An investigation of Tourism Impact on urban and rural land use changes (A Case study: Kelardasht township)

The objective of this research is to analyze the role of tourism on land use changes in rural and urban area in Klardasht township. . The method of this research is descriptive and analytical based on survey. The data of this research is collected from field observation, interview and satellite images.in order to create land cover map and change detection, satellite images for the years 1987, 2000, 2010 and 2015 were used. The process of analysis of satellite images such as making raster layer was carried out with Erdas 2014 software. Then Thematic Maps were produced through ArcGis 10.4 software. The main and important factor of driving force and pressure in land use change in this area was uncontrolled tourism development. Findings of field observation, interview and satellite images show the huge part of land use of forest, orchard and farm in the study area have changed and converted to built area during years 1987 to 2015. In such a way that with respect to demand in land purchasing and building of second homes and development of facilities and services related to tourism considering lack of efficient management and serious shortcomings in executing rules and regulations, tourism development had great roles in such changes