Ecological capability evaluation of Baluchi's rangelands of Lar city to develop range management plan

The use of nature in a way that is least harmful to the environment and the best efficiency is achieved for humans is possible when all factors and phenomena involved in environment are considered in the planning of land.For this purpose, this research was aimed to assess the ecological capability for the rangelands of Lar city in the Baluch region using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) based on the principles of land use planning. Initially, the information layers including vegetation, climate, geology, landform, soil, and erosion were prepared in Arc GIS. Then, the weighting of evaluation criteria was performed in the Expert Choice software based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). In the next step, the weights of evaluation criteria were extended to the layers and analysis was performed in Idrisi. According to the obtained results, the ecological capability of the study rangelands for range management development was classified into five classes, namely high suitable (78.5 ha), suitable (321ha), moderately suitable (71.25 ha), low suitable (172 ha), and not suitable (1445.4 ha), respectively. In addition, our results showed that attention to climatic and edaphic conditions as well as socio-economic issues are important and necessary for the implementation of any range management plan in this region.