Despite the large global biodiversity conservation efforts, there are many threats including land-use/cover changes, climate change, habitat fragmentation, and anthropogenic activities that can increase the potential vulnerability of a natural protected area. In recent years, the concept of vulnerability has been applied at different spatial scales and in different disciplines, such as Environmental Impact Assessment and conservation planning. This research proposes an integrated use of GIS–based Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for vulnerability assessment of Eastern part of Isfahan province (including Naien, Khoor and Biabanak counties, Abassabad wild life refuge, and Siahkouh national park), which are among the most important habitats for Asiatic Cheetah ( Acinonyxjubatusvenaticus) and Houbara bustard ( Chlamydotis undulate ). The vulnerability modeling is useful to identify the most vulnerable areas, requiring specific protection to enhance the natural features, as well as the prevention of natural and human risks. For identifying the important criteria in vulnerability modeling at landscape scale, data collection was done during the field visits and information obtained from interview with local experts and different references. The identified criteria were divided into two main groups including 1) natural criteria (such as drought index, wind erosion and sensitive habitats), and 2) anthropogenic criteria (such as roads, industries and human settlements). For ecological impact assessment of the roads in the study area, the Spatial Road Disturbance Index (SPROADI) was applied. Results obtained through quantifying the landscape Index (SPROADI) showed that the degree of disturbance by roads network is between 0 and 54.53 and about 10 percent of the study area is affected by roads. Our results also revealed that 22 percent of Abassabad wildlife refuge and 6 percent of Siahkouh national park and wide range of suitable habitats for Asiatic Cheetah are affected by roads, which presents a conservation concern for this critically endangered species. Then, the vulnerability maps of each criterion were created and criteria importance was obtained with poll from experts. The results showed that anthropogenic criteria are more important comparing natural criteria and roads sub criteria is more important comparing other sub criteria in vulnerability of the study area. The final map was obtained by overlaying the normalized layer using WLC (weighted linear combination) method and the study area was ranked into different dir=rtl Key words : Vulnerability Assessment, SPROADI, Drought, Road Network, Environmental Risk, Conservation Strategy
