Study of Ecological Capability of Industrial Development using GIS (Case Study: Development of Semnan Industrial Town)

Attention to land capability for establishment of industries and also wise and sustainable use of land to prevent environmental crises have been considerd by planners in recent years. Regarding the necessity of ecological capability evaluation for different uses before any development plan, land capability for development of Semnan industrial town has been studied in this paper.
In this regard, Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) was used accoding to Makhdoom industrial development model. In the first stage, environmental resources were identified. Next, land capability was determined by overlaying the different layers in GIS.
Considering all ecological parameters, the results show that about 75% of the total area is relatively suitable (level 2) for industrial development and the rest is unsuitable. All the area can be considered as relatively suitable, if elevation parameter (the last priority in the model) is deleted.