Application of Aeolian Sediments Granulometry Characteristics to Determine the Morphology of Homogenous Sand Dunes through Multivariate Data Analysis (Case Study: Kashan Erg)

Kashan Erg is one of the most important sand seacomplexes in Iran. The Current research tried to determine the homogeneity of Kashan Erg through multivariate data analysis. Data was extracted by interpretation of aerial photographs, Google earth, field observations and morphologic map of the study area. Moreover, different statistical variables of aeolian sediment samples were conducted in different sand dunes. The granulometric parameters were also calculated based on the dry sieve analysis while mean diameter, sorting, skewness, kurtosis, d10, and d90 indices were calculated using GRADISTAT software. Wilks’ lambda and canonic coefficients results indicated that, among granulomtric data, skewness and kurtosis could distinguish different sand dunes types (accuracy of 57%). According to the above mentioned indices, the classification was performed using Hierarchical Cluster analysis. The results showed that the stabilized dunes were located in the separate group which related to the effect of vegetation establishment and ability of wind in transporting of fine particles of these areas. Also, bivariate plots used for evaluating the homogeneity of the sand dunes which indicated d10 and d90 parameters as a discriminant factors for graphical and visually separation, but not statistically. Findings revealed that by using quantitative multivariate methods for sand dunes classification, less experimental insights can affect the results.