Natural wetlands are among Earth's active and vital ecosystems. Considering the importance of ecosystem services provided by wetlands, various tools and models have been developed to study these services, so that appropriate management decisions can be made. Qara Gheshlagh wetland (with an area of 22,000 ha) is located in northwestern Iran on the edge of Lake Urmia which is an important habitat and water source in the region. This study aimed to economically evaluate and value the ecosystem services of Qara Gheshlagh study area to know the nature and the key functions of this wetland. Accordingly, through zoning, valuation, provision of ecosystem services, and planning and management decisions of the above wetland, the sustainable development and functioning of the wetland can be achieved. In this study, the combined methods of modeling and scenario building were performed using InVEST, Expert Choice, and ARC GIS software. Based on the results, there were 13 types of land use in the Qara Gheshlagh Wetland area, with about 46% of the land being agricultural and about 28% being saline fields. The habitat service areas of Qara Gheshlagh wetland corresponded to optimal land-use management. The economic value of the aquaculture function in the southwest of this wetland preserves and stabilizes the habitat function value of the area. It was found that a total of 2232 ha of land is suitable for fish farming, where produced 1,041,142 kg of fish and estimated a net income of 4059 ($ thousand) and a net present value (NPV) of 1946 ($ thousand).
