Classification of rangeland suitability for goat grazing using GIS (Case study: Baft Jamilabad Range)

Categorizing range suitability and evaluating rangelands hierarchically and based on their importance in order to rightly recognize their potential, particularly to fully exploit the arid and semi-arid lands which have a comparatively delicate ecosystem, can promote sustainable development. In order to investigate the rangeland suitability for goat grazing, this study analyses three sub-models, namely production model, water model (quantity, quality and distance) and erosion sensibility which also form the components of the final model. In the current study, FAO (1991) method, which is recommended for land capability evaluation, has been employed in Jamilabad – Baft province. Also, PSIAC procedure has been used to analyze erosion sensitivity. In order to determine water suitability of water resources, three factors quality, quantity and the distance from water resources were taken into account. On the other hand, to investigate the suitability of forage, factor namely standard exploitation, palatability, accessibility, physical condition of the rangefield are taken into consideration. The findings suggest that of all the rangefiels, 72.1% were marginally suitable (S3) whereas 27.9% of the rest of the rangeland were classified as N or unsuitable for goat grazing. It is worth noting that suitability classes of S1 and S2 were almost non-existent in the area under study. In total, limited availability of forage, soil erosion sensitivity were determining contributory factors to low suitability. Also, limited forage production together with soil erosion were recognized as limiting factors to rangefield types.