Ecological Land Capability Evaluation in Kavedeh No-Hunting area for Establishment of Environmental Conservation Land Use: A sustainable Development Approach

Kavehdeh forbidden hunting area is an estimated 94,961 hectares Located in East of Tehran and south of the Firoozkooh.This region is selected based on the rich and varied vegetation and wildlife species and also unique historical monuments that according to international standards, by utilizing spatial multi-criteria evaluation method (SMCE) to be evaluated and considered as a protected area. To do so, after detecting the physic- chemical and ecological and economic - social resources of the under review area (scale 1/100000), the obtained data was introduced to ArcGIS 9.3 software. In this method, criteria, and various restrictions are combined, So that in combination of homogeneous factors, the initial attempts focused on standardization. This is done by using fuzzy expert system and s-shaped functions. Overall, data were obtained through 24 layers as criteria maps for protection application capability evaluation. Using Expert Choice software, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was conducted to load the criteria in relation to the type of applications. Then, the mathematical relationship of the protection application development was extracted. To analyze land proportion for the development of the expected applications, combined loaded linear method was utilized and the final map of protection applications was represented on the criteria maps data. The results revealed that the 34,687 hectares of entire area that covers the 37 percent of the region, has suitable conditions and capability to be selected as a protected area.