Mehrnoush Afshari - Departmeny of Geography, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
Ali Bagherzadeh - Department of Agriculture, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, P.O Box: ۹۱۷۳۵-۴۱۳, Mashhad, Iran
Ehsan Afshar - Department of Agriculture, Mashhad Branch, Islamic Azad University, P.O Box: ۹۱۷۳۵-۴۱۳, Mashhad, Iran

Background and objective: Inappropriate land use due to changing requirements and pressures leads to the destruction of land resources and increases poverty and other social problems.Materials and methods:  The present study evaluated the land suitability for the spatial development of the Shandiz urban region, northeast of Iran based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and geographical information system (GIS).Results and conclusion: On this basis, the land suitability of the study area for spatial development was estimated and revealed that ۱۲ land uses (۲۲.۵% of the region) have high and moderate suitability for spatial development. Our results indicated that the regions with higher suitability for the spatial development of the Shandiz urban region are located in the middle and east parts of the study area. In contrast, the north, south, and west parts of the region have low suitability for spatial development. Our study presents a map of land suitability for the spatial development of the region, which will aid in appropriate planning, quick and safe mitigation measures, and future development strategies based on identifying the environmental factors affecting land suitability in the region. We developed a systematic regional planning approach to identify geographic priorities for on-ground natural resource management actions that most cost-effectively meet multiple natural resource management objectives.

Land suitability, spatial planning, Urban Region, AHP, GIS