Assessing the environmental impacts of forest tourism projects using an improved rapid impact assessment matrix method (Case Study: Arghavan forest park, Ilam Province, Iran)

Optimal forest management implies multiple uses in accordance with the principles of sustainability in natural ecosystems. Due to the ever-increasing demand for forest tourism in recent years, further research is required in terms of the environmental impact assessment. In this research, the environmental aspects of two implementation scenarios (two construction phases and exploitation) as well as non-implementation of the Arghavan forest park project were evaluated using an improved RIAM method in biological-ecological, physical-chemical, social-cultural and economic-functional aspects in the Ilam province within the Zagros region. Improving the RIAM method involves the use of fuzzy logic and network analysis (ANP) to prioritize evaluation criteria. The results showed that while the evaluation index in the conventional method was positive in both implementation and non-implementation of the project, its magnitude in the implementation option was almost doubled compared with the non-implementation option. The result of comparing the evaluation index of the improved method with that of the initial method showed a minor reduction (~6%) in the implementation and a significant decrease (~115%) in the non-implementation. Accordingly, assuming compliance with the implementation defaults, the evaluation revealed the most positive effects of the project implementation. Although the analysis of the results of the method requires complementary research, the use of fuzzy logic and ANP in improving the environmental impact assessment seems to be necessary due to the subjective nature of the evaluation, criteria measurement error, the uncertainty in predicting the aspects and the complex internal relations between the evaluation elements.