New guidelines for the identification and selection of coastal–marine representative areas for Hormozgan Province, Iran

Recently, there has been increased interest in the use of representative areas as tools for the conservation of marine habitats and species. This has resulted in the declaration of many coastal–marine protected areas around the world. The criteria for the establishment of these areas have been suggested by different authors and international bodies, and for each region or country, that has to be done according to its characteristics, conditions and facilities. In this study, the already established criteria were revised based on new views and approaches at the international levels and the background experiences in the country. This revision was made by using expert choice approach and analytical hierarchy process method. In this regard, a hierarchy tree was made and scored for all physical features and habitats and upon the results, six criteria were selected compared to already established 15 criteria. These were then used with the same method to choose the subcriteria for the Hormozgan province and to map these resources. Altogether, 31 subcriteria were recognized, and then, total score for each area was calculated and encoded into five conservation groups which mapped alongside the coastline and the marine parts. These criteria and subcriteria established in this way are flexible and subject against any changes whenever it is necessary in the future. The result of this study could be applied for other regions of the country and could act for the selection of coastal–marine protected areas.