Investigation and Evaluation of Environmental Potential in Spatial Distribution of Rural Settlements in Maragheh City Using AHP Fuzzy Technique

Ecological condition and natural potentials play an important role in sustainable development and the spatial patterns of rural settlements. Therefore, in order to reduce the adverse effects of environmental conditions and plan for the improvement of the residential status, it is important to know the sustainability of the villages. On the other hand, it can minimize the environmental hazards. This study is an applied in terms of the purpose and it is a descriptive-analytical study in terms of nature and method. Documentation and field observation were used to collect the data. To do this, the data were collected from books, documents, organizations and baseline maps from different organizations (GIS). To measure the environmental feasibility of the villages, measurements like altitude, slope, slope direction, fault distance, access to water resources (river), soil type and climate were used. The AHP hierarchical analysis model was used to obtain the relative weight of each variable and the Fuzzy Overall logic was used to integrate the layers.The results of the study show that 121 villages (68%) are in a stable and favorable environment in terms of environmental potentials and they have 62364 population (73.6); 49 villages (27.5%) with 20516 inhabitants (24.2%)have moderate sustainability; 8 villages (4.5%) are in poor and unstable condition and 1850 people (2.2%) live in unstable villages.Also, in terms of sustainability, the villages located in the center and west of Maragheh are in a better position than that of the east and southeast villages. There was a significant correlation between elevation, slope, distance from river and climate with the distribution of rural areas.