Investigating the environmental consequences of tourism development by the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix method(Case study: Costal area of Chaf-Chamkhaleh, Guilan)

The topic of tourism as a new phenomenon and a source for development can be investigated from different aspects of political, economic, social, cultural and environmental policies. It is one of the main sources of income for countries at present. Unfortunately, due to improper planning as well as weak infrastructure and management of tourism, development of tourism has led to large negative environmental impacts. The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impacts caused by the residences and tourist accommodations in the coastal area of Chaf-Chamkhale using the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix method (RIAM) in operation phase of physical-chemical, ecological-biological, social-cultural and economic- operational environments. Rapid impact assessment matrix method (RIAM) is one of the methods used for assessing the environmental impacts. Using this method, the standard data of important criteria have been assessed in this study. The results show that tourism development has positive effects on economic-operational and social-cultural environments.  The minimum negative effects were seen on health and traffic and the maximum effects were noticed on physical environment. Although tourism development in the study area has seemingly increased economical income and employment, it has posed a much larger destruction and negative views such as degradation of physical environments, land use change and environmental conservation as a result of employing the existing methods.