Ecological land capability evaluation of Arasbaran protected area using Boolean multi-criteria evaluation method and weighted linear combination techniques in Geographic Information System

Arasbaran protected area is located in East Azerbayjan in the northwest of Iran. This area is one of the nine reserves in Iran, and 66.5% of it is covered by forests. In this study, land capability evaluation of this area for forestry was carried out in Geographic Information System (GIS) surrounding. Both Boolean and weighted Linear Combination (WLC) methods along with analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) were used. First, the ecological characteristics of the study area including elevation, slope, soil texture, climate, value of vegetation type, soil depth and vegetation density were studied and then the calibrated model for forestry in Arasbaran area was created. Findings: In the first step, land capability assessment was done using Boolean method and results showed the presence of class capabilities of third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, and lack of class capability of first and second for forestry. In the next step, the importance of criteria and sub-criteria was calculated using expert’s comments and AHP technique in Expert Choice 11. Then, land capability assessment was done using weighted linear combination. The results showed that all of the seven suitability classes for forestry were proper in the area. Discussion and Conclusion: Mc-Harg systemic model has been used to evaluate the ecologic capability evaluation for many years. The new process in ecologic capability evaluation is to use the mathematical models and to use the analytical hierarchy process for determining the weights and relative importance of the alternatives and for ecologic capability assessment by geographic information systems (GIS). In this study, to evaluate the forestry ecologic capability, both Boolean and WLC methods were used and the advantages and disadvantages of them were investigated.