Ecotourism Potential Assessment of the Middle Taleghan using Geographic Information System

Evaluating the ecological capability and determining the natural capacity as well as appropriate planning and management actions ensure the sustainable utilization of the ecosystems. The aim of this study was to assess the ecotourism potential of the middle Taleghan located in the Alborz province. According to the importance of the ecotourism potential criteria, two groups of highly important factors (distance from attractive places, accessibility and path and topography) and less important factors (vegetation, soil erosion, distance from water resources and temperature) were determined. The spatial variables were classified, rated and overlaid for the whole studied area using geographic information system (GIS). According to the results, 3936/1 hectares (10/36%) classified as S1 class, 12309 hectares (32/42%) classified as S2 class, 14797/52 hectares (38/96%) classified as S3 class and 6934/5 hectares (18/26%) categorized in N classes. Results indicated that distance from attractive places, road and paths availability and vegetation in some vegetation types were the main limiting factors. Temperature, distance from water resources, topography and soil erosion were identified as the important factors to enhance the ecotourism capacity of the studied area.