Site Suitability Evaluation for Ecotourism Using GIS Fuzzy multi-criteria decision: A Case Study Of Mashhad County

The main objective of this study is to identify the potential ecotourism site using Fuzzy multi-criteria decision method based on GIS in Mashhad County. This method using GIS technology for the management and visualization of geographic data, fuzzy logic used for data analysis and evaluate the final results. The evaluating process for ecotourism site was conducted based on eight chosen criteria including visibility, land use/cover, reservation/protection, elevation, slope, proximity to cultural sites, distance from roads and settlement size. Those factors were selected according to the professional expert’s opinions. Then was obtained fuzzy maps for each criteria in IDRISI software utilizing linear, Trapezoidal, S-Shape and J-Shape functions. Finally, different raster standard layers were combined by integration analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and Linear Combination Weighted (WLC) methods. According to the results, Mashhad Country, with three regions, northern part (A)(KardehVillage area) Western part (B)(Torghabeh, Shandiz and Chalydarreh area) and southern part (C)(Malekabad area)are located in group(1-0/69 very suitable ) means they are potential and are candidate for ecotourism and related activities.