Evaluation of Ecological Capacity of Gorgan City to Identify Potential Urban Development Points

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the process of ecological potential assessment of Gorgan city in order to determine potential urban development points. The research method in this study is descriptive-analytical; in order to achieve the purpose of the research, first - the required information of the area is collected using available information sources and fieldwork and interviews with relevant experts and then using the evaluation approach. Multi-criteria and specifically the use of the hierarchical analysis process, one of the most popular multi-objective decision making techniques for complex situations with multiple and contrasting metrics, is evaluated, analyzed, summarized and integrated in the geographic information system environment. Based on the results, the whole study area is in terms of elevation criterion and most of the study area in terms of slope, land use, communication and precipitation criteria to determine optimal urban development points were appropriate and direction criteria. Slope, soil, geology, fault, distance from river are limited in More area for the study of city development. Finally, 11.73% of this area has very good capability, 21.91% has good capability and 27.03% has moderate capability for city development. On the other hand, 26.07% of this area has inadequate power and 13.26% has very limited capacity for city development. Overall, the city of Gorgan in the study area has more than average capacity for urban development.