Determination of Ecoregions of Iran’s Southern Coasts as a Basis to Determine Coastal-Marine Protected Areas Using GIS System

In recent years, there is an increasing attention to homogenous representative areas to develop a network of coastal-marine protected areas. One of the current common systems is an ecoregion approach. The aim of this study was to determine ecoregions of southern coasts of Iran as a basis and prerequisite to develop coastal-marine protected areas according to global new procedures.

A survey to recognize the ecoregions of southern coastlines of Iran in Persian Gulf, strait of Hormoz and Oman Sea was done according to international valid and common criteria. Criteria used in this study were determined in the field of biogeography according to the related literatures in this field, and three criteria of surface sea temperature, depth and surface currents were set as the base criteria. The maps of determined criteria were overlapped with the help of ArcGIS. After that, identified areas were controlled with country divisions, and then final boundaries and limitations of southern coast’s ecoregions were separated.

Results showed that, in Iran’s southern coast, five ecoregions can be recognized.

This classification, which is the first one in Iran, can be a basis and a step to select coastal-marine protected areas and a model for ecological surveys.