Factor Analysis Method in Prioritization of Land Degradation Criteria in Karoon Watershed Using

While desertification is the negative effect of nature on the environment, land degradation is the results of the negative impact of human activity. Karoon watershed erosion and sediment yield are 20 ton/ha and 25 million ton per year, respectively. This issue has led to desertification and land degradation. Hence, identification of degradation indicators, prioritization and evaluation of their effects are important in the study of land degradation. In this study, natural, climatic and socio-economic factors (27 factors) were collected in Karoon watershed. The Factors converted to raster and the pixel data converted to text data (ASCII format). The relationship between variables was analyzed using factor analysis. Factor analysis can distinguish and classify internal relationships of variables. The eigenvalues and variance of the data showed that the first seven components cover 83.27% of the changes. Soilerosion, land use, and soil depth account for the highest amount of variation. Topography, climate change, socio-economic components are the next in the list in components analysis. Water quality layer has the lowest effect in the land degradation. Therefore, the results showed that in the issue of soil erosion, land use in land degradation is more important than geology information.