Assessment of Ecological Power to Determine the Land Use in Agriculture: A case study of Qaleh Ganj County

Achieving sustainable development and using resources effectively and efficiently depends on a thorough and accurate knowledge of the available facilities and capabilities as well as the limitations that deter desirable situations. Development and maintenance of ecological power occurs when the land is used in proportion to its capabilities. In QalehGanj County, situated in Kerman province and with an area of about 10440 km2, people experience different environmental conditions with different environmental potentials for agriculture. In this research, environmental power was investigated as a way of determining the agricultural capability of the region. The main goal was to specify a proper location for agriculture development, which would, in turn, bring about the most productive output both at the present time and in the long run. The process of ecological capability evaluation in the present study was conducted using a multivariate evaluation (MCE) method. Once the specific usages were defined, appropriate metrics for each use were selected using Moodood's evaluation models for macro applications and expert opinions. These criteria were divided into two categories, factor and limit. After that, the standardization of the maps was done based on two fuzzy and Boolean logics. Also, weighing the factors was done using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The output of the weighted combinations would be indicative of the competence for locating each user. Applying this method, appropriate areas with high ecological power for agriculture (with an area of 34615.89 hectares) were recommended in QalehGanj County. The Expert Choice and IdrisiSelva software programs were applied in this study.