Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
- Behzad Rayegani 1
- Gholamreza Zehtabian 2
- Hossein Azarnivand 3
- Seyed Jamalodin Khajedin 4
- Seyed Kazem Alavipanah 5
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Science and Natural Resources, University of Environment, Karaj, Iran
2 Professor, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
3 Associate Professr, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
4 Professor, Faculty of Natural Resources, Esfahan University of Technology, Esfahan, Iran
5 Professor, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Arid and semi-arid areas, due to the sensitive, have variable ecosystems, so continuous assessment and monitoring of the environment is required for most of managerial and adjustment practices. Vegetation is one of the most important assessment tools and used as a criterion for evaluation and monitoring of ecosystem functions. In this study, for the first time in the country, we have evaluated status of vegetation in a desert area by the method provided by the Land Degradation Assessment in Aridlands as one of the last instruction of the vegetation status assessment. The model uses 16 different indicators to assess vegetation status: Total Bare Soil; Bare Spots; Litter cover or Surface organic matter; Vegetation Vigour; Proportion of perennial species; Proportion of Useful Species; Proportion of each vegetation strata; Species that decrease with grazing pressure; Species that increase with grazing pressure; Poisonous plants; Alien Invasive or proliferous weed species; Pest damage; Damage due to diseases; Bush /shrub encroachment; Utilization (Deforestation); Biomass decline. After running the model in the desert rangelands of East and compared the results with the reality, we found this model at least for the desert area, have very good performance.
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