Evaluating soil biochemical/microbial indices as ecological indicators of different land use/cover in northern Iran

AbstractThe article begins by setting out the position of the Maasai, their territory and social organisation at the advent of the colonial period. It documents the progressive erosion of territory and the imposition of new boundaries on the Maasai from the 1880s to the present. It then uses the author's studies of the current Maasai land use and production system in Tanzanian Maasailand, together with comparative material from Kenyan Maasailand, to show how Maasai communities have dealt with these constraints. Data on livestock performance, wealth holdings, settlement size, diet and nutritional status are used as direct ecological indicators of the effects of boundary formation. It discusses the nature and extent of the response of the Maasai communities, whether in circumventing imposed boundaries, exploiting and in some cases attacking the resources the boundaries were designed to protect, or in developing strategies to incorporate and use to good effect the opportunities that boundaries can present.

Download Full-text

Measuring the Land Use Based Risk of Soil Erosion in a Mining-Dominated landscape in Northern Iran

Journal of Ecological Engineering ◽

10.12911/22998993/125546 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 21 (7) ◽

pp. 271-282

Author(s):

Seyed Akbar Javadi ◽

Nosratollah layeghi ◽

Mohamad Jafari ◽

Hossein Arzani

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Soil Erosion ◽

Northern Iran

Download Full-text

Retraction notice to “Challenges for efficient land use in rice production of northern Iran: The use of modern cultivars among small-scale farmers” [Land Use Policy (2019) 29–35]

Land Use Policy ◽

10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104146 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 89 ◽

pp. 104146

Author(s):

Daryoush Ashoori ◽

Mohammad Sadegh Allahyari ◽

Christos A. Damalas ◽

Asghar Bagheri

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Use Policy ◽

Rice Production ◽

Small Scale ◽

Northern Iran ◽

Retraction Notice ◽

Small Scale Farmers

Download Full-text

Spatial Pattern Analysis and Prediction of Gully Erosion Using Novel Hybrid Model of Entropy-Weight of Evidence

Water ◽

10.3390/w11061129 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 1129 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Alireza Arabameri ◽

Artemi Cerda ◽

John P. Tiefenbacher

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Hybrid Model ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Drainage Density ◽

Gully Erosion ◽

Weight Of Evidence ◽

Spatial Pattern Analysis ◽

Entropy Weight ◽

Northern Iran ◽

Environmental Conditioning

Gully erosion is an environmental problem in arid and semi-arid areas. Gullies threaten the soil and water resources and cause off- and on-site problems. In this research, a new hybrid model combines the index-of-entropy (IoE) model with the weight-of-evidence (WoE) model. Remote sensing and GIS techniques are used to map gully-erosion susceptibility in the watershed of the Bastam district of Semnan Province in northern Iran. The performance of the hybrid model is assessed by comparing the results with from models that use only IoE or WoE. Three hundred and three gullies were mapped in the study area and were randomly classified into two groups for training (70% or 212 gullies) and validation (30% or 91 gullies). Eighteen topographical, hydrological, geological, and environmental conditioning factors were considered in the modeling process. Prediction-rate curves (PRCs) and success-rate curves (SRCs) were used for validation. Results from the IoE model indicate that drainage density, slope, and rainfall factors are the most important factors promoting gullying in the study area. Validation results indicate that the ensemble model performed better than either the IoE or WoE models. The hybrid model predicted that 38.02 percent of the study area has either high or very high susceptible to gullying. Given the high accuracy of the novel hybrid model, this scientific methodology may be very useful for land use management decisions and for land use planning in gully-prone regions. Our research contributes to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality as will help to design remediation programs to control non-sustainable soil erosion rates.

Download Full-text