Evaluation of Ecological Capability and identification of Suitable areas to Develop Sustainable Ecotourism using MCE and WLC method Case Study: Gorgan

Introduction: Developing tourism in the areas that have the required capabilities can be a useful way for the host communities to comprehensively grow and develop. Attractions are necessary but insufficient elements to develop tourism in an area since developing tourism requires accurate identification of the area and providing services to tourists. More importantly, lack of careful planning to recognize the appropriate tourism may lead to undesirable consequences for the environment. Currently, most countries in the world are competing to take more advantages of their capabilities and obtain a larger share of revenue from tourism. However, unlike having a variety of attractions, the cities in Iran have so far failed to make use of this advantage well. Gorgan city with plains in north and mountains in south has special natural and tourism features so that there is a temperate climate and many water resources that can create an area rich in ecotourism attractions. In this regard, this paper aims at evaluating the ecological capability in order to organize sustainable ecotourism by using MCE in Gorgan city, contributing to planning and managing tourism in this area to maximize positive capabilities and minimize the negative ones. Materials and Methods: This paper is going to evaluating the ecological indices to organize sustainable ecotourism in Gorgan by using MCE (Multi Criteria Evaluation). Since identifying and evaluating tourism capabilities is a multi-criteria decision- making issue, this study uses fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making model and WLC method (Weighted Linear Combination) in GIS environment. This paper is an applied-developmental study and the methodology used in this study is analytical-descriptive. The collecting data tool is library research method (using articles, reports, and other written available documents), interview, and case-studies. Discussion of Results: This paper studied 31 sub-criteria under 6 main criteria. The criteria used in this paper include continuous and discrete data whose standardization and weighting vary in the nature and value attributes of each criterion. At this point, the data layers developed to be used in fuzzy analysis were converted to appropriate formats of IDRISI 17 and ARC GIS10.1. Moreover, we used fuzzy logic for combing layers and determining the degree of membership fuzzy logic. Each layer in fuzzy logic is between 0 and 1 (0 < μ(x) <1) (Lin, 1996). Regarding this fact that it is possible to show the values between 0-255 in computer systems, we may show them between 0- 255 rather than 0- 1. At this scale, larger numbers have more utility. That is, the closer are values to 255, the more utility they will have. Creating layers and fuzzy sets in terms of their nature and types of applications, we used different functions and finally standardized each spatial layer. Standardizing and weighting the criteria, WLC method was used to do phase modulation and overlapping operations, and the final maps were extracted. Generally, the Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) was used based on the following relation: S= ∑ i=1 to nWiXi∏Ci Conclusions: According to the evaluations in the studied area, the results indicate that the identified areas on the map as appropriate areas for the development of sustainable ecotourism are more located in the southern and central parts of the area. The northern parts that are mostly plains are not much potential in terms of sustainable ecotourism development. The results show that 129.8 km2 (8%), 355.52 km2 (22%), 371.68 km2 (23%), 533.28 km2 (33%), 226.24 km2 (14%) of the total 1616 km2 of the Gorgan city have very weak, weak, average, high, and very high capabilities for ecotourism development, respectively. the regions with high density of vegetation and water resources good climate (southern and central parts) have the most capabilities for ecotourism activities. Analyzing the utility map, the northern regions are not potential for ecotourism development.