ecosystem services

Plant Ecological Units (PEUs) are distinctive land types capable of producing unique vegetation communities that differ in composition, structure, and carbon storage capacity, an essential ecosystem service. This research aims to accurately classify PEUs in semi-steppe rangelands to quantify ecosystem services, particularly carbon sequestration, as a critical ecosystem service.

The Marjan-Borujen watershed in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province was selected as the study area. Following monitoring and field studies, four dominant PEUs were identified: Astragalus verus Olivier, Bromus tomentellus Boiss, Scariola orientalis Sojak, and Astragalus verus Olivier - Bromus tomentellus Boiss. Multi-temporal images were used for better classification, evaluation, and monitoring of PEUs' changes over the past thirty years. Additionally, Land Change Models (LCM) were employed to predict future changes in PEUs. Three-time periods were selected, each with a 16-year interval: the first period (1988-1986) with the TM sensor, the second period (2002-2004) with the ETM+ sensor, and the third period (2018-2020) with the OLI sensor. The Markov Chain (MC) modeler was used to model and predict future changes in PEUs (2036). Finally, ecosystem services (carbon storage and sequestration) between the present (T1) and future (T2) periods were quantified.

LCM modeling results indicated that by 2036, PEUs 2 and 4 would increase by 4.3% and 0.07%, respectively, while PEUs 1 and 3 would decrease by 1.98% and 3.12%, respectively. The ecosystem services modeling (ESM) results showed that the current total carbon stored in the region is approximately 226,238 tons. Between the two periods T1 (2020) and T2 (2036), 463 tons of sequestered carbon will be lost due to changes in PEUs. The quantification of ecosystem services revealed that the hotspots of carbon sequestration reduction are primarily associated with areas affected by destruction, such as livestock grazing, bush cutting, and land plowing.

This research highlights the changes in PEUs from the past to the future, demonstrating the impact of human and management activities on ecosystems and plant communities within less than a decade. Implementing natural resource protection policies and appropriate management activities can reduce the destruction of plant communities, thereby enhancing their sustainability and future health. Vegetation changes are the primary drivers of ecosystem services changes. Carbon storage and sequestration, as key ecosystem services, have a direct relationship with vegetation, which is significantly affected by changes and reductions in vegetation. In the studied area, lands close to access roads or those that were plowed and abandoned eventually turned into uncovered lands and poor rangelands, resulting in decreased carbon sequestration and the emergence of carbon sequestration reduction hotspots.

The changes in land use and land cover (LULC) driven by increasing human activities have resulted in a multitude of environmental challenges, including an elevated risk of flooding in densely populated urban areas. To achieve sustainable development goals, it is imperative to employ spatial-temporal modeling of urban runoff and floods and to assess urban ecological resilience to this challenge. In this study, Landsat satellite data was employed within the Google Earth Engine web-based platform to generate LULC maps for the city of Rasht, which is undergoing rapid urbanization, for the years 1990, 2005, and 2020. A CA-Markov model was employed to predict the LULC map for 2035. Subsequently, the InVEST-UFRM model was employed to assess the generation of runoff and the resilience of urban areas against potential flood hazards during these years. The findings indicated that the study area experienced a high rate of urbanization between 1990 and 2020. This trend is anticipated to persist, accompanied by a notable expansion of built-up areas and a considerable reduction in green infrastructure in the future. The InVEST-UFRM model yielded results indicating that the area with a high potential for flooding constituted 7.5%, 12.6%, and 21% of the total area in 1990, 2005, and 2020, respectively. The model predicts that this area will reach 28.2% by 2035. In conclusion, the findings of this study demonstrate that LULC changes have significantly impacted the reduction in Rasht city's ecological resilience against flood hazards. This research, which combines remote sensing data with new technologies, provides insights into assessing urban flood resilience under the influence of land use changes, particularly in data-limited areas. The results of this study can be used as a strategic tool for urban managers to make informed decisions for effective urban flood management in areas with similar characteristics.

the purpose of this research is to prioritize business plans. It is sustainable in line with the development of rural entrepreneurship with an emphasis on pasture ecosystem services. For this purpose, in the present study, 393 pasture users were selected from four villagesin Maneh and Samalghan cities.First, the economic valuation of four main rangeland functions was carried out using the available questionnaire and random sampling method, then the potential of attracting income in each of these functions obtained. In the next step, the costs of each of these businesses were collected with the help of survey information. In the next step, the financial evaluation of business plans was done with the help of financial indicators, including NPV, B/C, ROI, and IRR. The results showed that the three businesses of animal husbandry, beekeeping and the establishment of eco-tourism accommodation have economic justification, and the business of packaging and processing medicinal plants has no economic justification.Prioritization of these four businesses by the indicators of the previous stages of the research by scoring each of the indicators Done. The results showed that in order of businesses; 1-Establishment of ecotourism residence, 2-animal husbandry (sheep breeding), 3-beekeeping and 4-medicinal plant processing have the first to fourth priority in order to empower the beneficiaries in the target villages.

Ecological spaces play a crucial role in addressing climate change and global warming with focusing on storing and capturing CO2 from atmosphere. Consequently, quantifying and monitoring carbon storage content is the main step to toward achieving sustainable development goals. The main objective of this study is to develop a precise model for calculating carbon storage content at four pools i.e., aboveground carbon (AGC), belowground carbon (BGC), soil organic carbon (SOC) and dead organic carbon (DOC) under different land uses. For this, a site with an area extent about 243204 ha was selected from Miandoab region (West Azerbaijan Province) by the fact that it represents various land uses. Since application of integrated remotely-sensed data and novel technologies facilitates predictions as well as increases the modeling accuracy, the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform and the InVEST model were implemented in preparing land use/land cover (LULC) maps and then carbon storage content. The prediction for 2023 showed that the total carbon storage in the aforementioned region would be approximately 11.52 × 106 ton. In addition, the detailed evaluations illustrated that the highest carbon storage content related to SOC and AGC as expected. A possible reason is that living mass is located on the surface. In terms of different land-uses without paying attention to their areas in themselves, the highest carbon storage content was for pasture, followed by tree cover, agriculture, urban area, water bodies and barren. Finally, it is concluded that applying the respective remote sensing data integrating with a suitable technique uncovers the impact of LULC changes on carbon storage with success.

In recent times, the escalating exploitation resulting from population growth has altered land uses/land covers (LULC) and caused the overutilization of natural areas, leading to the decline in ecosystem services. This study aimed to explore the impacts of land use/land cover changes between 1984, 2000, 2010 and 2020 on sediment retention ecosystem service in Golestan Province. The required maps were created using different methods such as using satellite images and downloading from suitable sites. Effective management of land use relies on information obtained from these maps. In this study, the InVEST 3.11.0 software was utilized to create sediment retention ecosystem service maps and their changes over time based on land use changes. The findings revealed that forest areas exhibited the highest sediment retention rates among all land uses surveyed across the four evaluation years. Conversely, urban areas consistently showed the lowest sediment retention rates between 1984 and 2010, but in 2020, bare lands had the lowest amount of sediment retention. Comparing the four evaluation years, it was observed that sediment retention decreased from 1984 to 2000 and 2000 to 2010. However, total trend in sediment retention increased from 2010 to 2020 in Golestan province. The examination of sediment retention levels and their changes over time in response to land use/land cover alterations provides valuable insights for making informed management decisions to optimize land uses for maintaining and enhancing sediment retention.

With the rapid development of society, economy and population growth, the impact of human activities on ecosystems is increasing, which has caused the relationship between human well-being and ecosystem to be in the spotlight. To that end, ecosystem services as an essential element for human development and survival emphasizes the benefits that natural ecosystems provide to humans. These services are divided into four categories based on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA): provision, regulation, support and cultural. Cultural ecosystem services are important component of ecosystem services that refer to intangible benefits of the human beings from ecosystems and play an essential role in enhancing human well-being. Cultural ecosystem services can include the use of natural resources directly or indirectly.

The present study was conducted with the aim of modeling recreation services in Semnan province. For this purpose, the integration of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) of one as the multicriteria decision-making methods and the recreation opportunity spectrum (ROS) model was used. In the ROS model, recreational service is estimated based on recreation potential index and accessibility- remoteness index. In the recreation potential index, three elements: the degree of naturalness, the protected regions, and the attractiveness of water bodies, and in the accessibility- remoteness index, the distance from roads and human-made areas were mapped. In this research, Sentinel-2 satellite images were used to prepare the land use map of 2021. Then, using the maximum likelihood algorithm, land use maps were prepared in 18 classes.

According to the land use map, pastures, barren lands and rainfed agriculture have the highest levels of land use in the studied area with 23.57, 22.27 and 17.31% respectively. After that, waterbodies, salt marshes and irrigated agriculture are the dominant land uses with 15.65, 10.98 and 7.84%, respectively. It is worth mentioning that the smallest area of the region is dedicated to wetlands and urban uses. Based on the results, Forest and pasture areas have the highest potential in providing recreation services in the study area. It was also seen that, the third category (low provision- difficult access) and the seventh category (high provision- easy access) respectively have the highest and lowest land surface coverage in terms of the provision of recreational ecosystem services in the province. Overall, the results showed that recreation ecosystem service is affected by various factors caused by human development, especially land cover/use changes. Considering the concentration of both variables of ecosystem service provision and urban and industrial development in the northern half of the province, it is vital to pay attention to the conflicts between the development and management of ecosystem services. If this is ignored, in addition to intensifying the instability of development, the destruction of natural assets of the province, especially forests and pastures, which are the main source of provision of various ecosystem services such as recreation, will intensify.

In general, the results indicate that most of the places in the province have a medium to low ability to provide recreation services. Considering that recreational potential is important for the well-being of urban populations, increasing urban parks and green infrastructure areas is a useful way to improve the quality of the recreational experience. Therefore, urban development strategies should increasingly aim to strengthen the natural and artificial network of green space, diversity of plant compositions and biomass structure, and proper management of green space. This is necessary for the design of green space with regard to maximizing ecosystem services in Semnan province.

Proper management of water and soil resources in a watershed requires recognition the potential of sediment production and runoff. In addition, every year thousands of tons of fertile soil from different lands of the country are unavailable due to soil erosion, and due to the wastage of water and accumulation in sedimentation areas, causes considerable damage. In this regard, the control of soil erosion and flood refers to the ability of ecosystems to conserve soil and water. Therefore, the current research is planned with the aim of evaluation the effectiveness of implementing watershed projects (1376- 1397) on the amount of soil erosion and flood discharge in Chehlkhaneh watershed. Soil erosion and flood discharge were estimated respectively using the MPSIC SCS method. The results showed that the implementation of watershed projects has led to the reduction of soil erosion and sediment (4.30 and 1.80 ton/h) compared to before the implementation of watershed operations (6.05 and 2.30 ton/h). Also, with the increase of the return period of floods, the effectiveness of watershed projects in controlling of watershed flood and reduction of discharge and flood volume increases.

Ecosystem is a platform for economic and social development and in fact a support for sustainable production in any society, so that its exploitation is essential and unavoidable. One of the important subdivisions of ecosystems is pastures. The management and development of tourism in pastures can reduce the pressure on the rangeland by creating and improving the livelihood of the beneficiaries. Based on this, the purpose of this research is to formulate a solution to achieve sustainability in the pastures of Derkash village, Maneh and Samalghan counties, Razavi Khorasan province. First, by filling out the letter and interviewing the local stakeholders (135 of the tourist areas), the requirements for the formulation of direct standards were converted using the simple random sampling method in collecting people. In the next stage, the questionnaire was completed and in the form of a SWOT questionnaire, it was placed at the disposal of 45 experts and experts related to the exploitation of pastures, so that coefficients and scoring can be done by them. SWOT analysis was used to formulate strategies for achieving sustainable tourism, and finally the extracted strategies were prioritized by the QSPM matrix. The results showed that the cases of "advertising to attract tourists and registration of accommodation in online sites for booking, implementation of the standards considered by tourists (especially parking), creation of handicraft markets and village products (such as honey) to create supplementary income for interest vector and cultural and social education of the residents of some villages to accept and attract tourists are the first to fourth priorities in order to achieve sustainable tourism in the pastures of the studied area.

Ecosystem services are fundamental for human well-being and are the basis of rural livelihoods, particularly for poor people. Rainwater harvesting can serve as an opportunity to enhance ecosystem productivity, thereby improving livelihoods, human well-being, and economies. Rainwater harvesting has been shown to create synergies between landscape management and human well-being. These synergies are particularly obvious when rainwater harvesting improves rainfed agriculture, is applied in watershed management, and when rainwater harvesting interventions address household water supplies in urban and rural areas. Rainwater harvesting has often been a neglected opportunity in water resource management: only water from surface and ground water sources is conventionally considered. Managing rainfall will also present new management opportunities, including rainwater harvesting. Improved water supply, enhanced agricultural production, and sustainable ecosystem services can be attained through adoption of rainwater harvesting with relatively low investments over fairly short time spans (5-10 years). Rainwater harvesting is a coping strategy in variable rainfall areas. In the future climate change will increase rainfall variability and evaporation, and population growth will increase demand on ecosystem services, in particular for water. Rainwater harvesting will become a key intervention in adaptation and reducing vulnerabilities. Moreover, in addition to increasing public knowledge about the ecosystem function of these systems, basic steps should be taken in the audit, evaluation and application of local knowledge of rainwater harvesting in the country.

The watershed is composed of various ecosystems and is considered a unit for conducting integrated management studies. Integrated management works to ecosystem services improve by identifying destructive processes. Due to the double pressure on the ecosystem different and their destruction, experts and researchers are trying to provide an integrated management model for watershed health in order to preserve ecosystems. On the other hand, some of the pressures on the ecosystem are visible in the current situation. But there are a number of pressures that are emerging recently and their effects on the state of natural resources may take a long time to appear. Therefore, identifying these pressures and drivers and their effects is essential to provide optimal operational solutions. In this regard, in order to reduce the pressure and improve the conditions of Zayandeh- roud watershed, various plans and studies have been done. Zayandeh- roud watershed in the central region of Iran is one of the regions that has the problem of water instability. In fact, water stress and irreparable environmental damage to the Zayandeh- roud watershed and the country, endanger the health watershed and justifies the present study. Therefore, the present study seeks to health status improve of Zayandeh- roud watershed by explaining the general roadmap and reach an appropriate management decision. In fact, this model can be used as the core and basic model in the integrated management of watersheds. The proposed goals and solutions, determine the correct management way in Zayandeh- roud watershed. Also, the stakeholders can, according to preferences and existing conditions, actions and activities can be planned and implemented in a participatory manner.

The water shortage crisis that is sweeping the globe today has posed serious harm and threat to people around the world. Meanwhile, Iran is one of the water-scarce countries due to its location in the arid and semi-arid belt and fluctuations in rainfall. The water status in most of its regions is in a state of tension and sometimes crisis. The pervasive nature of water and the existence of numerous human and environmental factors affecting its reliability have greatly complicated the interactions between the human-environmental dimensions. Therefore, the study of these complex environmental systems that are affected by human actions is a major scientific challenge. This challenge must bridge the gap between the natural sciences and the social sciences and dominate modeling at different scales. Therefore, there is a need to integrate knowledge from the natural and social sciences. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to analyze the water crisis and the concept of water security by presenting a framework for Human-Environment System (HES) interactions in the Neishabur Plain watershed. In this regard, first, the process of changing the water issue in the Neishabur Plain watershed during 2011-2020 was investigated, and then, according to the identification of the prevailing situation in the watershed, considering the influence of various human and natural factors in the current crisis, to identify the main factors affecting the occurrence of the crisis and determining how they interact and feedback for a comprehensive analysis of the water crisis and the consequences of this water shortage in the region. The results of the investigation of the water issue in the area generally show a decrease in precipitation, warming of the air, increase in evaporation and transpiration, dryness, and more dehydration. This is while the largest volume of water harvesting in the basin (ca. 450 million m3 in the 2019-2020 water year) is also dedicated to the agricultural sector. In addition, the results show that understanding the hierarchical levels of environmental awareness and ultimately learning and practice based on key components and interactions identified by the HES framework, facilitates the analysis of system complexity.

Extra livestock than grazing capacity is one of the main effective factors on rangeland degradation. Most of the country's pastures have Extra livestock than grazing capacity, and from the past until now, the policy of dealing extra livestock by using legal punishments has not been able to completely solve this problem. Lack of attention to grazing capacity has led to the destruction of vegetation. The economic approach, the Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), in return for the reduction of grazing capacity can contribute to rehabilitation of rangeland ecosystems which are getting degraded. One of the basic measures in this regard is to determine the Willingness to Accept (WTA) by the rangeland utilizers.

In this research, in the statistical society of ranchers in the rangelands of Bardeh and Kresnak regions in Ben city of Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province, after classifying the ranchers, sampling and interview were performed randomly in each category. Data were collected through regular and guided interviews and questionnaires. In this section, two scenarios were analyzed. Scenario 1 Based on the questionnaire, the annual profit of each sheep and goat productive livestock was asked directly from the rancher. In the second scenario, the net income from each animal unit was determined by calculating costs and revenues, and the amount of lost pastoral income due to the elimination of one animal unit was determined. The two values ​​calculated in the scenarios were compared and the second scenario, which was more accurate as a quantitative number, was introduced to the respondents. The willingness to pay (WTA) of ranchers in return for the grazing livestock elimination was determined by conditional valuation method (CVM), using the logit function. Role of the law and Existing instructions on PES was investigated by Content analysis method.

Results showed that 71.4% of ranchers agree with PES in return for the grazing livestock reduction. The WTA in return for elimination per A productive sheep and goat are determined to be 7265 and 6462 thousand Iranian Rials per year, respectively which is lower than the net income per animal unit. The share of the pasture from the net income of a sheep and a productive goat in the permitted utilization conditions, which are set for one hundred days, is set at 1990 and 1770 thousand Rials, respectively. In the current utilization conditions, the dependence of livestock on rangeland during the year is 44.4%. The outputs of the logit model show that the WTA ranchers increase with the bid price (P = 0.00). There is significant relationship between WTA and the number of grazing livestock (P<0.01). Instructions for terms of rangeland utilization have been prepared and reviewed 5 times. The executive procedure for calculating the customary rights of ranchers has also been prepared and revised by the Cabinet of Ministers in 1391 in 3 times, in 1395, 1398 and 1399, with the approval of its executive regulations. An analysis of the content of these guidelines reveals that is not mentioned payment for ecosystem services.

 A comparison between the first and second scenarios shows that the net income of an animal unit in the first scenario is higher than the second scenario, and the reason for this difference can be related to the income effect. That is, if a higher amount is answered by ranchers in the interview, they will gain more benefits. The minimum level of Payment for Ecosystem Services per animal unit should be equal to that of the profit per animal unit. Investigation of the laws and regulations related to the rangeland shows that yet no law or regulation have been enacted in terms of the PES, in return for the elimination of grazing livestock and even it has not been mentioned in legal terms

Ecosystems, if properly managed, provide a vital variety of services such as the production of goods for human beings. Therefore, they need to be protected and developed as a fundamental solution to achieve sustainable development and ensure the well-being of generations. Ecosystem services are natural activities and functions necessary for human well-being. Understanding the value of natural property as one of the preconditions for sustainable development reveals the significance of valuation. In fact, valuing ecosystem services is one of the main tools for protecting the environment and natural resources. Using economic valuation ways in actual policy making is a rare phenomenon. Analyzing the valuation studies shows the need in future to strengthen the sectors that affected by economic valution regading decision making.

Topics presented in this article are based on a review of the scientific literature on the economic valuation of ecosystem services, concepts of ecosystem services and classification of services based on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2005), interviews with experts from various academic and research centers and library studies and Internet sites.

Monetary arguments for recognizing the relative importance of different forms of ecosystem services and natural capital may not be universally accepted, but they can be useful and convincing for decision makers. In other words, if they do not value the benefits provided by nature, they are considered worthless and the current trend in the decline and destruction of natural systems will continue. In environmental policies and natural resources, economic evaluation involves determining the monetary value of changes in services and the functions and shares of natural capital. A valuation of natural resources and the environment by economists contributes to understanding the benefits of the environment, helps decision makers and planners become cognizant of the environmental issues, and specifies the relationship between economic policies and natural incomes. If the valuation of environmental services and natural resources is based on units that are not comparable to other goods, it is supposed that these services are free.In factoverlooking the value of these services, at the level of decisions, leads to the adoption of unsustainable policies. Thus, the economic valuation of natural resources helps managers plan the protection and sustainable use of the environment and natural resources by raising the quantitative value of ecosystem goods and services.

Evaluating ecosystem services is an effective way for managers to evaluate how costs are allocated to valuable ecosystem services. Given that many natural ecosystem services are not traded in the market and the willingness of people to pay for receiving these services is not clear, methods of valuing natural ecosystem services and goods have always been considered by experts as a central issue in natural resource economics. According to the review of economic valuation methods, it can be said that researchers are focusing on the Contingent Valuation (CV) method due to its simplicity and flexibility to apply. Nevertheless, one of the chief criticisms of the CV method is that results are generally inflated as respondents do not face a real budget constraint and tend to say yes. This often leads to loss of validity and exaggeration. Therefore, the use of Choice Experiment (CE) and Benefit Transfer methods are preferable. The benefit transfer method is an effective method for developing countries. In fact, this method will be suitable when there is sufficient time to conduct economic evaluation or studies on the cost of environmental damage. Although the purpose of economic valuation, regardless of how it is done, is to assist decision makers in implementing public policy and environmental and natural resource planning, However, due to the new approach of the selection test method and its optimal ability to evaluate ecosystem services, it is suggested that more studies be carried out with this method. Therefore, due to the importance of economic valuation of ecosystem goods, the scientific community in Iran should continue further research on economic valuation. These studies can help shift from hypothetical to real markets and highlight the vital role of ecosystem services in society.

Knowing the potential of ecosystems in providing services is essential for designing management programs. Therefore, a study was done to investigate the impact of livestock grazing on ecosystem service pollination in Malah Shoreh and Gorgo rangelands in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province. For this purpose, 100 quadrats were planted in the grazing area and the percentage of canopy cover of the species in the plots was estimated. Plant species attractiveness for honeybees were determined as an indicator of ecosystem's potential in providing ecosystem service pollination. The results showed that grazing had caused a significant decrease in the abundance of species with high and medium attractiveness for honeybees (p <0.05). Pearson's correlation analysis showed that there is a positive correlation between plant species life’ forb and high and medium attractiveness for honeybees (p <0.05). Among the studied vegetative forms, perennial grasses and shrubs, which are less important in providing pollination function than perennial and annual forbes, have been severely reduced in the grazing area. In general, livestock grazing has reduced ecosystem service pollination in the study area. Given the importance of ecosystem service pollination in the sustainability of natural ecosystems, it is crucial to pay attention to the conservation of plant species with high attractiveness for pollinators in grazing management.

Human societies are considered as a part of ecosystems. The interaction between human societies and ecosystems has consequences for them. Desert ecosystem is one of the common ecosystems in arid regions of Iran. In desert, phenomena such as drought affect the lives of human societies. The present study analyzes the effect of hydrological drought on resilience of human communities in Yazd province. Hydrological drought was studied based on river flow index and resilience of human communities using economic, social and environmental criteria by using principal component analysis method. The factor was calculated based on the values of the rotated matrix and the eigenvector values. Multiple linear regression analysis of drought effects on factors was investigated. Analysis of the relationship between drought and resilience indicates a significant relationship between them. The most affected sectors by drought were economic, social and environmental, respectively. The most important economic losses were the variables of employment share in services and industry sectors, rural income and cost, irrigated agriculture, area under cultivation, urban cost, participatory economy rate. The overall results of combining the drought index with socio-economic and environmental indicators indicate an increase in vulnerability and a decrease in the resilience of human societies due to drought. Lifestyle and direct dependence on ecosystem resources should be reconsidered. In other words, generating processing, conversion and complementary industries, extends the chain of drought dependence and exploitation to reduce drought fluctuations.  Diversifying the use of ecosystem services and replacing them in times of drought events can increase the resiliency of human societies.

In recent decades, drastic land use changes in Golestan province caused to reduce a substantial amount of Hyrcanian forest. To investigate the changes, land cover maps produced using Landsat satellite imagery classification of sensors TM from 1984, 2012 and 2016 respectively used as input data in Land Change Modeler (LCM) to predict land cover changes in 2030. In order to assess the accuracy of modeling, statistics of relative performance characteristic (ROC), ratio Hits/False Alarms and figure of merit was used. In continue to investigate the role of land use changes in water yield as one of ecosystem services was discussed. The results show the accuracy of artificial neural network with the ROC equal to 0.949, the ratio Hits/False Alarms equal to 57 percent and the figure of merit is equal to 11 percent. Land use change modeling results showed that from 1984 to 2012, The most prominent changes were related to reduction of forest cover. This process modeling using artificial neural network showed, from 2016 to 2030 forest cover will be reduced about 30361 hectares. The results of water yield study showed that runoff in the area, particularly in the East and North East area has increased. This increase in the amount of runoff occurred as a result of land use change on forest ecosystems to agriculture. Results of this study improve our understanding of hydrological consequences of land-use changes, and provide needed knowledge for effectively developing and managing land-use for sustainability and productivity in the Gorgan-rood watershed.

Rangelands provide a diverse array of vital services that pertain to human life. But market failure to consider the value of these ecosystem services has disturbed provision of many ecosystem services. In this study the economic value of water conservation functions by Arnaveh basin located in northwestern Iran was estimated. Rainfall-runoff simulation was carried out by using Curve Number (CN) method. Also by means of Replacement Cost method the value of the hydrological services were quantified. The role of vegetation cover in water conservation was estimated by comparing the surface runoff under current condition and uncovered soil conditions. Moreover the role of rangelands on water retention and surface runoff reduction by devising three more hypothetical scenarios and then the effects of land use changes associated with these scenarios on rainfall-runoff rate of the region were compared. Results showed that the role of rangelands vegetation cover in water conservation and surface runoff reduction was 7.19×106 m3, with the economic value of 123×109 IRR. Also, the results of a comparing between 3 hypothetical scenarios and current conditions showed that, under the case of scenario one which assumes that the entire of rangelands area is becoming to rain-fed farming, total outflow would be in the maximum amount and the most negative effects will accrue. Also the scenarios of improvement of vegetation cover to 25-50 percent has the most positive effects (1.95×106 m3 yr-1 decrease) on water retention. The results of this study could help decision-makers in selecting appropriate and economically feasible development strategies.

In the last decade, several studies have been conducted in order to develop water and soil resources management tools to maintain their health. Accordingly, the first necessary action is determination of the health status in ecosystems scale. Many key criteria and indices have been developed from anthropogenic, climatic, geomorphology, edaphic and vegetation factors to assess watershed health. According to the literature, considering an individual criterion cannot represent the overall ecosystem health status well. Hence, the development and testing new approached based on integrated health indicators are to be addressed. The combination of criteria and indicators using various statistical analyses and models is needed for better management of the ecosystems. Further, based on the implications of ecological system health and the mechanism of elements interaction, a series of conceptual models such as pressure-state response (PSR) model have been established. This model is recommended to organize pressure-state response indicators in a systematic way. Todays, ecosystems are becoming damaged or degraded as a result of stresses especially associated with human activities. A healthy ecosystem is essential to provide the services that humans and the natural environment require and has tremendous social and economic value. So, ecosystem health assessment is essential to achieve an integrated watershed management model for the whole country. Toward this attempt, in the present study, a comprehensive state of art was explored about PSR model to be practically applied by environmental managers considering the protection of ecosystems as one of their primary goals. The watershed monitoring and its health determination developed in this study can be used as a useful tool for watershed managers.

Economical valuation of environmental services help the decision makers to make decision about receasion, conservation and sustainability of water resources. Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) is used to evaluate conservation of water resources value of Khalkaei River located in Masal in Guilan Province at the north of Iran. This method tries to define individual’s willingness to pay (WTP) under suggested prices of given hypothetical market. Among the variables of the model presented, monthly cost, monthly income and environmental viwepoint (P<0.01) and landscape (P<0.1) are effective variables on willing to pay.. The average monthly WTP per family was calculated as 36766 Rls of Iran. The annual conservation value in terms of WTP for the conservation of Khalkaei River was estimated as 208 million Rls of Iran.