Vajihe Ghorbannia Khyevari; Homan Liaghati; Mir Mehrdad Mirsanjari; Mohsen Armin
Abstract
Introduction: Ecotourism is a form of tourism that emphasizes on nature’s attractions and it mostly revolves around getting in touch with nature and its dependence on the concept of sustainable development, creation of educational and ecological opportunities, and appreciating the mother Earth. ...
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Introduction: Ecotourism is a form of tourism that emphasizes on nature’s attractions and it mostly revolves around getting in touch with nature and its dependence on the concept of sustainable development, creation of educational and ecological opportunities, and appreciating the mother Earth. Considering the concept of ecotourism sustainable development, assessment of ecological capability and identification of natural capacities of each region along with a proper planning may lead to sustainable and continuous utilization of the nature, as well as creating employment and earning income. Dena County is located in the north of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad Province with an area of 1577 km2. Due to its rare and valuable natural phenomena, this county has a great potential in tourism attraction that can host tourists and nature lovers in all seasons. Material and methods: Multi-criteria decision-making methods (MCDMs) allow different criteria to be applied simultaneously in determination of the best option and the most appropriate condition. The Analytical Network Process (ANP) is one of the multi-criteria decision-making methods with non-linear structure and two-way relationships. In this study, after analyzing the relationships between different indicators of ecotourism development and determining their relative weight using ANP, we identified the potential areas for ecotourism development using Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) method. It is common to use fuzzy series theory with the WLC method to standardize the criteria. Results and discussion: According to the structure of the decision making of the ANP, the index of landslide sensitivity with relative weight of 0.3 and the geographical direction with relative weight of 0.014 had the highest and lowest significance, respectively, among the indicators reviewed in identifying potential areas of ecotourism development in the study area. Based on the relative weight extraction of 17 indicators of ecotourism, from ANP and their integration with WLC method, the largest area of ecotourism classes was suited to the appropriately qualified class (S2), relatively suitable (S3), completely appropriate (S4) and inappropriate (S1). Conclusion: In most decisions, managers demand the optimization of several indicators instead of one index. Obviously, these indices are not comparable due to different scales, and even in some cases they are mutually opposite, so that an increase in one indicator decreases the other. Therefore, in decision making with multiple criteria, we usually look for an option that offers the most benefit to all criteria. In the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) weighting method, the dependence of criteria, indicators, and options is linear, bottom-up or up-down. In this study, it was determined that the dependence of the effective indicators on the development of ecotourism was bilateral and formed a network with a nonlinear system (feedback system), which in this case, the theory of networks should be used to calculate the weight of the elements. Similar to other previous studies, the results of this study also showed that the combined use of fuzzy logic and the ANP method in determining the preference and weight of criteria relative to each other provided more logical and flexible conditions for WLC evaluation. Comparing the results of this study with other studies showed that the indicators affecting the development of ecotourism varied in different regions.
Vajihe Ghorbannia; Mehrdad Mirsanjari; Homan Liaghati; Mohsen Armin
Volume 15, Issue 2 , July 2017, , Pages 55-74
Abstract
Introduction:
Land Surface Temperature (LST), a significant variable of micro climate and radiation transfer within the atmosphere, is one of the most important criteria in zonal and regional planning because it is a major factor in controlling the Earth’s biological, chemical and physical processes. ...
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Introduction:
Land Surface Temperature (LST), a significant variable of micro climate and radiation transfer within the atmosphere, is one of the most important criteria in zonal and regional planning because it is a major factor in controlling the Earth’s biological, chemical and physical processes. Natural and man-made activities, especially land use and land cover, by changing the physical and biological conditions of a region are an important parameter in the amount of land surface temperature.
Material and methods:
In this study, the relationship between land surface temperature and vegetation cover associated with land use and the land cover patterns of Dena County in 2016 were investigated using a Single Window algorithm and Landsat-8 data. The split-window algorithm is a dynamic mathematical tool which estimates land surface temperature (LST) using ground information, brightness temperature of thermal bands of the TIRS sensor, the land surface emissivity (LSE) factor and fractional vegetation cover (FVC) obtained from a multiband OLI sensor.
Results and discussion:
Based on classification of images of the Landsat-8OLI sensor in 2016 with an accuracy of about 80% and the kappa coefficient 0.90, rangeland and residential areas with 50.67 and 0.3 percent, respectively, were allocated the highest and the lowest areas of Dena county. The mean of land surface temperature in Dena County is about 32 ° C and the mean of the land cover index is about 0.14. In analyzing the relationship between LST and the vegetation index (NDVI) in Dena County and in each category of land use and land cover, results showed a different trend so that there is a positive and significant relationship between NDVI and LST in the whole of Dena County and rangeland in the event that there is no significant relationship in other land uses such as forest, farm and garden and residential area.
Conclusion:
Various factors affect the type and shape of the relationship between NDVI and LST such as land use and land cover, vegetation cover, season, time of day, type of ecosystem, latitude and factors in triggering the growth of vegetation such as water and solar energy. The main cause of the ineffectiveness of vegetation cover in reducing the land surface temperature of Dena County is the lack of a sufficient amount of vegetation cover. However, the determining factor of temperature in Dena County is not increases or decreases in vegetative cover but is rather a change in the height above sea level. In other words, the effect of altitude on temperature is more important than the effects of vegetation on the Earth's surface temperature. At the lower altitude of Dena County where the temperature is relatively high and there is enough vegetation to grow, the vegetation cover is denser and more abundant and therefore there is a positive relationship between land surface temperature (LST) and vegetation cover index (NDVI).
