A new approach for land degradation and desertification assessment using geospatial techniques

Masoudi, M; Jokar, P; Pradhan, B

A new approach for land degradation and desertification assessment using geospatial techniques

Masoudi, M Jokar, P Pradhan, B

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 2018, 18 (4), pp. 1133 - 1140
Issue Date:: 2018-04-10

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Masoudi, M	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Jokar, P	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Pradhan, B https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9863-2054	en_US
dc.date.issued	2018-04-10	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 2018, 18 (4), pp. 1133 - 1140	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1561-8633	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/128146
dc.description.abstract	© Author(s) 2018. 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.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.5194/nhess-18-1133-2018	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Strategic, Defence & Security Studies	en_US
dc.title	A new approach for land degradation and desertification assessment using geospatial techniques	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	4	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	18	en_US
utslib.for	0406 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience	en_US
utslib.for	0403 Geology	en_US
utslib.for	0911 Maritime Engineering	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology/School of Information, Systems and Modelling
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - CAMGIS - Centre for Advanced Modelling and Geospatial lnformation Systems
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.issue	4	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	18	en_US

Abstract:

© Author(s) 2018. 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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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/128146