A case study of desertification hazard mapping using the MEDALUS (ESAs) methodology in southwest Iran

Understanding environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs) prone to desertification can lead to substantial\ud\udgains in the efficiency of land use planning and partly avoid negative outcomes. The main objectives\ud\udof this research were the monitoring and mapping of ESAs to desertification in the agro-ecosystem\ud\udof the Khanmirza plain, Iran, during two time series (2000 and 2013). In the current study, an adjusted\ud\ud“Mediterranean desertification and land use (MEDALUS)” approach was applied to identify the most\ud\udESAs to desertification in the study area and monitorchanges inthe environmental sensitivity area\ud\udindicator (ESAI)between 2000 and 2013 over the studied area.Fivemain thematic indicators have\ud\udbeen evaluated including, Soil quality indicator (SQI), Management quality indicator (MQI), Climate\ud\udquality indicator (CQI), Vegetation quality indicator (VQI), and Irrigation water quality indicator (IWQI).\ud\udResults show that the areas affected by the critical desertification status covered approximately 7%\ud\udof the farmlands and the meadowlands in this agro-ecosystem region in the year 2000. Likewise, in\ud\ud2013, almost 24% of the study area was sensitive to and affected by desertification, giving a rate of\ud\udincrease of approximately 1.3% per year.More than half of the land used for agriculture has been\ud\udmoderately to severely degraded. The results also show that the central places intheregionwere\ud\udaffected by farmlands and meadowlands degradingto barrenlands due to mismanagement and\ud\uda lack ofeffective planning withland and water resources. However, rehabilitation of irreversibly\ud\uddegraded land requires serious measures that aim torestore the capability of those areas and\ud\udincrease resistance to degradation through effective planning in water and land in the region