Land suitability classification for development of Ziziphora tenuior using ANP Fuzzy at Ardabil province, Iran

Cultivation and development of medicinal plants is an effective way to fulfil of medicinal plants demand and to protect natural habitat to over use. Ziziphora tenuior is one of the traditional medicinal plants in Iran, which has a substance called Pulegone with its analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects. The main purpose of this study is find suitable landfor the plant cultivation in Sabalan watershed using ANP Fuzzy method. Most of relevant criteria (14) such as topographic, Soil, Climate, Geological and Land use were weighed using Analytical Network Process method and Delphi expert’s opinions in Super Decision software environment. The make a Fuzzy method, Idrisi Selva software environment was used. Using the weighted linear combination method, desired layers were created and overlaid to make the land suitability map for the plant development.  The results showed that altitude, temperature, soil depth and slope percentage are the most important criteria in cultivation and development of this plant in the region, respectively. Based on the results, 4245 hectares (16.14%) of area has a high or very high, 4283 hectares (16.83%) has moderate, 4271.56 hectares (18.04%) has low potential for cultivation and development of Ziziphora tenuior. Also 12913 hectares (49.35%) of the area has found non suitable. The model was validated by matching the Ziziphora tenuior distribution boundary on the areas with the final potential classes map. Results showed that 88.6% of this boundaries are fitting to medium, high or very high potential classes. Thus it could be concluded that ANP Fuzzy model is well able to identify suitable areas for the development of this plant cultivation.