Land evaluation of suitability for the practice of foot orienteering using a spatial multicriteria method. A case study in the central eastern region of continental Portugal.

Orienteering is a sport in which the orienteer completes a course of control points in the shortest possible time, aided only by a map and compass, involving the choice of itineraries, through reading and interpreting the map and its relationship with the terrain. The most important factors for selecting areas for orienteering are difficult and challenging terrain that enables good course setting. Finding a suitable area for foot orienteering involves multiple criteria. The main features that provide the athlete greater opportunities for testing navigation skills are, among others, a detailed representation of the terrain, containing rich landforms, and its cover, since foot orienteering is a sport organized in forests or natural areas. Based on these principles, this study aims to assess the suitability of the Central Eastern Region of Continental Portugal for the practice of Foot Orienteering. The suitable areas and their constraints were identified based on integrating a set of criteria using multicriteria spatial analysis tools in a GIS environment. For this purpose, the following descriptors were integrated: land cover, slope, slope variation, Topographic Position Index (TPI), and aspect variation. The criteria were classified into four levels of suitability, calculated by applying the Hierarchical Analytical Process. Based on the results obtained by the proposed methodology, we concluded that 52.5% of the study area presents high suitability for foot orienteering at a competitive level. That is a notable potential resource for the advancement of the sport, and for further refinement of the presented methodology based on additional data and criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]