In: Wagner W., Székely, B. (eds.): ISPRS TC VII Symposium - 100 Years ISPRS, Vienna, Austria, July 5-7, 2010, IAPRS, Vol. XXXVIII, Part 7B 
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Studying Bio-Environmental Potentials of Kusalan Area, Based on IUCN criterions, 
using RS and GIS technologies 
Oladi Djafar 3 , Ahsany Nabi b 
a = PhD. Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Mazandaran, Sari, Iran, 
Oladi 123@yahoo.com 
b =MSc. Faculty ofNatural Resources, University of Mazandaran, Sari, Iran 
Key Words: Kusalan, Remote Sensing, Bioenvironmental Potentials, Protected Area, GIS and Zoning 
Abstract 
Kusalan habitat is located on a northwest-southeast mountain with an intensive topography near the Sarvabad town in the 
west of Kurdistan. This habitat encompasses a set of unique bioenvironmental phenomenon (such as Quercus forests and 
dense ranges) as well as three permanent rivers and numerous springs. So far, there was no study on the bioenvironmental 
habitat potentials. This persuaded us to conduct a research on the bioenvironmental potentials of the region, to protect the 
area, according to IUCN criterions. Field surveys, remote sensing and geographic Information System (GIS) were used to 
identify and analyze the ecological, social and economical resources of the study area. Hybrid method was also employed 
using digital classification of 10m SPOT5 image of 2005 and field data as visual interpretation. Applying this method, the 
potential resources were identified. Then the maps of land forms, Hydrology, soil, vegetation, wildlife habitat, ecological 
potentials, current applications and the conventional boundaries were provided. In the next stage, bioenvironmental units 
were determined through applying GIS analysis along with gathering the maps and overlaying them. Zoning of the 
bioenvironmental resources was performed on the basis of IUCN definitions. The results of this study demonstrated that the 
study area involves 224 of flora species and 195 of fauna species as well as 5 main zones including: 29% secure zone, 
40.75% protection zone, 13.7% alternative recreation zone, 3.21% mass recreation zone and 0.14% cultural and historical 
zone and 13.2% reconstructing zone along with the many scientific and training values and a unique wild natural landscape. 
Thus, Kusalan habitat is worth to be introduced as a national park (II) and to be considered as one of the four national 
protected areas in Iran. According to the results of this research, the GIS and RS can be used for identifying inaccessible 
bioenvironmental resources with an intensive topography and providing their maps with the aim of protecting the area, 
based on IUCN criterions. 
1- Introduction 
Establishing protected areas is considered as a conscious 
attempt to support the last remainders of a biodiversity which 
preserved their natural properties in the current instable 
developing process. Applying scientific principles to study the 
bioenvironmental potentials and evaluating the ecological 
potentials determines the land use type and the natural potential 
(ecological potential) (makhdom, 1999). These studies has been 
already conducted in traditional ways by using the ground data 
collection, however, this method was an expensive, time 
consuming method and in some cases difficult to access. To 
address this problem, remote sensed images are used to study 
the natural resources, forests, ranges, wild life, erosion and 
other bioenvironmental factors (chaderi 1996). Consequently, 
studying the ecological potentials of western habitats of 
Mazandaran, involving forests, ranges, apparent animal types 
such as some kinds of Mammals, birds, reptilian, etc. seems 
very necessary. 
2- Materials and Methods 
Ecological resources include biological and physical sources, 
each of them involving different parameters. In general, 3 
methods of identifying ecological sources include: 
1- Inventory and sampling 
2- Automatic visual interpretation of aerial photographs, 
remotely sensed images and topographic maps 
3- Geographic information system (Makhdom, 1999). 
At first, a supervised digital classification method was applied 
using a maximum likelihood classifier. To do this, seven 
groups of training samples were selected as a model of spectral 
reflectance for different phenomena in the study area (including 
water, Gardens, planted crops, unplanted crops, forests, 
pastures, rocky lands and manufactured areas) based on the 
ground survey data. 
The resulted map has a total accuracy of 57.4% and a kapa 
coefficient of 72.3%. Then, a visual classification method was 
applied. To do this classification, the raster map was transferred 
to a vector one. In the next step, the obtained map was laid on 
SPOT 5 panchromatic image. Then, it was interpreted, 
reviewed and edited using ground data in an Arc view 3.2 
environment. The resulted map had a total accuracy of 65.15% 
and a kapa coefficient of 78.65%. This matter indicates the 
high capability of spot5 data associated with using a hybrid 
classification method to provide maps of the mountainous and 
non accessible areas. Ecological resources include: 
2-1 Physical sources: Due to lack of a meteorological station 
in the study area, we used Synoptic station of Marivan and 
Paveh which are located near Kusalan. Rivers and Brooklets 
were extracted from topographic maps and remote sensed 
images. Then, they were digitized. The registered points were 
transferred to GIS in order to identify the existing springs. 
Ground samples and geographic characteristics of springs 
obtained by GPS system were used. In the next stage, 
hydrographic maps of the Kusalan area were also provided.