An investigation on the human impact intensity on the selected ecoregions of coastal areas of Hormozgan Province, Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, South of Iran

Nowadays, the impact of mankind on the environment is more deteriorating than it used to be the human activities can harm the coastal-marine habitats. So, in order to implement more effective measures for a better protection, it is crucial to determine the sensitive areas of each region. In this regard, ecoregions approach as homogenous biogeographical units can be a firm base to study perturbations in an area along with its habitats. Hormozgan province, in southern part of Iran, is one of the most important coastal regions with a wide range of extensive economic activities and diverse ecological habitats. In this research, the evaluation of the potential sensitivity of this province and its encoded habitats has been studied. Six perturbations were also assessed, according to their distance from each encoded habitat. All the above considerations were measured in a hexagonal network with the use of the analytical network process for the entire study area and also the ecoregions of Hormozgan. The results show that among 39 identified habitat codes, the most perturbed was MA.GS.UT.SG.TF.MM.SH, and the last one was CE.MF.IT.AG.MM. The most potential perturbation was ‘the access roads’, and the last one was ‘oil and gas facilities’. NPGE was a virgin ecoregion with priority in conservation as representative area. In the second step, SHE was the most perturbed one that should be in the second step to be protected and recovered, and ME was in the middle. Therefore, ANP is suitable to study effects of perturbations in habitats.