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Abstract:
Socio - economic development planning and urban and rural physical plans must be based on environmental capacity assessment of the natural resource. Sustaining environmental balance, putting into force of physical projects and their economizing play the most important role in rural planning because rural development plans excessively depend on environmental capacities.
Ghal-e Chi river basin, a geographical region of Ajabshir county with 40 villages, is the case of the study. The basin includes three different topographic areas and each has various environmental potentials.
The paper tries to survey environmental capacities and then categorize these three areas from a physical point of rural development to five levels. The findings show that the region includes suitable potential resources for rural development planning. However, the count and distribution of social and public services in the region was affected less than other services by topographic and geomorphologic characteristics. Also, in some parts of the region, environmental potentials such as water resources, cultivable lands, pastures and natural landscapes are excessively utilized whereas in the other parts many natural resources are abandoned © 2005

Keywords: Environmental capacity assessment, Resource assessment, Physical planning, Rural development, Economic activities, Ghal-e Chi river basin, Ajabshir county