Ecological capability of Tajyar Dam Basin for agricultural and range management and recreation applications

Environmental assessment of land as a basic study of land use planning is essential for achieving sustainable development goals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ecological potential of Tajyar Dam Basin for agricultural and range management and centralized outing and extensive outing applications using the Boolean method.

The main criteria used in this study are: soil maps, lithology, topography, climate, vegetation, water and land use. Information layers are aligned and analysis of Tajyar Dam Basin in East Azarbaijan province was carried out by using the Boolean method and AND logic and digitizing information in the GIS. The Boolean model shows a place-of-interest relation based on conditional operators as zero or one.

The findings indicate that the areas with agricultural capacity are 6958 hectares and non-usable areas are 3701 hectares of the total area of the study area. In the case of a central recreational resort, the areas with central recreation capacity are 4851 hectares and 5793 hectares of the area are not capable and finally in extensive outing application, the areas with extensive outing capacity are 4612 hectares and non-usable areas are 6042 hectares of the total area.

 Considering that nearly 40% of the region has potential for recreational use and more than 50% of the area has potential for agricultural use, therefore, in this basin, high ecological power is observed for these applications.