5.1.3. Ecological Restrictions

Table 10 shows the ecological restrictions. Given the planning studies of the Semnan province [74], the location of environmental protected areas, urban and rural areas, and water bodies and rivers were identified, and buffer zones were specified according to the mentioned references in Table 10.

**Table 10.** Ecological restrictions.


Figure 10 exhibits the suitable and unsuitable ecological areas according to the buffer zones of Table 10. According to the ecological restrictions, the red and green areas are unsuitable and suitable zones. Based on the calculations made according to Table 10, 18,052.24 km<sup>2</sup> (18.51%) of the province's total area is among the unsuitable areas.

**Figure 10.** Suitable and unsuitable areas according to ecological restrictions.

Figure 11 shows Semnan province by applying all the restrictions and buffer areas. The areas marked in red and green are unsuitable and suitable, respectively. The total unsuitable areas are equal to 35,094.042329 km2, which is 36.2% of the total province area.

**Figure 11.** All buffer areas of Semnan province.
