Assessment of Land Degradation in Sistan Region with Emphasis on Wind Erosion

Land degradation is a phenomenon which for different reasons is extending and growing throughout the world. Sistan plain was also affected by this phenomenon, so that has changed to a serious problem for industry, connecting roads and social & economical activities of the area’s population, therefore, the necessity of combating with this phenomenon and identifying the effective factors on it, is clear. The aim of this study is to evaluate the current status and prediction of the future status for land degradation in Niyatak Sistan area based on expanded method of estimating desertification rate (Land degradation) in Iran. For this purpose, the existing working units in the area were prepared by geo morphology method as a basic map for giving value to the considered factors and indices. Then with giving value to evaluating indices of wind erosion and aggregate their related scores at each working units and in accordance with the base tables, land degradation for different uses were determined. Finally, through using Arc view 3.2 software, the maps related to the present and future status of the said utilizations were drawn.The results showed that in this method of the current land degradation, are ranked in three classes of medium, high and severe. Based on the obtained results, the degradation was more than the standard limit and includes the classes of medium (Ш), high (IV) and severe (V). Medium, high and severe classes include %59.3 %31.2 and %9.5 percent of the whole area of the region respectively. Future status of the region showed that in the future Niyatak region will be placed in three classes of low, medium and high intensity rate of land degradation.