Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

THE APPLICATION OF THE INTERSECTION OF MAPS IN THE EVALUATION OF ECOLOGICAL POTENTIAL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM (NORTH OF IRAN)

Habib Hosseinpour Roudsari¹‚ Balal Dayan² and Mousa Amini³

Abstract

With an area of 5490.429 km2, Lahijan is the seventh city of Guilan province in terms of area. Lahijan city is comprised of two districts (central and Roudbaneh), 7 rural districts (Roudbaneh, Shir-jo-posht, Ahandan, Bazkia Gourab, Lafamjan, Lialestan and Lil) and 188 villages. The inhabitants of this city are of Guilaki origins and speak Guilaki language with Lahijani accent. In order to evaluate the ecological potential of the environmental effects of the tourism projects in the territory of the coastal lands of Hasan-bekandeh village of Lahijan city, the method of the intersection of maps using the automatic interpretation of the satellite images with the ArcGIS software has been used as follows. Firstly, the intended parameters (slope, height, geographical direction, application, geology, ecology and demography) were specified for the territory of the research according to the fitting model, then each of these parameters were supplied in the GIS system (ArcGIS software) and then using the intersection functions, all of the maps were intersected in the GIS system and finally the output map was produced which included all of the important environmental parameters in the tourism model and has the capability of power and suitable category for each of the usages existing in the researched territory.