Determination of suitable skiing areas by multicriteria analysis methods in the province of Van

Van Province that is located in the Eastern Anatolia Region has the potential to become a winter tourism center with its features for skiing events. However, investments made in wrong places and inadequate facilities have been seen. In recent years, with the production of deliberate policies on ecotourism, organized and comprehensive winter sports centers have been constructed and alternative sources have started to be produced to the economy. The aim of this study was to determine the physically suitable areas for skiing in the province of Van with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based approaches for professional, intermediate and novice skiers. In this context, standardization and weighting were made according to the physical characteristics of the existing popular ski facilities, taking into consideration seasonal snow cover dataset that was produced from the Landsat data from 1985 to the end of 2016, and derived dataset from other resources to be slope, slope length, sunrise angle, altitude and landscape values (lake visibility). Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) techniques were applied in this context to map suitable areas for skiers at the professional, intermediate, and beginner level. As a result of the analysis, appropriate ski areas have been determined on the hillsides facing the lake and, in this respect, base data have been prepared for the planners by determining alternatives to make investments in appropriate places by considering scientific factors while building facilities.