applying analytical hierarchical process (ahp) in land capability assessment of urban development in gis

the environmental problems, in different dimensions, are resulted from the lack of environmental considerations and criteria in locating new cities. the main purpose of this article is to compare different criteria based on library studies and expert opinions and determining suitable criteria in order to evaluate the environmental potential to establish new cities to achieve urban permanent development having the least maleffects at present and in the long term. in this study, multi-criteria assessment approach and analytical hierarchical process(ahp) were used in ecological potential assessment of khuzestan zard basin for urban development in geological information system (gis).ahp model and its way of use which are introduced in this article, is one of the most known techniques of multi-purpose decision making for situations which have multiple and opposite scales and the applicability of this method has been proved in environmental planning like land capability assessment. in the ahp method,13 criteria were used where the proposed criteria were compared in pair, with their weigh being then determined. final results show that northern part of zard basin and in the terms of political partitions ghale tol village of central part of baghmalek town is of the most rank in urban development. results obtained from this study can be used as a pattern to be utilized for urban planner and designers in order to well suite urban location with respect to observing the environmental considerations.