Evaluation of the Effects of Vegetation Characteristics on Desertification (Case Study: Northern Hableh Roud, Iran)

One of the characteristics in Iranian Model of Desertification Potential Assessment (IMDPA) is vegetation. Since vegetation is very important factor in the degradation of land, so some indices were determined for this item in order to evaluate desertification potential of arid, semi arid and arid sub humid areas of Iran. The indices included vegetation condition, exploit and revegetation. To calibrate the vegetation item in the IMDPA model, above mentioned indices were assessed in Northern Hableh Rood region as semi arid and arid sub humid region. To do this, in the first stage unit work map of the study area was prepared based on slope, land use and geological maps. Scores of indices were recorded in different study units. At last, using the following formula, p VI=sqrt[3]{ VCI *VUI *VRI}, final score of vegetation character (VI) was determined in the study area based on IMDPA. After scoring vegetation character, desertification intensity map for vegetation character including four low, medium, intensive and very intensive classes was prepared. The map showed that 62.2%, 37.2% and 0.6% of the study area are considered as low, medium and high desertification intensity class, respectively. There wasn t very high class based on vegetation character.