Identifying areas with dust generation potential in the south west of Iran, case study: Khuzestan Province

Wind erosion is one of the important processes of desertification in arid and semi-arid regions. This process causes destruction in the land, soil and water resources and etc. Dust phenomenon is one of the major consequences of wind erosion in the world and Iran, particularly in the west and south west of the country. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify areas of dust generation potential in the Khozestan, Iran using the combination of statistical methods, remote sensing and modeling. The statistical results showed that the most frequent occurrence of this phenomenon happened between 2008 and 2009. Most dust events happened in the seasonal scale, late spring and early summer and in the monthly scale, happened in May, June and July. Dust detection on satellite images and study their concentration using indicators AOD and BTD represents the greatest concentration of dust in the west and south west regions of the Khuzestan province, since 80 percent of these dust occurred in these zones. Tracking of dust showed that during the warm period, most dust happened from north west-south east and west-east and during the cold period, especially at the end of period, the northern-southern dust affected the province. The assessment of land use change showed the reduction in the irrigated areas, vegetation and arid lands increased in 2015, especially for the half of area of western Khuzestan. These features and physiographic features such as erodible formations, saline soils and marshy, low soil moisture and high changes in land use, indicates the presence of dust prone areas and potential for west and southern province.