Land Suitability Evaluation for Urban Development in Meshkin-shahr using Fuzzy-AHP approachand GIS

Nowadays, many cities have caused the destruction of natural environments due to their unplanned and unlimited expansion in our country. Land capability evaluation can be an effective step in planning for the proper use of the land. In this research, Meshkin-shahr town was selected for urban development ecological capability evaluation due to exposure to environmental hazards.

Then, main criteria including slope, height, aspect, and distance from main road, distance from active faults, distance from river, land use, climate and distance from urban settlements were selected. Weighing to criteria was done using analytical hierarchy process and standardization was implemented with fuzzy method and then in the environment of the geographical information system of the layers was combined with the linear weighting process and the map of the appropriateness of urban development was prepared. Then, the layers were overlaid with weighted linear combination model in ARC/GIS and land suitability map of urban development was prepared.

Based on the results, slope and accessibility to main road have great role in urban development ecological capability evaluation of the town. Also, based on results 584.99km2 (15.62%) are not proper, 946.24 km2 (25.26%) have medium suitability, 1809.86 km2 (48.33%) have high suitability and 403.6 km2 (10.77%) have very high suitability for urban development in Meshkin-Shahr town.

Based on results central area in Meshkin shahr town have the highest potential for urban development and the other area should assign to another landuse by implementation of land use planning process.