A comparison on assessment of ecological capability to determine appropriate areas for urban development using GIS-based Fuzzy Model (Case Study: Saidoon and Zardrud Drainage Basin in Khozestan Province)

Today the growth in population of cities and city growth caused by it has necessitated the attention towards curbing the sprawl of Cities and pursuing the principles of sustainable development. Landuse could lead to unpleasant ramifications and environmental destruction which would, in turn, pose a threat to natural resources and prevent the sustainable development of environment From Taking Effect, if it does not take into account the Ecological differences and environmental potentials. Therfore current study tries to locate and determine appropriate arenas for future city development in areas with appropriate Ecological Capability in Saidoon and Zardrud Drainage Basin of khoozestan province.the Methodology of this research is Descriptive- Analytic with Fuzzy Model Being used in it.first of all, required data Layers including 5 Ecological Factors (Slope, Height, Vegetation, Pedology and Water quantity) were produced and input into Arc GIS Software. Then a Questionnarie was filled in by Experts and specialists before Normalized and Preliminary Matrix were completed to determine the relative weight of each layer. Finally, having determined the Final Weight, all Layers were merged using Fuzzy Model. Results indicated that around 4625/1 hectare of all Saydoon Region (37063 Hectare) has appropriate first-grade Ecological Capability and around 7893/1 Hectare has appropriate second-grade capability for urban development while an Area of Approximately 24545 Hectare lacks appropriate Ecological Capability for this kind of development. Moreover, 124 square kilometer out of an area of 514 square kilometer in Zardrud Drainage Basin is deemed appropriate for urban development

Keywords:

Ecological Capability , Urban Development , GIS , Spatial Planning , Khozestan Province