Ecotourism suitability maps and AHP-based criteria weights for hiking, picnicking and moun

Chignahuapan and Zacatlán municipalities in the Sierra Norte of Puebla, Mexico, are covered by this dataset. It provides aggregated Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) criteria weights and categorical suitability maps for hiking, picnicking, and mountain biking at 30-meter resolution. The data was produced by Cristopher López-Paniagua and relates to studies on forest landscapes and ecotourism spatial prioritization.

Use Cases

• Modeling ecotourism suitability for specific activities based on AHP-derived criteria weights for accessibility, terrain, vegetation, and water proximity.
• Spatial prioritization of ecotourism areas under land-use change scenarios using the provided suitability raster maps.
• Comparing the relative importance of different environmental and infrastructural factors for hiking, picnicking, and mountain biking.
• Validating or extending multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) frameworks for outdoor recreation planning in forest landscapes.

Strengths

• Includes both tabular criteria weights and geospatial raster maps, providing multi-format data.
• Suitability maps have a defined 30-meter spatial resolution and use the WGS 84 / UTM Zone 14N coordinate system.
• Data is explicitly linked to two related, citable manuscripts (López-Paniagua et al., 2026a, 2026b).
• Weights are derived from a survey of ecotourism practitioners using the Analytic Hierarchy Process framework.

Limitations

• Row count for tabular data is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for statistical analysis.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred from the README file after download.
• The dataset's geographic scope is limited to two municipalities in Central Mexico.

Provenance

Source

Cristopher López-Paniagua, via figshare.

Collection Method

Criteria weights derived from an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) framework informed by a survey of ecotourism practitioners. Suitability maps generated from spatial indicators.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-06 22:28:42.

Geography

Municipalities of Chignahuapan and Zacatlán, Sierra Norte of Puebla, Mexico.