Evaluation of desertification intensity using ICD model in the southwest of Hirmand city

Desertification is a phenomenon occurring in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid regions and leads to potential loss of land. The Sistan plain is mainly affected by desertification so that no parts of the land, economic resources and social facilities are secure from the development of desertification. In the present study, the desertification condition of the southwest of Hirmand was investigated by ICD method. To achieve this goal, the map of land units was produced by combining the maps of geomorphology, plant communities and satellite images, and it was used as the basic map for scoring the factors and indices. According to the obtained results, the current status of desertification in most of the land units is classified as average, high and very high, including 58.3, 15, and 26.7% of a 6418 ha- surface area of the region.