Prediction of Land Use Management Scenarios Impact on Water Erosion Risk in Kashidar Watershed, Azadshahr, Golestan Province

Abstract

Soil erosion is a serious problem especially in northern parts of Iran. One the<br />most important side effects on soil erosion may be the decline in qualities of soil refers to<br />agricultural productivity. So it is very important to assess the soil erosion risk for the<br />sustainable development of agriculture. This study outlines ways undertaken to provide a<br />new tool to manage water erosion from physical and economical perspectives. Kashidar<br />Watershed in north of Iran is used as a case study. The focus of this study is on exploring<br />the economic and physical impacts of eight land use-based scenarios for water erosion<br />management as well as conducting a trade-off analysis using the Multi-Criteria Decision<br />Making (MCDM) technique. This involves developing a modeling system to assist decision<br />makers in formulating scenarios, analyzing the impacts of these scenarios on water erosion,<br />interpreting and suggesting appropriate scenarios for implementation in the area. This study<br />was conducted with object of modeling and assessing soil erosion risk in Kashidar<br />Watershed with the application of IMAGELDM. Rainfall erosivity index, relief index, soil<br />erosivity index and land cover index were four basic factors used in IMAGELDM. Soil<br />erosion risk can be divided into six groups. Furthermore, the spatial distribution<br />characteristics were also analyzed with the application of GIS in the view of elevation, land<br />use types. Among 8 scenarios for water erosion management, most appropriate ones that<br />have minimum proportion of high water erosion hazard classes, maximum gross margin<br />and minimum establishment cost were chosen as best scenarios.