Ecological Capability Evaluation of Jiroft County for Agricultural Utilization, Using GIS

Abstract

In order to have a sustainable and valuable development, land planning is an essential issue and the potential assessment of the environment is the most important part of this subject. Jiroft county has an acceptable potential for agricultural use, so the evaluation of its environmental potential for agricultural potential expansion is considered in this paper. In order to perform this research, first ecological resources, barriers and restrictions of the area are identified and then by taking different maps into consideration, the restriction map of the area is produced. In the next step, the potential assessment of mentioned county for unrestricted area is performed by means of doctor Makhdoom method. In the end, three different potential classes are identified for the considered area. Results show that 11% of the area is completely unrestricted for agricultural purposes and out of appropriate area, 29.6% has the firs-rate, 2.2% has the second-rate and 68.3% has the third-rate potential for agriculture.