A GIS-Based Assessment of the Relationships between Erosion and Desertification in a Semi-Arid Climate: Zarindasht district, Fars province

This research was conducted in the Zarin-dasht district in SW Iran, a semi arid region, using a Geographic Information System (GIS) to estimating the relationships between soil erosion by water and the various degree of desertification intensity. Data layers used in this study were generated from topographic maps, soil maps, vegetation maps and precipitation Data. MEDALUS model was applied to mapping desertification and PSIAC model was used to determine soil erosion. The result shows the majority about 90.1% of the district is classified to critical desertification, also about 5.2% of the area very severe eroded because of water erosion. Furthermore consequence indicated that extent area belongs to severe and very severe erosion is increasing from Not affected area by desertification to critical (C3) area by desertification, while slight and very slight erosion are increasing from critical (C3) to (Not affected) N. in the other hand, the various types of ESAs to desertification are related to the degree of soil erosionseverity by water in the Zarin-dasht district.