Environmental Impacts Assessment of Development on the Geography of Alvand No-Hunting Area by Providing Optimal Strategies

Areas that need continuous monitoring, are protected areas which necessitates the need for ‎environmental impact assesment of development in these areas. For strategic planning and ‎environmental impact assessment of development in the Alvand no-hunting area, the environmental ‎degradation and SWOT-ANP models were used. First, ecological vulnerability in each of ‎the network units was calculated and classified and then using topographic maps, field observations, ‎experts' opinions, and local communities, 13 degradation units were identified in the whole area and ‎its severity Was determined. Finally, using obtained coefficients of degradation, the area was ‎classified into 3 zones, which need protection measures (56.01%), need reconstruction (35.41%), and ‎development potential (8.49%). Despite the potential for grade 1 development, based on local ‎conditions and socio-economic issues, there is no possibility of further development in the area. ‎Then, for strategic planning in the area, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats were ‎identified, and then according to opinion of experts, each weighting (ANP) and were compared. ‎The weighting results indicated that internal factors with a total score of 0.631 were selected as ‎main factor in providing protection strategies in the area, and an Aggressive strategy with the ‎highest score (0.340) in the area was selected as optimal strategy. In addition, existing ‎strengths for protection in the area are more than weaknesses, and also opportunities are more than ‎threats, and providing optimal strategies can help improve the protection situation of the area and ‎improve its management. ‎