Study of the Effect of Management Criterion on Desertification Control (Case Study: Kashan)

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.