Potential Ecotourism Sites Selection Using Multi Criteria Evaluation With Geospatial Techniques: The Case Of Menz Gera Midir District, North Centeral Ethiopia

Abstract

Geospatial techniques are being applied in different part of the world (especially developed nation) in so many spatial related issues ranging from manual analysis up to real-time analysis in number of discipline including ecotourism.However, in case of Ethiopia their application too minimum. Ecotourism is expressed as when ecotourists are attracted to a given geographic area (i.e. space). Therefore, space is an elementary part of ecotourism activities. This spatial relevance make geospatial techniques preferable environment in this issue in order to identify the available ecotourism resources and to manage tourism activities in line with the issue of sustainability by considering different parameters. Hence, the aim of this study is to identify potential ecotourism sites in Menz Gera midir district. To this end, three criteria and five factor maps are identified, namely: landscape/land use land cover map, topography (elevation and slope map) and accessibility (road and river map). Those identified factor maps first ranked based on the expert opinion, and then the weight of influence to each was computed by pair wise comparison technique that is one of AHP method. The image classification was operated in ERDAS imagine software using supervised Image classification method. Its overall accuracy and kappa coefficient was 84% and 0.80. The result showed that11, 75.6, 13 and 0.06% is highly, moderately, marginally and not suitable area. Therefore, this study proved that the district has good ecotourism potential that can help to maintain sustainable development and the application of geospatial techniques integrating with MCE useful for ecotourism site selection. Additionally, this study may also serve as a base for comprehensive planning and complex studies in the future by incorporating additional criteria and factors.