Environmental Capability Assessment of Kheyrud Forest Ecotourism with a Sustainable Management Approach

The growing and diverse trend of human social needs has led to a change in people's attitudes about the environment and natural resources. As a result, the importance of ecological and environmental functions of forest resources is increasing. This change of attitude has led to the development of the philosophy of sustainable and multi-purpose management of forests. The aim of the present study is the spatial zoning of the environmental capability of Kheyrud forest ecotourism based on special environmental model with a sustainable management approach. The ecological, socio-economic and environmental capability models presented for Hyrcanian forests were used as the basis of the present study. After preparing the required layers, the evaluation of the environmental capability was done based on three scenarios of high, medium, and low severity, and a spatial zoning was done. In this research, the smallest planning unit was selected based on the hydrological response units (HRU). The results of the implementation of the special model of the environmental capability of ecotourism, which is the integration of ecological and socio-economic models, showed that the integration of layers in scenarios with high, medium and low severity, for determinitig of suitable areas for ecotourism in the study area is appropriate.