Evaluation of Ecological Capability of West and North West of Tehran for Ultimate Urban Development

The goal underlying the process of evaluating ecological capability of district 22 of Tehran as the main part of west and north west of Tehran is to realize the potential capability of land within practical application to achieve communication and interaction between human activities, society and the land potential to gain land preparation. To do so, in first place, an area of 5700 hectares, as district 22, was specified, maps of sustainable ecological resources (including physiography, type of soil, type and density of vegetation, geology and petrology) and unsustainable resources (including maps for water resources, wild life habitats) were prepared. On second stage the maps of land form units by using geographic information system (GIS) were provided by the over laying maps of slope, direction and elevation level. The environmental unit maps were prepared by overlapping the soil type and vegetation maps. In the next stage the ecological models of different stratum the environmental information included in the tables were adjusted, coded and were then confirmed with the ecological models of land applications in Iran and the ecological models of different classes of application were prepared for district 22 through a mathematical model and subsequently, the maps of application classes via GIS was prepared. The findings of the ecological potentials of district 22 shows that except the hillside parts, the region has potential classification 2 for urban development. For an outdoor recreation, the entire region is in class 1 (suitable) and has first and second potential for indoor recreation. For agriculture and animal husbandry the region has the potential 5 and only in a part of the region due to depth of the soil, it has potential 4 for agricultural and animal husbandry development. The region has potential 4 for supported woods application, the reason of this figure is low amount of water reserve and special physiography of the region.