Assessment of Desertification Severity Using IMDPA Model in Saravan Region

In this research, desertification intensity of saravan region was evaluated using IMDPA‌ the newest method of Assessment of Desertification Potential in arid and semi arid regions of Iran. For this purpose 4 criteria including climate, vegetation cover, soil and wind erosion were selected. Each criterion was assessed based on it's indices which result in qualitative mapping of each criterion based on geometric average of the indices. Then, sensitive map of region was extracted using geometric average of all criteria. Thematic databases were integrated and elaborated in a GIS. By laminate of thematic databases layers and using this formula DM=(SI×WEI×VI×CLI)1/4 to ‌Calculate ‌the geometric mean Criteria, the desertification intensity map was obtained with analysis IMDPA Model. The result showed that 45.24% of study area was found to be in medium and about 54.39% in high class of desertification And 0.37% of the region including residential aren’t in any classification. Analysis of desertification criteria in Saravan region showed, climate criteria is a major problem with a geometric average of 3.1 which shows high class while soil with a geometric average of 2.35 has lowest effect in desertification. Also vegetation covers and wind erosion criteria with a geometric average of 2.62 and 2.87 show high class desertification.