Resources assessment for tourism landuse development Case study: Ziyarat Watershed of Gorgan

Background and

Tourism is one of the world’s most important green industries. Different factors can affect development of any area for tourism and recreation. These factors include distribution and number of population, land ownership, air quality, surface and underground water recourses, pollution, landscape type, urban design and structure, landscape esthetic, social believes, culture, biological criteria and so on. The aim of this research is resources assessmentfor tourism development in the Ziyarat watershed of Gorgan in Golestan province.

First, effective factors on tourism were identified in this area. Then, their maps were provided in geographical information system. Analytical Hierarchically Procedure (AHP) was used for weighting the maps. Multi Criteria Evaluation (MCE) method was used to determine appropriate sites for both of tourism landuse. At the end, two final maps were merged together and the area's tourism landuse map was determined.

According to result, 1137.15 hectares of the watershed was allocated to the extensive tourism and 6.48 hectares to the intensive tourism.

Considering to results, low allocated intensive tourism especially their dispersal and fragmentation show this fact the area is not suitable for intensive developing and has not essential potential for infrastructures construction especially dense buildings. So, it is recommended residential constructions are controlled in this area and the area is developed parallel to extensive tourism.