Modeling the Sustainable Land-Use Allocation in the Great Isfahan Using Multi-Criteria Evaluation in GIS Environment

Land suitability evaluation plays an important role in environmental sustainable management. Besides, it is a prerequisite for land planning which affects sustainability of the activities and sustainable development. The current study aims to evaluate and model the agricultural, urban and industrial development in Great Isfahan (as the most crowded center of Isfahan province and the most important agricultural and industrial hub of the country) using the data in 2018. Land-use planning is increasingly focusing on the aspects of environmental conservational and sustainable development. Choosing the appropriate areas for this purpose is a complex process which requires lots of effective factors. We use multi-criteria evaluation of the land-use allocation models applying geographic information system. First, the required data (including topographic variables, water resources, geology, land-use, accesses, infrastructure factors, biological resources, soil and climatic parameters) were identified, suitability maps were prepared using fuzzy method, and the weight of the factors was determined employing the analytic hierarchy process. Then, the prepared maps were combined using the weighted linear combination method. Finally, the final maps of land-uses suitability were prepared and classified according to the expert opinions. The findings show that approximately 586.9, 197.2 and 24 km2 (20.3%, 6.9% and 0.08%) of the total area of the region is suitable for agricultural, urban and industrial development, respectively. Besides, the northwest and southeast of the region are in an appropriate area. We conclude that MCE and GIS techniques are effective tools for land evaluation and planning. The results of the present research can be used as a multi-criteria decision analysis to obtain a deep insight into the sustainable use of natural resources. Moreover, three possible scenarios (current ecological and socio-economic trend, conservation of agricultural lands and urban-industrial development) can be designed and modeled based on.