The impact of various landforms on vegetation cover distribution of the Lake Urmia western shore catchment

Researchers and target groups studying the vegetation are seeking to answer the question “what ground indicators determine the establishment and distribution of vegetation types and vegetation communities of a basin and which landforms can best determine the boundaries of each plant type or community?”. In this regard, the Gardaneh-Ghooshchi basin, overlooking the Urmia Lake in West Azarbaijan Province was selected. Vegetation cover map, land capability evaluation map, geology map, soil map, geomorphology map, and land units map, were precisely and accurately generated based on the technical methods and field surveys. The multinomial logistic regression method was used to compare, describe and accurately predict vegetation types with different landforms. The results showed that homogeneous units with a quantitative value of 0.432 had the highest impact, followed by geomorphology, geology, and soil with quantitative values of 0.389, 0.351 and 0.156, respectively, in the next rank. Therefore, slope, aspect, and elevation (physiographic characteristics of the basin) have a more effective role in the distribution of vegetation, which could be used before ground monitoring as a baseline map in mountainous areas.