studying the possibility of forest ecotourism development using multi criteria evolution and geographic information system

this study aims at identifying the suitable areas for ecotourism using geographic information system (gis) and analytical hierarchy process (ahp) in experimental and educational kheyroud forest nowshar mazandaran province. the evaluation process was conducted based on three groups including ecological infrastructural and socio economic criteria. then the indicators of each main groups were determined. the indicator maps of slope elevation aspect temperature soil water resources landscape wildlife vegetation cover (density and type) cow pens forestry plan and road were generated in geographical information system environment. the analytical hierarchy process was used for weight determination of indicators. finally based on the weighted linear combination method weighted layers of indicators were integrated in gis environment and ecotourism suitability map was created. according to the results slope and water resources indicators and soil and cowspens indicators showed the highest and lowest weights respectively. in addition the results of evaluation revealed that 0.17 38.15 and 61.88 percent of the area have high medium and low suitability for ecotourism purposes respectively. according to the ecological indicators and the development of infrastructural and socio economic criteria there is an extensive potential for ecotourism development in the kheyroud forest