ABSTRACT:The entire land of Southern Iran, south of the Zagros belt, faces problems arising out of land degradation.For this purpose the Payab basin that is lower reaches of Mond basin has been chosen for detailed study. The data for this study have been gathered from the records and reports published by the different departments of the Ministries of Agriculture and Energy and the Meteorological Organization of Iran. The present paper deals only with the intensities of hazards of soil salinity as a parameter for assessing the land degradation. The present paper examines to find a model for risk analysis of soil salinization for the studied area using the Geographical Information System (GIS). The GIS analysis of various indicators considered proved useful for dividing areas with actual risk from those with potential risk. Results show areas under actual risk are much more than areas under potential risk of soil salinity indicating presence of degraded lands at present. Also the areas under severe risk are more extensive class among the severity classes in the plains indicating the worse conditions in the studied area. The worse conditions and presence of degraded lands in the area related more natural causes like arid climate and geological formations such as salt domes. @JASEM

South of the Zagros belt, the entire land of Southern Iran faces problems arising out of various types of land degradation of which water erosion forms a major type. A new model has been developed for assessing the risk of water erosion. Taking into consideration nine indicators of water erosion the model identifies areas with 'Potential Risk' (risky zones) and areas of 'Actual Risk' as well as projects the probability of the worse degradation in future. The Qareh Aghaj subbasin (1,265,000 ha), which covers the upper reaches of Mond River, has been chosen for a test risk assessment of this kind. The preparation of risk maps based on the GIS analysis of these indicators will be helpful for prioritizing the areas to initiate remedial measures. The different kinds of data for indicators of water erosion were gathered from the records and published reports of the governmental offices of Iran. By fixing the thresholds of severity classes of the nine indicators a hazard map for each indicator was first prepared in GIS. The risk classes were defined on the basis of risk scores arrived at by assigning the appropriate attributes to the indicators and the risk map was prepared by overlaying nine hazard maps in the GIS. Areas under potential risk have been found to be widespread (63%) in the basin and when classified into subclasses with different probability levels the model projects a statistical picture of the risk of land degradation.

Abstract. Land degradation reduces the production of biomass and vegetation cover for all forms of land use. The lack of specific data related to degradation is a severe limitation for its monitoring. Assessment of the current state of land degradation or desertification is very difficult because this phenomenon includes several complex processes. For that reason, no common agreement has been achieved among the scientific community for its assessment. This study was carried out as an attempt to develop a new approach for land degradation assessment, based on its current state by modifying of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)–United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) index and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) index in Khuzestan province, southwestern Iran. Using the proposed evaluation method it is easy to understand the degree of destruction caused by the pursuit of low costs and in order to save time. Results showed that based on the percent of hazard classes in the current condition of land degradation, the most and least widespread areas of hazard classes are moderate (38.6 %) and no hazard (0.65 %) classes, respectively. Results in the desert component of the study area showed that the severe class is much more widespread than the other hazard classes, which could indicate an environmentally dangerous situation. Statistical results indicated that degradation is highest in deserts and rangeland areas compared to dry cultivated areas and forests. Statistical tests also showed that the average degradation amount in the arid region is higher than in other climates. It is hoped that this study's use of geospatial techniques will be found to be applicable in other regions of the world and can also contribute to better planning and management of land.

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