Desertification Hazard Zonation in Central Iraq Using Multi-criteria Evaluation and GIS

Abstract

Human communities all around the world are threatened by desertification, especially in arid and semiarid regions. Many factors affect the severity of desertification in an area such as topography, local climate, and land use. This research develops a multi-criteria evaluation method based on the analytical hierarchy process and geographic information system for assessing the desertification hazard zonation in central Iraq. Six factors including aspect, slope, rainfall, temperature, land use, and wind speed were considered in this study. Eight experts were interviewed and questioned about the importance of each indicator, and the final weights were obtained. These weights were used in GIS to obtain the desertification hazard zonation map. The results showed that 3.89%, 7.25%, and 25.97% of the study area were classified as very high, high, and moderately affected by desertification, respectively. It was concluded that rainfall, slope direction (aspect), and land use were the most important factors affecting the desertification process in the study area.