Determination of potential habitat of olive species (Olea europea L.) in Chaharmahal va Bakhtiary province

The present study were conducted to determine the potential habitat of olive (Olea europea L.) species adapted to Mediterranean climate in order to expand the native and man-made forests of Chaharmahal va Bakhtiary province using Geographic information systems. The first step of the project was to collect the at-hand data and maps. Then three different data layers were extracted from topographic maps with 1:25,000 scales. For climatic sorting, the province was divided into three homogenous sub-regions and regressions models were calculated. The required climatologically layers were created through DEM for various dry months. Digitizing the available existing soil maps from various sources led to six layers in data base. The land-use layers were produced in eight layers including irrigated agriculture lands, rain fed agriculture lands, range lands, forest lands, agro forestry lands, bare rock lands, urban lands and other lands. Considering the ecological requirements of the selected species, the produced environmental data layers were combined with Boolean and Fuzzy logics to depict the potential habitat. The areas of these sites were 8708 and 7238 ha with Boolean and Fuzzy method, respectively which decreased to 693 and 2010 ha after considering soil texture limitations.