Out Ranking Analysis of Susceptible Range land to Degradation in Noshan Watershed, West Azerbaijan Province), Iran

Rangelands, using a variety of renewable natural resources are as well as economic value, in terms of effects on soil and water conservation that are very important. This study was conducted in Nushan West Azerbaijan province. Determining the susceptible areas of rangeland to degradation done by out ranking technique PROMETHEE II was used. In this study, to determine the rangeland susceptible to degradation used numerous effective criteria such as precipitation, slope, erosion, sediment, runoff, discharge, production, pasture conditions, pH, conductivity, organic carbon, soil, land use, population density and the presence of villages in the catchment area of 7439 hectares was used. Weight criteria were determined using the Shannon entropy. Due to the weight and value of criteria for each vegetation type, analyzed data for each of them using PROMETHEE II. Finally, the rangeland degradation areas were divided in 3 category including; high, moderate and low classes by using K-means method.