A GIS-Based Quantitative Model for Land Use Planning in Larestan County, Iran

Abstract

Land use planning involves making decisions regarding the use of land resources with the primary aim of achieving the best use of land for maximum food production and profit. The main goal of this research is to evaluate the land use and natural resources for future sustainable land planning using GIS. So, in this study, the Iranian ecological evaluation model was used for the analysis the ecological and resources maps of the study area. First of all, ecological capability maps of different land uses including forestry, agriculture, range management, environmental conservation, ecotourism and development of village, urban and industry were developed by overlaying geographical maps based on Boolean overlay method (as a Multi-Criteria Evaluation Method)  in GIS for the Township. The final step of this research was the prioritization of land uses considering the ecological and socio-economic characteristics (by distributing questionnaire to 46 experts (of the study area using a quantitative model. Results shows the maximum area of proposed uses is 65.1% that is related to range management showing this land use has high potential and socio-economic demands in study area. While minimum area of proposed uses is related to Rainfed farming.