# Ecological Suitability Evaluation for Conservation and Development in Bac Kan Province, Vietnam
## 3 Results  
### Significant Ecological Resistance Indicators for Construction and Development  
The results of the first-round survey by using the Delphi method from 10 experts show that the rating means of 13 of 14 ecological resistance indicators for construction and development are higher than or equal to 3.5 except soil depth. To achieve a consensus among experts' responses, the second-round survey was implemented again with all 14 indicators.  
After analyzing the second-round responses, the rating mean of 12 indicators including vegetation type, soil type, elevation, slope, geological hazard frequency, distance to fracture zones, importance of biodiversity protection, importance of water retention, importance of soil conservation, vegetation stability, ecological sensitivity, and social disturbance intensity are higher than or equal to 3.5, their quartile deviations (range) are less than or equal to 0.5, and their rating variants less than 15%. Hence, 12 indicators are significant for construction and development. On the contrary, the rating means of soil depth and rock type are lower than 3.5, their quartile deviations less than or equal to 0.5, and their rating variants less than 15%, so these indicators are insignificant for construction and development.  
In addition, it is not necessary to conduct the third-round survey since the consensus among experts is reached based on the rule in Table 2. Details of rating analysis from the Delphi method by 10 experts from two rounds are summarized in Table 1.  
As a result, 12 ecological resistance indicators for construction and development are significant; however, vegetation type and soil type, which are the ecological elements for ecological structuralresistance, are related to other indicators of ecological function and dynamics resistance. Thus, vegetation type and soil type are not applied under ecological structural resistance assessment.  
In the case of vegetation type, it is used as a major input to assess ecological importance including biodiversity protection, water retention, and soil conservation under ecological functional resistance, which characterize the relationship between human demands and natural ecosystem [69]. In addition, the vegetation type is applied to assess vegetation stability and ecological sensitivity of ecological dynamics resistance, which represents the temporal dynamic characteristics of the natural ecosystem [14]. Accordingly, the vegetation type is not applied as an ecological element of ecological structural resistance assessment.  
Similarly, soil type is used to estimate the potential and actual soil loss for soil conservation as an indicator of ecological functional resistance assessment. Regarding the ecological resistance evaluation for construction and development, soil conservation is more important than soil type. Therefore, soil type is not to be applied as an ecological element of ecological structural resistance assessment.  
In summary, 10 indicators, which are used for ecological resistance evaluation for construction and development in this study, are elevation, slope, geological hazard frequency, distance to fracture zones, importance of biodiversity protection, importance of water retention, importance of soil conservation, ecological sensitivity, vegetation stability, and social disturbance intensity.