Carrying Capacity

The purpose of this study is to determine the number of tourists permitted for the mountainous areas of northern Shahroud. The research method is analytical -survey. Initially, by registering ground points, the study was precisely determined. The area of ​​the study area is 430 hectares. Standard relationships were used to identify zones and recreation classes. A researcher -made questionnaire and 384 questionnaires were used to measure management restrictions. The results showed that the study area has two types of extensive and intensive recreation and 6 classes. The study site scored 2.22 out of 5 based on user and local community votes. Therefore; the region has 44.4% of the minimum capabilities required to achieve the desired goals. Also, the capacity of the physical, real and effective carrying capacity is 2859500, 632235 and 278183, respectively. In general, determining the carrying capacity is one of the important managerial and legal parameters in the protection of natural ecosystems.

Cities have plentiful of tourism attraction and they always attract many tourists. Therefore, sustainable urban tourism development and its wise management require planning. In this research, the most important goal is to assess and enhance Chalus tourism carrying capacity toward sustainable development of urban tourism. This survey is a developing kind and its method is quantitative and analytical. In this survey, Chalus city has been selected not only because of having many attractions and its importance in national and international levels but also because of its multiple roles. The time domain has been 2016. The results show that caring capacity and tourism quality of the city is much more than what is now although, tourism facilities and infrastructure of the destination is still in the progress and negative socio - cultural effects of the destination is gradually perceived by the tourists and number of tourists is more than capacity. Totally, it can be concluded that Due to the volume of tourists being more than physical capacity of tourism in this destination, local community have felt negative sense of tourism impact on cultural and social dimensions. On the other hand, the quality of the tourism experience in Chalus is declining and only natural attractions of this city is attracting tourists to the destination and proper facilities tourism could not have played appropriate role in this regard.

Tourism, like any activity, leaves different effects, and sometimes it has left irreparable natural and human damage in tourism areas. Each tourist site has a certain capacity to attract tourists according to its potential and if these limits and thresholds are exceeded, the negative effects of tourism will appear. The increasing development of tourism and the increase in the number of tourists during the past decades have had irreparable consequences for tourism destinations. In the meantime, nature tourism destinations have been damaged more than other attractions due to their fragile nature and the high attention of tourists. This issue has drawn the attention of managers and officials to managing visitors and reducing the effects of these visits. In recent years, various techniques have been presented to manage the effects of visitors, and one of these tools is "carrying capacity". The carrying capacity determines the limits that by crossing it, the destroyed resources or the damage to the ecosystem becomes irreparable.