Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

APPLYING FUZZY ALGORITHMS AND SPATIAL INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR APPROPRIATE URBAN ECOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT (A CASE STUDY OF SANANDAJ CITY, IRAN)

AbolfazI Meshkini, Sedigheh Lotfi and Kiumars Habibi

Abstract

Problem Statement: The unplanned development of urban areas has created many ecological problems in the developing countries. Sanandaj is the political and socio-economic center of the Kurdistan province in the western border of Iran which has witnessed many different transitions such as rapid population growth and the physical expansion during the last 30 years. Its population increased from 40 thousand to 350 thousands in 2006. The physical expansion has dominantly taken place in an area where the most fertile lands and orchards are located. Now the city suffers from haphazard physical growth which has threatened the ecological sustainability of the region. Approach: Hence, this study intends to apply integrate different types of environmental and human-made indicators to create models via GIS and RS techniques. The research tries to use satellite and Anal photographs to determine the physical expansion of the city by geometric corrections of the images. Then the Index and Boolean logic will be used to assign the most appropriated lands for future city development. Results: The results revealed that such development firstly has been as result of urban development projects like master and detail plans which have stimulated rural migrants who squatted in the city without any consideration to the environmental or natural setting of the areas. They formed neighborhoods with sever infrastructural problems an area in the North West part of the city with 12 km2 on the base of the present urban fixed land ratio. Conclusion: The applied mythology has proved to be efficient in the context of a developing country where access to the data is costly and unreliable. Also the model has the potential to be used for the other areas which present same ecological problems.