The major goal of this research was to assess the ability of visible-near-infrared (VIS-NIR) spec... more The major goal of this research was to assess the ability of visible-near-infrared (VIS-NIR) spectroscopy combined with multivariate regressions based on four modeling algorithms, namely partial least squares regression (PLSR), principal component regression (PCR), support vector regression(SVR), and random forest (RF) to quantify some quality soil parameters. Saturated electrical conductivity (ECe), organic carbon (OC), and texture (including sand, silt, and clay) were measured. Overall, 114 soil samples were taken from 30 profiles (0–100 cm) in Doviraj plain, western Iran. For improving spectral data, various preprocessing techniques including Savitzky-Golay first deviation (SGD), Normalization (N), and Standard Normal Variate transformation (SNV) were employed. A leave-one-out cross-validation procedure was used. Results revealed that RF model produced much more precise predictions compared with PCR, SVR, and PLSR models and specifying the most important variables for the model. Also, the highest accuracy for RF model was achieved by SGD preprocessing for ECe, OC, sand, and clay with validation coefficient of determination (R2val) equal to 0.57, 0.75, 0.70, and 0.73, respectively; also, validation root mean square error (RMSEval) was equal to 0.74 dS/m, 0.13, 12.97, and 0.14%, respectively, However, SNV preprocessing with RF model caused to best result with R2val = 0.65 and RMSE val = 9.21% for silt. This methodology displays the capability of the VIS-NIR for estimation of ECe, OC, and texture.
The drought caused a series of effects on many sectors of economy, especially natural resources. ... more The drought caused a series of effects on many sectors of economy, especially natural resources. During two last decades, Iran has suffered from several severe to extreme agricultural droughts which caused significant decreases in rangeland and agriculture yields. This paper discusses the detection of agricultural drought severity over the rangelands of Markazi Province between 2000 and 2014 using remotely sensed data. Vegetation Temperature Condition Index (VTCI) is a near-real time drought assessment and monitoring approach which have been developed using Terra-MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) products. VTCI is defined as the ratio of LST differences among pixels with a specific NDVI value in a sufficiently large study area. VTCI has capability of drought stress classification which therein lower VTCI is for drought and higher one for wet conditions. The ground-measured precipitation data from the synoptic stations of Markazi P...
International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 2020
Climate change and exacerbation of drought stress during recent decade cause forest mortality phe... more Climate change and exacerbation of drought stress during recent decade cause forest mortality phenomenon and threatening existence of forests worldwide. This study was conducted to assess the forest decline trend and associated factors through remote sensing technique and field measurements during 6 years (2012–2017) in Zagros forest in the Kalehzard, Kermanshah, Iran. Precise coordinates of dead trees were recorded annually, and points were checked with satellite images. Results indicated that reductions in winter precipitation by about 37 mm and long-term frost days by about 10 days, and adversely increased air temperature by 0.14 °C corresponded with 20% reduction in tree density. Dead tree rate over study period on northern and southern slopes was 18.8% and 31.1%, respectively, with a significant higher rate being detected in southern slope ( P < 0.05). Highest and lowest decline rates were 8.8% in 2014 and 1.1% in 2017. Then, decline in two dominant northern and southern slopes was about 19% and 31%, respectively, which was significantly higher in southern slope. It was concluded that drought stress caused physiological weakness in plants promoting pest and disease damages and eventual emergence of a forest decline phenomenon, the severity of which is associated with both factors and human activities.
Streets and roofs of buildings in cities will act as an obstacle to the penetration of rainwater ... more Streets and roofs of buildings in cities will act as an obstacle to the penetration of rainwater into the soil, resulting in increased runoff in the city. One of the practical solutions that can be effective in addition to meet part of the non-potable needs of the residents is to reduce the runoff of the city's surface and its damages, as well as the Performance of rainwater harvesting systems. In this method, a large part of runoff is stored in the tanks. In this paper, by simulating the roofing surfaces system of residential buildings in Matlab, optimization of rainwater storage tanks in Karaj and Ahvaz was investigated. According to optimal tank volume, rainfall statistics and specifications of residential buildings, to analyze the volume of water can be saved and volume of overflowed water from tanks were evaluated and an estimate of the number of days of the year that can be used by this runoff to meet the nonpotable needs of the inhabitants. The results showed that althoug...
A watershed stream network consists of a collection of rivers and streams that drain surface wate... more A watershed stream network consists of a collection of rivers and streams that drain surface water flows within a watershed. These spatial data are key in calculating various aspects of a watershed, such as physiography, hydrology, soil erosion, sediment, etc. One of physical parameters in a watershed is the “bifurcation ratio”, which shows the level of roundness or elongation of a watershed related to a stream network. The bifurcation ratio is calculated on the basis of an ordered stream network and it is one of the main criteria used to evaluate watershed flood hydrograph patterns. The main problems in ordering watershed stream networks are the discontinuity in stream networks of topography maps and differences with water flow model maps. These deficiencies create problems in calculating other watershed parameters such as length, ordering, and density of streams. As current GIS software is not able to compensate for these shortcomings, the present research used a previously design...
Tracking of Oil Spills and Smoke Plumes of Kuwait's Oil Well Fires to the Coast and Territory... more Tracking of Oil Spills and Smoke Plumes of Kuwait's Oil Well Fires to the Coast and Territory of I.R. of Iran as a Result of the 1991 Persian Gulf War "Remote Sensing and GIS Application" , Tracking of Oil Spills and Smoke Plumes of Kuwait's Oil Well Fires to the Coast and Territory of I.R... , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی
This chapter begins with generalities, including definitions and data availability. After a glanc... more This chapter begins with generalities, including definitions and data availability. After a glance at environmental conditions, including physiography, climate, soils and water supply, this chapter continues with agricultural systems and their constituting features, followed then by an account of how the systems have been affecting soil quality. While a number of human-induced degradations, including erosion, salinization, compaction, flooding and ponding, and aridification, are discussed, the GLSOD maps (scales of 1:1000,000 and 1:5000,000) and the maps of landslide, erosion features and intensity (PSIAC-based) of Iran are presented, including a brief description of the mapping methodology. This chapter is concluded by short discussions about some of the strategies, such as land reform, dam construction, control on land use conversion, afforestation, and choosing suitable irrigation method, that were and still will have to be followed to mitigate the degradation. Iran, being an oil...
Soil salinity and alkalinity seriously threaten crop production, soil productivity and sustainabl... more Soil salinity and alkalinity seriously threaten crop production, soil productivity and sustainable agriculture, especially in arid and semi-arid areas, leading to land degradation, therefore, spatial distribution of these parameters are really important for successful management of such areas. The surface soil salinity and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) have been modeled in this article. Auxiliary data were terrain attributes derived from digital elevation model (DEM), remote sensing spectral bands, and indices of vegetation and salinity derived from Landsat 8 OLI satellite. In total, 118 soil samples were collected from depth of 0-15 cm in homogenous units at Doviraj plain in the southern part of Ilam province, western Iran. Saturated electrical conductivity (ECe), SAR and other soil properties were analyzed and calculated. To model ECe and SAR parameters with the auxiliary data, stepwise multi linear regression (SMLR) and random forest (RF) regression were applied. The highest accu...
Maintaining the quality of surface water resources as one of the most vital water supplies has al... more Maintaining the quality of surface water resources as one of the most vital water supplies has always been at the center of global concerns. A set of manifest and latent factors have yet been identified by researchers worldwide that are subject to affect the quality of surface water. Among which, the effect of land use change, due to a spatial and temporal complexity, is often not easily verifiable. The present study attempts to offer an index-based model to quantify vulnerability of surface water resources in a semi arid basin in central Iran against land use changes. For this, water quality data including Na, K, Mg, Ca, Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), total anions (Sum. A), SO4, Cl, HCO3, EC, TDS, and pH were collected from hydrometric stations over a period of 26 years (1987‒2013). In order to detect land use changes, the land use maps of the years 1987, 1998, 2002, 2009, and 2013 were prepared from TM satellite images using supervised classification method. At next step, changing patterns of different land uses were traced by Shanon’s Diversity Index (SHDI) as a metric of patch diversity indicating diversity and heterogeneity of a landscape over time. Relationship between the SHDI values and water quality indicators revealed the impact of land use changes on quality of surface water resources. Statistical analysis confirmed a significant relationship between nine water quality factors and water discharge in the basin during the study period. From 1998 to 2009, the greatest changes were visible in the total anions, Ca, SO4, and HCO3. These parameters along with salinity were increasing in almost all sub-basins. According to the results, conversion of poor rangelands to rain fed agriculture fields is the most apparent land use change occurred in the study area over the study period. In 1987, SHDI as an indicator of the diversity and changes in the basin, showed a significant relationship with good rangelands (R2 =–0.835). This indicates that fragmentation of the entire watershed area was initiated in 1987, which reached its peak in 2013. Generally speaking, urbanization, poor rangeland, and irrigated agriculture were recognized as three influential land uses adversely affect the water quality in the study area.
Abstract Soil organic matter is highly pivotal as it can improve physical, chemical and biologica... more Abstract Soil organic matter is highly pivotal as it can improve physical, chemical and biological properties of soil through various functions. Direct measurement of soil organic matter at large scales requires a great number of soil samples which is time consuming, tedious and costly. Consequently, alternative methods must be developed to provide a rapid overview of soil organic matter with reasonable accuracy at large scales. Remote sensing can be considered as a non-destructive, rapid and inexpensive method for such purpose. Among different remote sensing features, hyperspectral spectroscopy may produce inexpensive, quick and accurate way of producing soil organic matter maps at large scales. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of providing accurate soil organic matter distribution maps for large semi-arid areas of Iran. Consequently, some Hyperion images were used to develop relationships between spectral bands and soil organic matter with several methods including Stepwise Regression (SWR), Minimum Regression (MinR), Partial Least Square Regression (PLSR) and Principle Component Regression (PCR) models. Models were first calibrated with Hyperion images of the Ivanekey region and then verified by using 9 random samples from the Ivanekey and 23 samples from the Uromia semi-arid regions. Results indicated that of the applied models, SWR and PLSR can provide reasonable accuracy (RMSE) to predict soil organic matter in entire semi-arid region. However, more investigations are needed to improve the accuracy of such predictive models for arid and semi-arid regions with relatively low organic matter content.
Ali Akbar Damavandi ITVHE Academic Member, Ph.D. Student in Combat Desertification, Semnan Univer... more Ali Akbar Damavandi ITVHE Academic Member, Ph.D. Student in Combat Desertification, Semnan University, Iran. Mohammad Rahimi Assistant Professor of Faculty of Desert Studies, Semnan University, Iran. Mohammad Reza Yazdani Assistant Professor of Faculty of Desert Studies, Semnan University, Iran. Ali Akbar Noroozi Assistant Professor of soil conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute, Iran.
The major goal of this research was to assess the ability of visible-near-infrared (VIS-NIR) spec... more The major goal of this research was to assess the ability of visible-near-infrared (VIS-NIR) spectroscopy combined with multivariate regressions based on four modeling algorithms, namely partial least squares regression (PLSR), principal component regression (PCR), support vector regression(SVR), and random forest (RF) to quantify some quality soil parameters. Saturated electrical conductivity (ECe), organic carbon (OC), and texture (including sand, silt, and clay) were measured. Overall, 114 soil samples were taken from 30 profiles (0–100 cm) in Doviraj plain, western Iran. For improving spectral data, various preprocessing techniques including Savitzky-Golay first deviation (SGD), Normalization (N), and Standard Normal Variate transformation (SNV) were employed. A leave-one-out cross-validation procedure was used. Results revealed that RF model produced much more precise predictions compared with PCR, SVR, and PLSR models and specifying the most important variables for the model. Also, the highest accuracy for RF model was achieved by SGD preprocessing for ECe, OC, sand, and clay with validation coefficient of determination (R2val) equal to 0.57, 0.75, 0.70, and 0.73, respectively; also, validation root mean square error (RMSEval) was equal to 0.74 dS/m, 0.13, 12.97, and 0.14%, respectively, However, SNV preprocessing with RF model caused to best result with R2val = 0.65 and RMSE val = 9.21% for silt. This methodology displays the capability of the VIS-NIR for estimation of ECe, OC, and texture.
The drought caused a series of effects on many sectors of economy, especially natural resources. ... more The drought caused a series of effects on many sectors of economy, especially natural resources. During two last decades, Iran has suffered from several severe to extreme agricultural droughts which caused significant decreases in rangeland and agriculture yields. This paper discusses the detection of agricultural drought severity over the rangelands of Markazi Province between 2000 and 2014 using remotely sensed data. Vegetation Temperature Condition Index (VTCI) is a near-real time drought assessment and monitoring approach which have been developed using Terra-MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) products. VTCI is defined as the ratio of LST differences among pixels with a specific NDVI value in a sufficiently large study area. VTCI has capability of drought stress classification which therein lower VTCI is for drought and higher one for wet conditions. The ground-measured precipitation data from the synoptic stations of Markazi P...
International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 2020
Climate change and exacerbation of drought stress during recent decade cause forest mortality phe... more Climate change and exacerbation of drought stress during recent decade cause forest mortality phenomenon and threatening existence of forests worldwide. This study was conducted to assess the forest decline trend and associated factors through remote sensing technique and field measurements during 6 years (2012–2017) in Zagros forest in the Kalehzard, Kermanshah, Iran. Precise coordinates of dead trees were recorded annually, and points were checked with satellite images. Results indicated that reductions in winter precipitation by about 37 mm and long-term frost days by about 10 days, and adversely increased air temperature by 0.14 °C corresponded with 20% reduction in tree density. Dead tree rate over study period on northern and southern slopes was 18.8% and 31.1%, respectively, with a significant higher rate being detected in southern slope ( P < 0.05). Highest and lowest decline rates were 8.8% in 2014 and 1.1% in 2017. Then, decline in two dominant northern and southern slopes was about 19% and 31%, respectively, which was significantly higher in southern slope. It was concluded that drought stress caused physiological weakness in plants promoting pest and disease damages and eventual emergence of a forest decline phenomenon, the severity of which is associated with both factors and human activities.
Streets and roofs of buildings in cities will act as an obstacle to the penetration of rainwater ... more Streets and roofs of buildings in cities will act as an obstacle to the penetration of rainwater into the soil, resulting in increased runoff in the city. One of the practical solutions that can be effective in addition to meet part of the non-potable needs of the residents is to reduce the runoff of the city's surface and its damages, as well as the Performance of rainwater harvesting systems. In this method, a large part of runoff is stored in the tanks. In this paper, by simulating the roofing surfaces system of residential buildings in Matlab, optimization of rainwater storage tanks in Karaj and Ahvaz was investigated. According to optimal tank volume, rainfall statistics and specifications of residential buildings, to analyze the volume of water can be saved and volume of overflowed water from tanks were evaluated and an estimate of the number of days of the year that can be used by this runoff to meet the nonpotable needs of the inhabitants. The results showed that althoug...
A watershed stream network consists of a collection of rivers and streams that drain surface wate... more A watershed stream network consists of a collection of rivers and streams that drain surface water flows within a watershed. These spatial data are key in calculating various aspects of a watershed, such as physiography, hydrology, soil erosion, sediment, etc. One of physical parameters in a watershed is the “bifurcation ratio”, which shows the level of roundness or elongation of a watershed related to a stream network. The bifurcation ratio is calculated on the basis of an ordered stream network and it is one of the main criteria used to evaluate watershed flood hydrograph patterns. The main problems in ordering watershed stream networks are the discontinuity in stream networks of topography maps and differences with water flow model maps. These deficiencies create problems in calculating other watershed parameters such as length, ordering, and density of streams. As current GIS software is not able to compensate for these shortcomings, the present research used a previously design...
Tracking of Oil Spills and Smoke Plumes of Kuwait's Oil Well Fires to the Coast and Territory... more Tracking of Oil Spills and Smoke Plumes of Kuwait's Oil Well Fires to the Coast and Territory of I.R. of Iran as a Result of the 1991 Persian Gulf War "Remote Sensing and GIS Application" , Tracking of Oil Spills and Smoke Plumes of Kuwait's Oil Well Fires to the Coast and Territory of I.R... , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی
This chapter begins with generalities, including definitions and data availability. After a glanc... more This chapter begins with generalities, including definitions and data availability. After a glance at environmental conditions, including physiography, climate, soils and water supply, this chapter continues with agricultural systems and their constituting features, followed then by an account of how the systems have been affecting soil quality. While a number of human-induced degradations, including erosion, salinization, compaction, flooding and ponding, and aridification, are discussed, the GLSOD maps (scales of 1:1000,000 and 1:5000,000) and the maps of landslide, erosion features and intensity (PSIAC-based) of Iran are presented, including a brief description of the mapping methodology. This chapter is concluded by short discussions about some of the strategies, such as land reform, dam construction, control on land use conversion, afforestation, and choosing suitable irrigation method, that were and still will have to be followed to mitigate the degradation. Iran, being an oil...
Soil salinity and alkalinity seriously threaten crop production, soil productivity and sustainabl... more Soil salinity and alkalinity seriously threaten crop production, soil productivity and sustainable agriculture, especially in arid and semi-arid areas, leading to land degradation, therefore, spatial distribution of these parameters are really important for successful management of such areas. The surface soil salinity and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) have been modeled in this article. Auxiliary data were terrain attributes derived from digital elevation model (DEM), remote sensing spectral bands, and indices of vegetation and salinity derived from Landsat 8 OLI satellite. In total, 118 soil samples were collected from depth of 0-15 cm in homogenous units at Doviraj plain in the southern part of Ilam province, western Iran. Saturated electrical conductivity (ECe), SAR and other soil properties were analyzed and calculated. To model ECe and SAR parameters with the auxiliary data, stepwise multi linear regression (SMLR) and random forest (RF) regression were applied. The highest accu...
Maintaining the quality of surface water resources as one of the most vital water supplies has al... more Maintaining the quality of surface water resources as one of the most vital water supplies has always been at the center of global concerns. A set of manifest and latent factors have yet been identified by researchers worldwide that are subject to affect the quality of surface water. Among which, the effect of land use change, due to a spatial and temporal complexity, is often not easily verifiable. The present study attempts to offer an index-based model to quantify vulnerability of surface water resources in a semi arid basin in central Iran against land use changes. For this, water quality data including Na, K, Mg, Ca, Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), total anions (Sum. A), SO4, Cl, HCO3, EC, TDS, and pH were collected from hydrometric stations over a period of 26 years (1987‒2013). In order to detect land use changes, the land use maps of the years 1987, 1998, 2002, 2009, and 2013 were prepared from TM satellite images using supervised classification method. At next step, changing patterns of different land uses were traced by Shanon’s Diversity Index (SHDI) as a metric of patch diversity indicating diversity and heterogeneity of a landscape over time. Relationship between the SHDI values and water quality indicators revealed the impact of land use changes on quality of surface water resources. Statistical analysis confirmed a significant relationship between nine water quality factors and water discharge in the basin during the study period. From 1998 to 2009, the greatest changes were visible in the total anions, Ca, SO4, and HCO3. These parameters along with salinity were increasing in almost all sub-basins. According to the results, conversion of poor rangelands to rain fed agriculture fields is the most apparent land use change occurred in the study area over the study period. In 1987, SHDI as an indicator of the diversity and changes in the basin, showed a significant relationship with good rangelands (R2 =–0.835). This indicates that fragmentation of the entire watershed area was initiated in 1987, which reached its peak in 2013. Generally speaking, urbanization, poor rangeland, and irrigated agriculture were recognized as three influential land uses adversely affect the water quality in the study area.
Abstract Soil organic matter is highly pivotal as it can improve physical, chemical and biologica... more Abstract Soil organic matter is highly pivotal as it can improve physical, chemical and biological properties of soil through various functions. Direct measurement of soil organic matter at large scales requires a great number of soil samples which is time consuming, tedious and costly. Consequently, alternative methods must be developed to provide a rapid overview of soil organic matter with reasonable accuracy at large scales. Remote sensing can be considered as a non-destructive, rapid and inexpensive method for such purpose. Among different remote sensing features, hyperspectral spectroscopy may produce inexpensive, quick and accurate way of producing soil organic matter maps at large scales. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of providing accurate soil organic matter distribution maps for large semi-arid areas of Iran. Consequently, some Hyperion images were used to develop relationships between spectral bands and soil organic matter with several methods including Stepwise Regression (SWR), Minimum Regression (MinR), Partial Least Square Regression (PLSR) and Principle Component Regression (PCR) models. Models were first calibrated with Hyperion images of the Ivanekey region and then verified by using 9 random samples from the Ivanekey and 23 samples from the Uromia semi-arid regions. Results indicated that of the applied models, SWR and PLSR can provide reasonable accuracy (RMSE) to predict soil organic matter in entire semi-arid region. However, more investigations are needed to improve the accuracy of such predictive models for arid and semi-arid regions with relatively low organic matter content.
Ali Akbar Damavandi ITVHE Academic Member, Ph.D. Student in Combat Desertification, Semnan Univer... more Ali Akbar Damavandi ITVHE Academic Member, Ph.D. Student in Combat Desertification, Semnan University, Iran. Mohammad Rahimi Assistant Professor of Faculty of Desert Studies, Semnan University, Iran. Mohammad Reza Yazdani Assistant Professor of Faculty of Desert Studies, Semnan University, Iran. Ali Akbar Noroozi Assistant Professor of soil conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute, Iran.
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