Assessment of Desertification Considering Erosion and Land-Use Effects (Case Study: Cheshmeh-Ali Damghan Watershed)

Desertification process as a continuous and destructive phenomenon and as a global scourge, not only developing countries but also developed countries threatens. Successful projects and control desertification and reduce risk factors inhibit desertification requires proper understanding of cause and effect relationship between desertification and existing processes, but it is obviously what the process and accelerate out of its normal effect of making human factors.In The case study Desertification procesure in the framework of work units assessed applying different valuable and available indexes of erosion including: kind and density of water erosion, drainage net density, major landuses, green cover, appearance of erodiblity formations, soil cover, number of days with dust storm. Map of desertification map for the watershed generated and overlayed with current landuse map. Finaly desertification procesure involving landuse were assessed in categorized geomorphological units; mountain, pedimont and playa. Results showed that the dominant form of erosion in mountain is water one. Over the pedimont and playa, because of erosion activities in highlands and focusing land exploitations in lowlands, desertification is more intense and both water erosion and wind erosion are active.