Determination of Rangeland Grazing Suitability Model by GIS (Case Study: Sarab Sefid Basin, Lorestan, Iran)
Subject Areas : Geographical Information System (GIS)
1 - IAUB Member
Keywords: Livestock grazing, Rangeland suitability, Sheep grazing, Geographical information system,
Abstract :
Livestock grazing in unsuitable land has increasingly grown in most part of rangelands of Iran due to population growth. It causes many irreparable damages such as soil erosion, water loss, and wealth loss. Therefore, it is important to identify the best suitable land for livestock grazing. Land suitability for livestock grazing affects by many ecosystem components but due to time and funding restrictions, the most important and feasible elements were investigated. This paper adapted the schematic model based on the concepts presented by the FAO suitability analysis for livestock grazing in Sarab Sefid Borujerd rangeland of Iran. Significant needed factors to livestock grazing such as forage; soil and water which were in sub-models were determined and incorporated into the final model of rangeland grazing suitability. Some important maps include such as: DEM, slope, aspect, range condition, range trend, forage, soil erosion, water sources used as input data. Three sub models including water accessibility, forage production and erosion sensitivity were considered. The most adaptation of Suitability occurs for class (Good) S1, (Medium) S2, (Poor) S3 and (Non-suitable) N respectively using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). First of all, the complete raster layers valued and ranked by FAO method for each factor then integrated by overlays intersected command. Results show that according to 16 types of vegetation cover there was no each of them in S1 class, 3088.75 ha S2, 1892.63 ha S3 and 882.85 ha were N class. Also result determined that there is no limitation of water resource in total rangeland and the most and main important factors effect on suitability are soil erosion and slope due to mountainous area. According to the field data and comparing with the study data it can/is possible to conclude GIS technique is fast and accurate to monitoring and determining of suit abilities of rangelands.
