Evaluation of Environmental Capability of Varjin Protected area for Implementation of Tourism by Using Spatial Multi Criteria Evaluation Method (SMCEM)

Subject Areas : environmental management

Seyed Ali Jozi ¹ , Sahar Rezaian ² , Kaveh Aghamiri ³

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Received: 2009-02-03 Accepted : 2009-07-11 Published : 2012-04-02

Keywords: Evaluation of Environmental Ca, out door Recreation, Geographical information syste, Spatial Multi Criteria Evaluat, Varjin protected area, Tehran Province,

Abstract :

Varjin Protected area is an estimated 26907 hectares of mountainous terrain located in Lavasanat and Roodbar Ghasran, districts in the Northeast of Tehran. Owing to its spectacular nature and its proximity to Tehran, Varjin protected area is considered to be an area with rich potentials for implementation of Tourism. The present study was an attempt to carefully examine the environmental capability of the area to further its extensive and centralized applicability. To do so, after detecting the ecological resources of the protected area (scale 1/100000) the obtained data was introduced to Arc GIS 9.2 software. Since implementation and applicability of outdoor recreation necessitated synchronized evaluation of numerous criteria or variables, the study utilized spatial multi criteria evaluation method (SMCEM). And therefore, the initial attempts focused on preparation and standardization of the criteria maps. Fuzzy expert system and s-shaped functions were used for the purpose of the study. Overall, data were obtained through sixteen layers as criteria maps for extensive outdoor recreation capability evaluation and seventeen layers for spatial evaluation of centralized outdoor recreation. Using Expert Choice software, analytical hierarchy process was conducted to load the criteria in relation to the type of applications. Then, the mathematical relationship of the extensive and centralized outdoor recreation was extracted. To analyze land proportion for the development of the expected applications, combined loaded linear method was utilized and the final map of extensive versus centralized applications were represented on the criteria maps data. The results show that nearly 4641.46 hectares (approximately %17.25) of Varjin protected area has suitable extensive outdoor recreation implementation, while nearly 1915.78 hectares (approximately %7.12) has the ideal conditions for centralized outdoor recreation development.