evaluation potentials of sabalan volcano southeast slopes geological heritage by geotourism perspective

volcanic landform can be as terrain legacies from the past to the present era be considered. these heritage of land in terms of their unique characteristics can be considered as geomorphosite in the scientific community and the public. the evaluation of resources is one of the most important tasks of geotourism research.and thereby become profitable and thriving tourism industry in their own district. sabalan volcano mass is located in the north west of iran, as one of the main centers of volcanic landform is considered. this volcanic mountain is one of the world's highest freshwater lake in the own caldera. innovative and thought-provoking in the sight of the human eye development. in sabalan volcano located valuable collection of geological heritage as hot mineral waters, rivers, waterfalls, lakes, beautiful valleys, erosion forms &…. some of which are rare or even unique in the world and they are very important in terms of geology and geotourism. this paper presents the method of geotourist assessment, which was applied on the example of sites presenting the volcanic activity within sabalan mountain range. two stages of assessment are proposed: inventory and valorization. the inventory includes identification of resources, initial selection and characterization. during the valorization, a researcher uses the point bonitation method and takes into account the following indicators: scientific value, location and additional values. the result of valorization process is presented in table which allows comparison and categorization of the selected sites. the assessment of considered region revealed, that selected sites like rock walls, rock forms, abandoned quarries and hills with ruins are characterized by high or medium geotourist value. consequently, sabalan is an example of area of a great potential for geotourism development.