The study on the Best Sub Coastal Zone Separation style in order to Environmental Sensitivity Assessment (Case Study: Guilan Province Shorelines)

Sub-coastal zone sections and determining environmental sensitivity level of the coastal regions in the country is an activity that has been considered in recent years due to sensitivity and vulnerability assessment of coastal area in front of socio-economic development process and selection of environmental managed regions. Coastal landforms, network method (base line) and coastal townships boundaries are three styles that have been used for unit separation due to assessment. Guilan Province shorelines were assessed sensitivity and vulnerability by three methods as well as assess by criteria of coastal-marine protected areas. Results showed according to the valuation in 17 grids (each grid is 15 km length) and 30 coastal townships, and 13 landform Sub-coastal sections, Guilan Province shorelines were divided into high, medium and low sensitivity areas. Then the three sub-coastal zone sections methods were compared using IFE &EFE matrix in order to determine the best one. For this reason, the experts ideas and opinions about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of each method were collected and concluded since the Caspian sea shorelines are approximately uniform, so the best assessment sub-coastal zone sections method for environmental purpose is coastal landform, because it is matched on the natural borders of ecosystems and has undeniable preferences on two other methods.