A Comparison of Maps Overlay Systemic Method and Boolean-Fuzzy Logic in the Ecological Capability Evaluation of No. 33 and 34 Watershed Forests in Northern Iran

In this research, two methods were utilized for assessing the ecological capability of forestry: the overlay maps systemic and Boolean-Fuzzy Logic (BFL) methods. To assess the ecological capability of forest land, it is essential to deploy precise ecological factors of a forest ecosystem such as its physiography, topography, altitude, slope, soil, bedrock, precipitation, temperature, and natural factors like vegetation density, annual increment, and the special value of plant species.Therefore, overlay methodology and Boolean logic were used to evaluate the ecological capability of sub watersheds Nos. 33 and 34 that cover an area of 32,526 ha near Tonekabon in Mazandaran Province of Iran. Our findings after using the conventional Boolean Model revealed that there are categories 3, 5, 6, and 7 of forest capability in the area, although the category 3 area was dominant. On the other hand, when the same methodology was used but, instead of the Boolean- Logic (BL) the ‘Boolean-Fuzzy-Logic’ (BFL) was deployed and after weighting of parameters by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), the seven complete categories for forest layers have been detected in the Geographic Information System (GIS) layers. These findings can emphasize the improvement of BFL methodology against the conventional BL for assessment of the ecological capability of forests in the northern part of Iran.