Developing an Integrated Decision-Making Model Based on RS and GIS to Identify the Geomorphotourist Capabilities of Tajnood Valley and Hemmatabad Desert

the present study aimed at developing an integrated decision-making model based on remote sensing (RS) and GIS to identify the geomorphotourism potentials of Tajnood Valley and Hemmatbad Desert in Zirkuh County.

In the present study, after identifying landforms, geomorphological features, and geosites through RS, the Fassoulas, GAM, and Comanescu models were employed to prioritize and value geotourism potentials, including geosites, geomorphosites, and economic and cultural sites. Finally, in order to overcome the challenges of each model and take advantage of the capacity of all models, the Fassoulas-GAM-Comanescu integrated model (FA-CO-GM) was used based on the Analytical Hierarchy Method (AHP). In this way, it is possible to combine several factors that are considered separately in each model and to use the advantages of all models.

The final map of the decision-making model based on RS and GIS integrated from Comanescu, Fassoulas, and GAM shows that 36% of the region is located in a high potential zone, corresponding to the geomorphological landforms, proper access, extended perspective, and high viewpoints. 51% of the region is located in a very high potential zone due to its representativeness, geomorphological diversity, rarity, intactness, and integrity in geosites. In order to verify the accuracy of Comanescu, Fascilos, GAM and AHP models, a sample t-test was used. The significance level of the test is less than 0.05 and it is within the standard and significant test limit.

While identifying and evaluating the capability of the geomorphosite of Tajnood Valley and Hemmatabad Desert in the dry region of Zirkuh county, it was found that after applying several valuation models, with one of the multi-criteria decision-making methods (MCDM) in GIS, it is possible to fix these defects and prepare a suitable zoning map for the geosite and combine the results of several models.