Assessing the Ecological Suitable Zones for Agriculture and Range Management in the Zanjan Province by Using GIS

Assessing ecological potential is an essential item in planning and management of land that is considered as the main prerequisite for achieving sustainable development through which capability of environment for development based on type of activity is determined. In this paper we have investigated ecological potential of Zanjan province for agricultural development and by examining current state of land use, the appropriateness and inappropriateness of various regions of the province for this activity is being known. Descriptive and analytical research methods and field data collection were applied in this survey. The overlapping maps model was utilized for determining the ecological potential and Arcgis9.3 software was used for data analysis. Our findings show that from the overall levels of potential for agriculture and ranch management, 111909.42 hectares for agricultural class II, 12765.66 hectares for farming class III, and 77257.84 hectares is suitable for agriculture class IV. Also 71458.76 hectares is proportional for ranch management class II, 68422.05 hectares for ranch management class III and 56382.03 hectares for ranch management class IV.