj catchment area in the period (before and after the development of irrationality). Materials and Methods Ecosystem services mapping is an effective tool to improve land planning and land use. Valuation of these services can be an effective factor and a promising way to explain the relationship between services, society and the economy and can play an effective role in the cost-benefit system of policies to rehabilitate and manage the environment. In this study, carbon storage service was investigated in three catchments of Alborz, Karaj, Hashtgerd and Eshtehard provinces. Since the study area covers almost two-thirds of the province, so in the study of the characteristics of the study area, the same characteristics of the Alborz province have been mentioned. In line with this research, In the first step, land use maps of the study area using trust software and GIS and Landsat satellite imagery (Landsat 5TM sensor images 1988, Landsat 8 satellite ETM+ sensor 2018), and the Supervised classification have been applied for the two periods of 1988 and 2018 in four classes of vegetation, man-made space, the aquatic environment and non-man-made space. After preparing the land use map, the accuracy of the maps was checked using Google Earth software and field visits. Then, using the land use map, the carbon storage ecosystem service map was extracted using Invest software and finally evaluated using soil carbon, ground carbon, basement and dead tissue information. Results and Discussion The results showed that the most changes in land use maps belong to non-constructed space and man-made space, which shows a decrease of 16% and an increase of 11%, respectively. Regarding carbon storage service, according to the plans obtained in two years, in the central part of the region, which has witnessed the growth of agricultural lands, the amount of carbon storage has also increased. The maximum carbon reserve, with a share of 78377470 tons per hectare in 1988 and 72618450 tons per hectare in 2018, belongs to the Tehran-Karaj basin, and the lowest with a share of 36078497 tons per hectare in 1988 and 34606913 tons per hectare per year. 2018, belongs to Eshtehard. In total, the value has increased from about 14163 billion rials per ton per hectare since 1988 to about 13163 billion rials in 2018, which has gone in a negative direction. Although the amount of carbon storage varied and changed in different places, the maximum amount of carbon storage remained unchanged during this period; because there is still unbuilt space. Conclusion In general, it can be stated that the use of ecosystem services valuation does not necessarily mean a reduction in the value of services in the development process, but it means that using this approach can be used to improve development planning to maintain and used to improve the quality of the ecosystem. In fact, it can be said that this approach can be used as an interface to link the anthropological and ecological sections under a single programmatic and managerial framework. and in order to; used instead of "to", especially after try, come, go More (Definitions, Synonyms, Translation).http://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.26767082.1400.12.1.2.3 Manuscript profile -
Open Access Article
3 - Extraction of soil moisture index (TVDI) using a scatter diagram temperature/vegetation and MODIS images
Salah Shahmoradi Hamid Reza Ghafarian Malamiri Mohammad AminiBackground and Objective Soil moisture is an important parameter in controlling many processes of the climate system, one of the basic parameters of the environment and its direct impact on the plant, animal and microorganisms, its importance in the global cycle of MoreBackground and Objective Soil moisture is an important parameter in controlling many processes of the climate system, one of the basic parameters of the environment and its direct impact on the plant, animal and microorganisms, its importance in the global cycle of water, energy and carbon, the energy exchange between air and soil is known for its natural water cycle (especially in the distribution of rain between surface runoff and infiltration) and the management of water and soil resources. Soil moisture plays an important role in the interactive processes between the atmosphere and the earth and global climate change. Triangular and trapezoidal methods combining thermal and visible data are the most commonly used methods for determining the amount of soil surface moisture. The aim of this study is to estimate the surface moisture of the soil (TVDI), by the triangular method in the south of West Azerbaijan province using land temperature index (LST) and vegetation index (NDVI), during 2010, 2014 and 2018. Materials and Methods The present study using MODIS timing series images, NDVI index and LST index, to estimate the surface moisture index (Temperature–Vegetation Dryness Index, TVDI), in three time periods including; the first time period from 1 January 2010 to 30 December 2010 and the second period is from 1 January 2014 to 30 December 2014 and the third period is from 1 January 2018 to 30 December 2018. During each period, 12 images were used on the 15th day of each month. Also, surface moisture was estimated by two methods, one was to establish a high regression relationship and remove the minimum temperature, and the second method was to establish a high and low regression relationship of the pixels. To evaluate the accuracy of these two methods, a regression correlation between the results of these methods with the soil surface moisture content of the Agricultural Jihad (30 points) at a depth of 5 to 15 cm was used. The reason for choosing these three years is due to the difference in high rainfall in some months of the studied years. This study was conducted in the south of the province of West Azerbaijan, which is part of the western region of Iran. Results and Discussion The evaporative triangle diagram consisting of the vegetation index and the surface temperature of the earth in 2010 from January to December month has seen many temperature changes. These same changes in the Earth's surface temperature have caused that the graphs have many changes. During the 2010 year, according to the chart, the maximum temperature was August and the minimum was January, and the maximum vegetation was May and the minimum was December. In 2014, the maximum temperature in August and the minimum in January and the maximum vegetation in May and the minimum in January and also this year were relatively warmer and drier than in 2010. The evaporative triangle chart in 2018 is rainier than the other two years studied, and the amount of vegetation and according to the graphs in this year, the maximum temperature in July and the minimum is January and the maximum vegetation is May and the minimum in January. The surface moisture level of the soil in 2010 for the western region of Iran, which is the maximum moisture level in May and the minimum in August. In most of the 2010 moisture index maps, the maximum humidity in the west and the lowest in the South of this region. The results of the moisture index maps in 2014 this year have been relatively drier than in other years studied. In 2014 has little rainfall and vegetation. Humidity changes this year are lower than in 2010. The maximum and minimum humidity in 2014 was between 0 and 0.6. The maximum humidity is June and the minimum is August. The TVDI moisture index maps for 2018 have had more moisture indicators this year than in the other two years. In 2018, heavy rains caused the vegetation to increase and the ground temperature to decrease, and this has led to an increase in the moisture index compared to 2010 and 2014. In 2018, the vegetation reached 0.89. But in other years it has been studied up to 0.7. This year, the high humidity is in May and the lowest in August. The maximum humidity during this year is in the west and the lower is in the south. The results of the TVDI index for 2010, 2014 and 2018, using the second method, the general results of this method are similar to the first method. Based on the results obtained from the accuracy of both methods, we conclude that the accuracy of the first method is better and generally simpler than the second method. In 2018, in May, according to the first method, the amount of R2 = 0.67, and also according to the second method, the amount of R2 = 0.41. Conclusion Estimation of surface soil moisture is essential for optimal management of water and soil resources. Surface soil moisture is an important variable in the water cycle of nature, which plays an important role in the global balance of water and energy through its impact on hydrological, ecological and meteorological processes. Examination of the two methods used indicates that the first method, which was also used in this research in general, has higher accuracy than the terrestrial fields due to the results of image accuracy. In 2010, the months of May and August, according to the first method are R2 = 0.61 and 0.57. In 2010, the amount of R2 according to terrestrial data and the use of the second method in May and August are R2 = 0.43 and 0.47. Also, in 2018, the value of R2 using the first method in May is 0.66. In 2018, the value of R2 using the second method in May is 0.41. The results of the soil surface moisture index, in this study, showed that this model is able to estimate the amount of soil moisture in large geographical areas with acceptable accuracy. http://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.26767082.1400.12.1.3.4 Manuscript profile -
Open Access Article
4 - Identifying Origins of Atmospheric Aerosols using Remote Sensing and Data Mining (Case study: Yazd province)
Mohamad Kazemi Ali Reza Nafarzadegan Fariborz Mohammadi Ali Rezaei LatifiBackground and ObjectiveThe Middle East is one of the most important regions in the world for dust production. Iran, located in the Middle East, is exposed to numerous local and trans-regional dust systems due to its location in the arid and semi-arid regions of the wor MoreBackground and ObjectiveThe Middle East is one of the most important regions in the world for dust production. Iran, located in the Middle East, is exposed to numerous local and trans-regional dust systems due to its location in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Dust storms, in addition to covering arable land and plants with wind-blown materials, destroy fertile lands and reduce biological production and biodiversity, and severely affect the survival of residents. Dust storms are involved in the transmission of dangerous pathogens to humans, air pollution, and damage to respiratory function. Dust storms in Yazd province are relatively common and the average number of days with dust storms in the province reaches 43 days a year. This phenomenon has caused many problems for the people of the province. The main indicators of air quality are the concentration of suspended particles and the aerosol optical depth (AOD) following the occurrence of dust events. Numerous studies have been conducted in the world to identify the centers of dust collection and their origin. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no study on the spatial zoning of dust conditions using three algorithms of CART, MARS and TreeNet algorithms as the predictive models. The purpose of this study is to forecast and zoning the potential of different areas for the production of dust aerosols using remote sensing data and data mining models as well as to specify the most important variables on this phenomenon in Yazd province. Materials and Methods The Yazd province lies in a dry region of Central Iran. The province experienced average annual rainfall of about 57 mm and an average annual temperature of about 20 ºC. The maximum temperature experienced in the warmest month of the province is close to 46 ºC. The maximum wind speed in this province is up to 120 kilometres per hour. The Google Earth Engine (GEE) interface (Javascript editor) was applied to collect remote sensing data in order to form three data sets that contain features related to topography, climate, and land surface conditions. These features were employed as the independent variables of the models, which is built by taking advantage of three data mining algorithms, classification and regression tree (CART), multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), and TreeNet, to specify the potential of areas for dust production. The dependent variable (target variable) of the models was the aerosol optical depth (AOD), which was acquired from MOD04 AOD retrievals from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard NASA's Terra satellite. The outcomes of the three models for classifying areas with different dust potentials were evaluated under performance criteria, such as R-squared, mean absolute deviation (MAD), the mean square error (MSE), the mean relative absolute deviation (MRAD), and the root means square error (RMSE). Results and Discussion The results showed the variables mostly affecting the dependent variable (AOD) in the MARS model were actual evapotranspiration, soil moisture, and the Palmer drought severity index. The values of R2 and RMSE in the MARS model were equal to 0.72 and 0.02, respectively. Similarly, the features with the highest relative importance according to the TreeNet model were soil moisture, Palmer drought severity index, and actual evapotranspiration. The values of R2 and RMSE in the TreeNet model were equal to 0.75 and 0.019, respectively. The results revealed that the CART model with R2 =0.85, MAD = 0.011, MSE =0.002, MRAD =0.262, and RMSE =0.014 had the best performance compared with the other two data mining models. The soil moisture, elevation, reference and actual evapotranspiration, minimum and maximum temperature, Palmer drought severity index, downward shortwave solar radiation, and wind speed were the most important variables in forecasting the potential of areas for dust production, respectively. Also, the areas with very high, high, moderate, low and very low susceptibility were occupied about 16%, 19%, 26%, 20% and 20% of the Yazd province, respectively. Conclusion All three models, which were based on three data mining algorithms, CART, MARS, and TreeNet, had a good agreement in specifying the most important variables affecting the optical depth of the dust aerosols in the study area. However, these models indicated different priority order for the identified variables in terms of relative importance; Besides, there was a difference in their performance criteria. As mentioned above, the CART model was the best-performing model, of the current study, for specifying the potential of areas for the generation of dust aerosols. According to this model, 25.8% of the province was classified as the moderate-risk of aerosol production, 18.6% of the province as the high-risk of aerosol production, and 16.0% of the study region as the very high-risk of dust aerosols. The high-risk areas are mostly spread in the western and southwestern regions of the Yazd province. Palmer United States golfer (born in 1929) More (Definitions, Synonyms, Translation). http://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.26767082.1400.12.1.4.5 Manuscript profile -
Open Access Article
5 - Investigation of land use changes and its relationship with groundwater level (Case study: Ardabil plain)
Sayyad Asghari Saraskanroud Ehsan Ghale Elhameh EbadyBackground and Objective Groundwater is the most important source of fresh water in the world. Drinking water for two billion people is supplied directly from groundwater and is used to irrigate the world's largest food supply. Improper harvesting of groundwater re MoreBackground and Objective Groundwater is the most important source of fresh water in the world. Drinking water for two billion people is supplied directly from groundwater and is used to irrigate the world's largest food supply. Improper harvesting of groundwater reservoirs has led to the fact that the amount of feeder feed is not responsive to harvesting and the groundwater level has dropped. The drop in groundwater levels has led to problems such as drying up water wells, declining river and lake discharge, lowering water quality, increasing pumping costs and water extraction and land subsidence. Awareness of water level changes is necessary to understand the status of groundwater aquifers and their optimal management. By assessing groundwater level fluctuations, it can be used to manage water resources. One of the major applications of remote sensing is the detection and determination of land use changes. Using remote sensing, it is possible to study and identify various phenomena. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different land use on groundwater using interpolation geostatistical methods as well as object-oriented classification methods for land use mapping. Materials and Methods Ardabil plain is a mountainous plain located in northwestern Iran and east of the Azerbaijani plateau. The plain covers an area of 990 km2 among the highlands around it and in terms of political divisions includes parts of the cities of Ardabil and Namin. The data used in this study included a Landsat 8 satellite image of the OLI surveyor for the 2015 land use map, as well as a Landsat TM 5 surveyor for the 1987 land use plan. Also, in this study, the groundwater depth data of 43 piezometer wells in Ardabil plain were used. In this research, after preparing the statistics of piezometric wells, the data reconstruction method was used to eliminate the deficiencies in the study data. Reconstruction, which was used only to correct deficiencies in the data, is an interpolation method performed by the Neural Power software (based on the artificial neural network). To normalize the data, logarithmic transformations were used in SPSS and GS+ software was used for geostatistical analysis. ENVI software was used for atmospheric and radiometric corrections and ArcGIS software was used to extract the layer map. Results and Discussion The largest area in 1987 belongs to the irrigated agricultural class with an area of 51840 hectares. The second area belongs to the rainfed agricultural class, which has the largest area with 48,790 hectares. The smallest area also belongs to the use of water with 88.65 hectares. Looking at the uses of 1394, the results showed significant differences in such a way that the use of irrigated agriculture with 10.17 hectares has increased significantly compared to 1987. After extracting the land use change map to select the best intrusion model from among the various models, all models were evaluated and only the models that were more accurate than the other models were selected. The highest average water level was recorded in 1987 for agricultural agriculture and the lowest average water level was recorded for the forest area. Considering the land use map and the groundwater level map of 1394, the above analysis is confirmed and as it is known, the highest average water level this year belongs to the use of irrigated agriculture with 20.17 meters and the lowest average recorded water level is related to the use of the forest is 11.45 meters. Compared to 1987, water use has had a decrease in water level, which has reduced the water level of dams and also reduced the volume of water in rivers and even dried up several of these rivers. After water use, one of the most interesting uses that need to be analyzed and the reason for its search is the use of irrigated agriculture. This land use has the highest water level drop in 1987 and in 2015 it has faced the highest water level drop. The reason can be attributed to the over-harvesting of groundwater for irrigated crops that need more irrigation. Due to the fact that the Rain-fed crops in the study area are mostly wheat and do not need water or needless, but the amount of groundwater level in 2015 compared to 1987 has been accompanied by a significant decline. The use of pastures in 2015 compared to 1987 has dropped significantly, which indicates the critical situation of groundwater and excessive use of these resources. Conclusion In this study, in the first step, in order to classify and then examine the changes that occurred in a certain period of time in the study area. In order to classify the relevant images, An object-oriented classification method was used in eCognition software and the relevant outputs were extracted in ArcGIS software. Evaluation of classification accuracy for 2015 has a very high accuracy so that the overall accuracy and coefficient of the extracted Kapa at the highest possible level, the overall accuracy of 100% and the coefficient of Kapa 0.99 and for the year 1987 was extracted with less accuracy and general accuracy for In 1987, 98% and the Kappa coefficient was 0.95. After extracting the land use change map to select the best intrusion model from among the various models, all models were evaluated. Due to ME and RMSE values, the curing method has higher accuracy than other methods. Among the various modes of the curing method, the Gaussian model has the highest accuracy. According to the results, the most changed use in this area has been the use of pastures in irrigated agriculture and Rain-fed agriculture. This change shows that the increase in the use of irrigated agriculture and Rain-fed agriculture in this area has been accompanied by a decrease in the use of rangelands, which indicates the destruction of pastures. According to the groundwater level map, the highest average water level was recorded in 1987 for irrigated agricultural use and the lowest average water level was recorded for the forest area. Also, the highest average water level in 2015 belongs to the use of irrigated agriculture with 20.17 meters and the lowest average recorded water level is related to forest use with 11.45 meters. One of the interesting uses that need to be analyzed and the reason for its search is the use of irrigated agriculture. This land use has the highest water level drop in 1987 and in 2015 it has faced the highest water level drop. The reason can be attributed to the over-harvesting of groundwater for irrigated crops that need more irrigation. In general, all uses in 2015 compared to 1366 have faced a decrease in water balance. As a result of these changes, farmers have made more use of groundwater resources, which has led to a drop in groundwater levels over a 28 years period in the study area. This overuse is enough to reduce the average level of the plain by 4.9 meters during the mentioned period. http://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.26767082.1400.12.1.5.6 Manuscript profile -
Open Access Article
6 - Recreation suitability zoning in part of the Oman sea coast
Malihe Erfani Nahid EhsanZadehBackground and Objective Ecotourism activities lead to the development and environmental conservation if they performed on the basis ‎of environmental potential and continue through appropriate exploitation and conservation of managed ‎areas. Therefore, ecotouri MoreBackground and Objective Ecotourism activities lead to the development and environmental conservation if they performed on the basis ‎of environmental potential and continue through appropriate exploitation and conservation of managed ‎areas. Therefore, ecotourism is known as one of the kinds of sustainable tourism that with reasonable ‎management is able to meet the protection and development goals. One of the most ‎important management activities is zoning and spatial prioritization of suitable areas for tourism ‎development. Suitable areas have the best status of predefined evaluation criteria. The selecting process ‎of the appropriate zone involves two main steps typically; screening (identifying a limited number of ‎candidate zones from a wide geographical area according to a range of criteria), and evaluation. Land evaluation is a process of predicting the potential use of land-based on its attributes. Due to the ‎importance of zoning in tourism management, many studies have been done so far, but a review of ‎studies conducted in Iran showed that coastlines have been less considered in such studies. Therefore, ‎the present study intends to identify and prioritize suitable ecotourism areas in a part of the southern ‎coasts of the country according to ecological and socio-economic resources. The present study is to investigate the capability and zoning of the eastern watershed of Chabahar Gulf with a coastal length of 47 km for coastal tourism and also to identify and select the most suitable areas based on their preference in terms of criteria. Materials and Methods At first, all possible criteria for land suitability evaluation for tourism development in the study area were selected according to the review of resources, and finally, using a questionnaire and Delphi method, the criteria were finalized. The identified evaluation criteria were in two forms of factor (continuous and discrete) and constraint as; Continuous factor criteria included; distance from the river, distance from the wetlands, distance from the mountains of Hezar-Dareh (Badlands)‎, distance from the port and the pier, distance from historical and cultural centers, distance from specific vegetation, distance from the specific animal, distance from agricultural lands, distance from the natural fountain, distance from rocky shores, distance from sandy shores, distance from the road, distance from rural areas, and distance from urban areas. Discrete factor criterion included; vegetation and restriction criteria included; wetland backline, river backline, and shore backline. Evaluation criteria were identified, prepared, and mapped. Finally Merged using the multi-criteria evaluation method (MCE) and the weighted linear ‎combination (WLC) approach. The weight of each factor ‎criterion was obtained by the analytic hierarchy process ‎‎(AHP) and all layers related to these criteria were ‎standardized and dimensionless by the fuzzy method. The ‎standardization of constraint criteria was performed by the ‎Boolean method.‎ Areas that have more than 70% suitability for the coastal ecotourism development and also have at least 9 hectares extension were identified as acceptable areas. These two filters were implemented by applying the Siteselect function. Results and DiscussionThe consistency ratio for the AHP were obtained 0.05, which is less than 0.1, therefore the weighting was done correctly. The filtered map (based on minimum area and minimum suitability) obtained from WLC showed that suitable areas for ecotourism development are along the coastline and mainly natural factors and spectacular geological attractions have been effective in this selection. The results of weighting the criteria show that rocky shores, sandy shores, and mountains of Hezar Dareh have the most weight among all operating criteria, which are respectively 0.19, 0.134, 0.12, and 0.09 and show the great attractiveness of these phenomena in attracting tourists from the experts' point of view. The resulting layer ‎of overlay was classified into two favorable and unfavorable classes. The results showed that the appropriate places for potential tourism were 233 hectares and are ‎located in seven zones along ‎the coast. Zones 4, 5, 2, and 3 had more priority, respectively based on the statistical characteristics of desirability, as well as the superiority of landscape features, proximity to the sea, and the greater accessibility, also the well-known locations. The field study also showed that these areas are more visited by tourists, which indicates the validity of the method and criteria used. Zones 7, 1 and, 6 are also in the next priority, respectively, which need more management and planning in terms of access to increase the tourism suitability. These results show the role of socio-economic factors, especially infrastructure. Ignoring it will lead to the elimination of recreational use or the imposition of irreparable damage to the environment. Conclusion So far, our study area was less affected by accelerated development and its nature remains healthy. In this regard, allocating parts of the region to ecotourism landuse, if properly managed, can ensure the conservation of the environmental quality of the identification zones, because ecotourism is mentioned as the best policies of natural resources management which lead to the reduction of destructive factors and their sustainable protection, and on the other hand, by developing ecotourism sites and improving tourism facilities, the economic state of the tourist host community also improves. Among the identified zones, four zones 4, 5, 2, and 3 are suggested as the first priority ‎for tourism planning respectively.‎ Organizing, developing, and improving communication networks and roads in the region will increase the suitability of the region, especially zones 7, 1, and 6. Therefore, the development of communication networks and air transportation, maritime transportation, and Ground transportation and facilities and welfare and accommodation facilities needed by tourists are suggested, as well as maritime tourism tours to increase the region's attractiveness in attracting domestic and foreign tourists. Also, due to the high attraction of the mountains of Hezar-Dareh, which also have geological importance, it is suggested that parts of the study area be managed as a geological park or geopark. A more detailed study of the area is suggested to a spatial selection of coastal tourism activities with more comprehensive spatial information in the identified suitable areas in this study for future studies. http://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.26767082.1400.12.1.6.7 Manuscript profile
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