Analysis of erosive winds and depositions drift potential in desert regions of Esfahan Province

In arid and desert regions, wind has an important role in soil erosion. The amount of wind energy and its direction variability have significant control on the morphology and maintenance of aeolian land forms. This research was aimed to analyze the erosive winds and investigate the discharge and sediment transport in the study area. For this research, anemometric data of a duration period of 20 years (1994-2013) were analyzed. Wind rose and sand rose are one of the best methods to determine the wind erodibility. The results obtained from the analysis of wind rose data indicated that the direction of prevailing wind in the study area was NE, W and E. The results of sand rose for a wind speed threshold of 12 knots showed that the drift direction was from south – west towards north – east. The maximum and minimum amount of total sand drift potential was 105.3 and 594.7 in vector units, related to Kashan and Ardestan stations, respectively.