Land Use Optimization using Multi-Criteria Assessment and Economic Analysis (A Case Study: Chehelchay Watershed, Golestan Province)

Land use optimization for proper utilization of land resources has always been one of the main issues in natural resource planning. To avoid the adverse effects of improper land use, management programs should be designed that incorporate land use optimization. In this research, land use optimization has been performed for the Chehelchay watershed, with an area of 25680 hectares in Golestan province, in order to prevent improper land utilization which threatens economic and social sustainability of the watershed. For this purpose, an optimal land use map was created using multi-criteria evaluation method together with economic evaluation of land uses based on the benefit-to-cost ratio. Proposed land uses and protection actions for the Chehelchay watershed include terracing, orchards, agroforestry, forage cultivation, afforestation and riparian forest buffers. To assess land suitability for different uses, several data layers were input and analyzed in Terrset software. Each of the factors (i.e. data layers) was standardized between zero and one. Then, the layers were combined using Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) method to generate fuzzy suitability map for each land use. In the final map, suitability values range between zero (not suitable) and one (perfectly suitable). Also, considering the costs of establishment, maintenance and income of each of the proposed land uses during a 30-year planning horizon, benefit-to-cost ratio was calculated for each land use. The results of the economic evaluations indicated that all of the proposed land uses are profitable. Finally, based on the results of multi-criteria evaluation and economic evaluations, the optimized areas for each proposed land use were determined across the watershed.