Main Approaches and Designing Frameworks for Comprehensive Program for Monitoring the Country's Natural Resources

Iran is an arid and semi-arid country whose natural resources have a fragile balance due to unstable management under the conditions of climate change and continuous droughts. General estimates show that soil loss is 14% of the gross national income and also the annual expenditure of 4000 billion Rials for the implementation of protection and restoration projects in the country. Having accurate information about the temporal and spatial changes in the quality and quantity of these resources is a key requirement for its sustainable management. Designing a natural resource monitoring program is a key in creating the necessary information platform for many conservation and restoration projects and prioritizing watershed measures and needed research. In this article, an attempt was made to explain the current situation, the history of monitoring land resources and the data obtained from them, and their strengths and weaknesses. Following, it will be explained how to achieve a comprehensive plan and design for the global monitoring of land resources (hydrological variables, soil erosion, vegetation and carbon secosteration) at the country level. First, the design of national and regional monitoring networks is explained by describing representative basins, permanent monitoring sites and sampling systems at different scales. Then, an overview of data collection, integration and analysis, sampling protocols and required tests are presented. Finally, general data collection schedule, support structure and human resources and the main findings of meta-analysis of spatial and temporal data (in terms of conservation planning, support system and decision-making) are described.