Selection of potential plantations for Buxus hyrcana Pojark using GIS near coastline of Caspian Sea in North of Iran

Abstract

Expansion of forests and forest species is impossible without considering the relevant standards and criteria. Therefore, plant species suited with and adaptable to natural conditions of any area should be used. In this paper, Lille Basin was selected using multi-criteria evaluation method (MCE) as a study area as it was suitable in zoning and evaluating ecological capability for <em>Buxus hyrcana</em> Pojark plantations, and the ecosystem did not fall out of the classification. For this purpose, GIS and AHP models were used. Eight selection criteria were: Elevation, soil type, canopy cover, wind direction, temperature, humidity, rainfall levels, and the gradient. Weights of the criteria were: 0.384, 0.2081, 0.1438, 0.0977, 0.658, 0.0444, 0.0353, and 0.0209, respectively. On this basis, elevation and gradient had the highest and the lowest values. The results suggested that <em>Buxus hyrcana</em> Pojark showed sensitivity to variations of the criteria and their distribution is directly correlated to ecological factors particularly climatic and physiographic ones. The layer of important zones and reserves of this species highly overlap the final layer resulting from MCE. Evaluation criteria and sub-criteria and their weights with an acceptable accuracy was 0.0467 (<0.1) that exhibited usefulness of GIS in site selection, composition and overlaying various criteria of this research.