Modeling of multiple environmental hazards in protected areas (A study of Kouh-e-Khamin protected area: Kohgiluyeh-Boyer Ahmad Province)

Enhancing management solutions and effective planning to prevent or mitigate the destruction occurring in ecosystems within protected areas relies heavily on the comprehensive mapping and assessment of exposure to various environmental hazards. Consequently, the primary objective of this study was to systematically map multiple environmental hazards and compute the exposure index across the Kouh-e-Khamin protected area in Kohgiluyeh-Boyer Ahmad province. The methodology involved mapping and calculating the risk values associated with eight environmental hazards, namely drought, evapotranspiration, wildfire, maximum temperatures, floods, landslides, the intensity of exploitation, and tourism activities. Through the utilization of the Delphi method to determine the relative weight of each hazard, a spatially explicit map depicting changes in the exposure index throughout the protected area was generated. The findings underscored that drought and wildfire exhibited the highest relative weight, while flood and landslide demonstrated the lowest relative weight among all environmental hazards. Spatial analysis of the exposure index indicated that 23% of the protected area fell within the low and very low exposure classes, while 33% were classified in the high and very high exposure classes. Areas with a very high level of exposure were predominantly situated in the eastern and northern sectors, whereas regions with very low and low exposure levels were concentrated in the central parts of the protected area. This research, by furnishing an accurate spatial representation of the severity of multiple environmental hazards, has contributed vital information for the facilitation of the vulnerability assessment process in the Kouh-e-Khamin protected area.