Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1
Associate professor, Faculty of Management, Univ. of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2
Ph.D. Student, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
3
Ph.D. Student, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
4
Ph.D. Graduate, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
Abstract
Desertification is more related to social and anthropogenic issues than natural causes and it becomes more
important over the time. Human effects on desertification could be classified as direct and indirect factors. This study
has focused on the effect of management factor, as a dominant case, on desertification of Kashan region based on
IMDPA (IMDPA: Iranian Model of Desertification for Potential Assessment) model. The geometric average weight
was used in order to find out the numerical value of management factor and then; desertification status map of the
area was prepared using GIS. The results showed that about 59.96 percent of the region, based on management
criterion, is classified in the medium class of desertification which mostly covers central, northern, southeastern and
western parts of the region. Meanwhile, irrigation systems, rangeland ploughing and the index of evaluation
implemented activity having the numeral value of 3.52, 3.43 and 2.23 are the most important affecting factors on
desertification, respectively. Increasing unwise human activities due to lack of sufficient knowledge on new irrigation
and cultivation technologies has been resulted on accelerated degradation and consequent desertification. Then,
combination of new extension and traditional knowledge, policy making and planning may lead to desertification
control in the region.
Keywords
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