Land use planning using a quantitative model and Geographic Information System (GIS) in Darab County,Iran

Land use planning is a science that determines the type of land use through studying the ecological character of the land as well as its socio-economic structure. the primary objective of this study is to evaluate the land use and natural resources for future sustainable land planning using gis as a tool. so,in this study,a systematic method known as the makhdoum model was used for the analysis of maps in relation to the ecological and resources of the studied area. first,ecological capability maps of different land uses including forestry,agriculture,range management,environmental conservation,ecotourism and development of village,urban and industry were developed by overlaying geographical maps based on boolean overlay method (as a multi-criteria evaluation method) in gis for the township. the final step of this study was the prioritization of land uses considering the ecological and socio-economic characteristics of the study area using a quantitative model. the results of the evaluation indicated that the maximum area of proposed uses is 33.2% that is related to irrigation agriculture showing this land use has high potential and socio-economic demands in study area. while minimum area of proposed uses is related to dry farming. © 2017,university of mohammed v rabat morocco.