Suchergebnisse

Land evaluation methods are crucial for evaluating the potentials and constraints of land for intended land use. In the procedure, environmental criteria such as topography, soil, climate, hydrology, and socioeconomic parameters are evaluated. Different technical procedures are also used for land evaluation ranging from simple methods based on expert knowledge to more complex methods based on simulation models. The main goal of this research is to evaluate land use and natural resources for future sustainable land planning using Geographic Information System (GIS). So, in this study, the Iranian ecological evaluation model was used for the analysis of the ecological and resources maps of the study area. First, ecological capability maps of different land uses such as forestry, agriculture, range management, environmental conservation, ecotourism, and development of villages, urban and industrial areas were developed by overlaying geographical maps based on Boolean overlay method (as a Multi-Criteria Evaluation Method) in GIS for the Township. The final step of this research was the prioritization of land uses considering the ecological and socio-economic characteristics (by distributing questionnaires to 63 experts (of the study area using a quantitative model. The results showed that the maximum area of proposed uses is 78.31\%, which is related to rainfed agriculture, showing this land use has high potential and socio-economic demands in the study area. Meanwhile, minimum area of proposed uses is related to forest and ecotourism. One of the most important practical results of this study is that different or even modified methods should always be used in the same region to check the capability of land and the common method will not always be as best method.

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.