Zoning of meteorological drought risk in customary Kormanj nomadic territories of North Khorasan

Drought, as one of the most important natural disasters, has many economic, social and environmental costs. In this research, considering the problems of crisis management and the need to change the procedure from crisis management to risk management, assessment of drought risk in customary Kormanj nomadic territories of North Khorasan, is the main purpose of the research. Basically, drought risk is defined as a function of the risk index and vulnerability index. In this research, DI index is considered as a drought risk indicator. To calculate the index, monthly rainfall data were collected from 27 meteorological stations of the province during the statistical period of 26 years. A drought zone map was prepared on an annual basis. Finally drought hazard index map for the Kormanj nomads allotments were produced. Vulnerability analysis was carried out through socio-economic indicators and physical indicators. Weighted Linear Combination Method was used to integrate the vulnerability layers. For standardization and weighing, the criteria were used, respectively, fuzzy logic and analytical Hierarchy process. Based on the results, on an annual scale, the risk of occurrence of moderate droughts with 54.6% of the customary territories is first and the danger of severe and low drought occur in subsequent positions. According to experts, the factor of water holding capacity in the soil with 0.2444 has the highest impact weight among the factors. The map of vulnerability index showed that the most vulnerability is in the customary territories in the west, south-east of the province as well as in the northwest of Shirvan city. Altogether about 43.2% of the area of the customary territories of the province is in severe and very intense categories.