Modeling the Supply of Habitat Service and Spatial Data mining of Hotspots in Arid Ecosystems

Human activities have increasingly threatened biodiversity and habitat services. With the intensification of fragmented habitats has affected their quality. In this regard, it is necessary to know the spatial pattern of habitat hotspots because it, in turn, causes environmental sustainability. In present research, habitat quality modeled in arid ecosystems of South Khorasan province using InVEST software based on human threats, impact, distance, relative sensitivity to threats, and accessibility of habitat sources. Then spatial data mining of hotspots was analyzed using Gettis-Ord Gi, Moran and natural breaks methods. Also, the accuracy assessment of habitat hotspots extraction, through the ROC index, indicated accuracy more than 80% in the mentioned data mining methods, but the Gettis-Ord Gi index had the highest accuracy (94.5%). The results of the spatial statistics of habitat hotspots overlapping with the protected areas of the province showed that Kamarsorkh Protected area contains the most (91.33%) and the Estand No-hunt area has the least (0.54%) habitat hotspots. Also, some areas of habitat hotspots were identified in free lands (9.34%). Therefore, the current protected areas do not cover a significant percentage of the hotspots in the free lands, so in sustainable conservation planning, the proposed methodology in research can apply to change and revise the borders of the protected areas.