Assessing tourism attractions of Gharahsoo watershed based on the impacts and effectiveness of environmental criteria

Identifying of tourism attractions is a basic requirement in local and national community to balanced and harmonious development of land potential. This study aimed to evaluate the tourism attractions of Gharahsoo watershed in Golestan province, northeast of Iran, based on the impact and Effectiveness of environmental criteria. After determination of criteria and preparation of layers, criteria analysis was done based on the impacts and Effectiveness of the criteria using DEMATEL method and Entropy Shannon method was used for weighting criteria. Finally, the spatial analysis was done according to the TOPSIS method. The results showed that landform and plant density in terms of the impact and access to facilities in terms of the Effectiveness have priority over the other criteria. Also, the criteria weighting results showed that the criteria access to facilities, landform and plant density with the value 0.229, 0.147 and 0.123 are priority to the other criteria, respectively. Finally, the results showed that in terms of tourism attractions, the areas of the southern of Gharahsoo watershed are in suitable conditions and the rest of the area, especially the northern parts have unsuitable conditions.