Papers by Marzban Faramarzi
Land Degradation & Development, Sep 10, 2023
Arabian Journal of Geosciences, 2016
Landslides are introduced as regional movements, which influence different engineering structures... more Landslides are introduced as regional movements, which influence different engineering structures such as roads, railways, and dams and cause the person's death. Identification of landslide zones may decrease the financial losses and human injuries or deaths. This study tries to achieve a landslide susceptibility mapping in Cham-gardalan catchment by weighting the main criteria and the membership functions of fuzzy logic. For this, we applied the best relationship function between the presence and absence of landslides as well as a collection of the elements. At first, the landslide points were identified by the means of some components those of satellite images, topographical (1:50,000) and geographical (1:100,000) maps, field visits, and Google Earth software followed by the preparation of landslide distribution maps. Then, all effective landslide factors such as percentage of slope, slope aspect, height, geology, land uses, distance from roads, distance from drainages, distance from breakage, and precipitation map have been utilized in order to conduct the fuzzy analyses. Landslide susceptibility map was performed by fuzzy operators (Gamma, Product, Sum, Or, And) in the study area. After fuzzificating and weighting, the effective criteria of landslides were determined through fuzzy Gamma operators with the landaus of 0.2, 0.5, 0.8, and 0.9 and by comparing final maps for making an appropriate model of landslide susceptibility mapping. The regional susceptibility map represents the landslide-prone areas in five categories those of very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. Our results indicated that among the applied operators, Gamma with landau of 0.9 can be used as an appropriate method for mapping the landslide susceptibility due to the suitable fuzzification of given criteria based on landslide distribution maps. In addition, the elements of road, percentage of slope, distance from drainage, and geology were recognized as the most important factors for occurring the landslides.
Grassland - a European resource? Proceedings of the 24th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation, Lublin, Poland, 3-7 June 2012, 2012
بومشناسی جنگلهای ایران, Oct 1, 2020
Journal of Rangeland Science, May 21, 2013
Rangelands are important for plant productivity, livestock production, wildlife, conservation of ... more Rangelands are important for plant productivity, livestock production, wildlife, conservation of soil and water resources, and etc. One of the main problem of rangeland is that has not been used based on its potential that leads to more degradation of rangelands. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the range management capability of Badreh region in Ilam province, Iran, using ANP (Analytic Network Process) and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) techniques. For this regard, firstly, the network of effective factors in evaluation was designed. Four clusters including vegetation cover, topography, pedology, and geology were divided into number of sub-criteria. For determining the relations among these clusters and sub-criteria, a number of questionnaires distributed among the experts and used to obtain their judgments about the relative importance of each criterion in rangeland capability. In the next step, based on the limited super matrixes the final weight of nodes was calculated. The weights of nodes in evaluating process were extracted by calculating the geometric mean of the questionnaire weights, as well. After determining the weights of nodes, they were transformed to data layers. Finally, ecological capability map for range management was provided using WLC (Weight Linear Combination) technique in GIS. The results showed that 3.00, 21.76, 58.46, 16.79 percent of the study area had very good (or excellent) condition (as first class), good condition (second class), fair condition (third class), and poor condition (fourth class) for capability of range management, respectively.
Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology, 2018
This study aimed first to investigate the relationship between Normalized Difference Vegetation I... more This study aimed first to investigate the relationship between Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and vegetation attributes (vegetation cover, bare soil, litter frequency, and the amount of biomass) and, then, evaluating the vegetation changes using NDVI in semi-arid rangeland in western Iran. Ground data were collected to assess the accuracy of NDVI index. For this purpose, 14 sampling units were randomly selected for collection of vegetation attributes including biomass, vegetation cover, litter, and bare soil. Then, the correlation between digital pixel values and the sampling units were analyzed. The results showed that NDVI was highly correlated with all vegetation attributes. The maximum correlation was related to vegetation cover (0.84). So, to evaluate the vegetation changes, the NDVI maps were created in 1986, 2001, and 2013. The results showed that the amount of class 1 (very poor vegetation cover) increased from 0.27 km 2 in 1986 to 12.89 km 2 in 2013, and also class 4 and 5 (good and very good vegetation cover, respectively) decreased about 27.8 and 37.7%, respectively. The relationship between precipitation and temperature with NDVI was investigated to assess the sensitivity of NDVI to these parameters. The results showed that the amount of precipitation decreased during the studied time periods. This parameter seems to be one of the most important factors affecting the vegetation in our study area.
Journal of Rangeland Science, Jan 6, 2014
Using satellite imagery for the study of Earth's resources is attended by many researchers. In fa... more Using satellite imagery for the study of Earth's resources is attended by many researchers. In fact, the various phenomena have different spectral response in electromagnetic radiation. One major application of satellite data is the classification of land cover. In recent years, a number of classification algorithms have been developed for classification of remote sensing data. One of the most notable is the decision tree. The aim of this study was to compare three types of decision trees split algorithm for land cover classification in Doviraj catchment in Ilam province, Iran. For this, propose, first, the geometric and radiometric corrections were performed on the 2007 ETM+ data. Field data as training sites were collected in the various classes of land use. The results of image classification accuracy assessment showed that the Gini split classification. With kappa value 89.98 and the entire accuracy 91.17% was significantly higher, then categorization of branching and the branching ratio and Entropy with kappa values of 88.45 and 90.65 and the entire accuracy of 86.21 and 86.15%, respectively.
Grassland in a changing world. Proceedings of the 23rd General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation, Kiel, Germany, 29th August - 2nd September 2010, 2010
Bird communities were surveyed in grasslands and adjacent forest edges in 11 and 14 pastures and ... more Bird communities were surveyed in grasslands and adjacent forest edges in 11 and 14 pastures and meadows of northeastern Tochigi, central Japan, from May to early August and May to June in 2000 and 2001, respectively. Using the strip transect method, 36 bird species were recorded. They were divided into six ecological groups depending on their occurrence in the two types of habitat: six grassland specialists including the Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis L.) and the fan-tailed warbler (Cisticola juncidis (Rafinesque)), two semi-grassland species including the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica L.) and the cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis (L.)), nine semi-forest species, such as the Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus (L.)), the Japanese bush warbler (Cettia diphone (Kittlitz)), and the brown-eared bulbul (Hypsipetes amaurotis (Temminck)), six forest specialists, such as the eastern great tit (Parus minor L.), seven generalists, such as the oriental greenfinch (Chloris sinica (L.)) and the black-eared kite (Milvus migrans (Boddaert)), and six other infrequent species. The bird communities were separated into three groups using principal component analysis (PCA). Combined PCA and multiple regression analyses indicated that the structure of the bird communities was influenced by the height and species richness of vegetation, altitude, and mean annual temperature as major factors. Japan lies in the monsoon climatic region within the Asian Temperate Zone, where the climax vegetation is not grassland but forest. Most Japanese grasslands have been established by cutting forests and have been main
Journal of Arid Land, Jan 4, 2019
HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific re... more HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.
Rangeland Journal, 2010
Rangeland condition has often been assessed in relation to either botanical, edaphic, environment... more Rangeland condition has often been assessed in relation to either botanical, edaphic, environmental or management factors. In this investigation, we analysed the interaction of soil and topographic variables, management and range condition against the background of a sociological survey of livestock owners in western Iran to better understand the main influencing factors of rangeland quality in the area. In four grazing areas in Kermanshah differing in grazing pressure, environmental variables and livestock owners’ perceptions on range condition, investigations of botanical composition, soil and topographic variables were carried out on 43 main plots. To evaluate range condition, four factors were considered, namely litter frequency, herbage palatability, amount of biomass, and percentage of bare soil. A questionnaire was used to obtain information about management practices, the perception of livestock owners on range condition and suggested solutions to problems in the different grazing areas. The range condition scores showed that the condition of the sites was either fair or poor. Of the soil and topographic factors, only north-facing aspect explained part of the variation in range condition scores. High grazing intensity was associated with poor range condition. To improve the rangeland condition, measures influencing water availability and a reduction of grazing pressure seem to be more relevant in the study area than fertilisation or seeding.
Plant Ecology & Diversity, Apr 21, 2015
ABSTRACT Background: Understanding the role of livestock grazing on plant diversity can be improv... more ABSTRACT Background: Understanding the role of livestock grazing on plant diversity can be improved by an accurate measurement of diversity at all hierarchical scales due to the changeability of diversity components in space. Aims: We evaluated the effects of grazing on plant species diversity at different scales of all common and rare species in two regions that have different climatic conditions (arid vs. semi-arid). Methods: In each region, we collected abundant data of plant species from a nested sampling design that consisted of local (80 plots) and regional (16 sites) scales. We partitioned total species diversity (γ) into within plots (αl), among plots (βl) and among sites (β2) using the additive partitioning. Results: Diversity among sites contributed the most to total diversity for all and rare plant species in both regions. In addition, α1 and β1 diversities in ungrazed areas were greater than those in grazed areas for all and common species in both climates. Conclusion: Abandonment of grazing after 10 years resulted in significant regeneration of common species at the local scale, with no change in rare species. We conclude that low grazing intensity is likely to be an important tool for conservation of plant diversity in which all scales should be considered.
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Sep 16, 2015
The study of changes and destruction rate in the previous years as well as the possibility of pre... more The study of changes and destruction rate in the previous years as well as the possibility of prediction of these changes in the following years has a key role in optimal planning, controlling, and restricting nonnormative changes in the future. This research was approached to detecting land use/cover changes (1985-2007) and to forecast the changes in the future (2021) use of multitemporal satellite imagery in semiarid area in western Iran. A supervised classification of multilayer perceptron (MLP) was applied for detecting land use changes. The study area was classified into five classes, those of forest, rangeland, agriculture, residential, and barren lands. The change detection analysis indicated a decreasing trend in forest cover by 30.42 %, while other land uses were increased during 1985 to 2007. The land use changes were predicted using Markov chain model for 2021. The model was calibrated by comparing the simulated map with the real detected classes of land cover in 2007. Then, for further model processing, an acceptable accuracy at 83 % was achieved between them. Finally, land use changes were predicted by using transition matrix derived from calibrated approach. The findings of this study demonstrate a rapid change in land use/cover for the coming years. Transforming the forest into other land uses especially rangeland and cropland is the main land cover changes in the future. Therefore, the planning of protection and restoration of forest cover should be an essential program for decision-makers in the study area.
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Dec 1, 2014
In most ecosystems, disturbance is an important agent of variation in community structure and com... more In most ecosystems, disturbance is an important agent of variation in community structure and composition. Determining the diversity and composition of soil seed bank is essential for designing conservation and restoration programs because it can markedly contribute to future plant communities. Despite the important role of soil seed banks in the composition of different plant communities, and thus in their conservation, the floristic studies in Zagros forests have only focused on aboveground vegetation. In this study, the characteristics of soil seed banks were examined in three conditions after one year of fire; high severity burned, low severity burned and control (not burned) in Shirvanchardavol city in northeast of Ilam Province. The result of DCA showed that different fire severities and their effects on site conditions have been reflected clearly in the composition of the soil seed bank. The results also indicated that soil seed bank composition between control and high severity burned spots was specifically different. The shanon diversity, Margalef richness and evenness indices differed significantly between three treatments and the highest diversity was observed at low severity. In this regard the proportion of annual forbs tended to decrease with increasing severity of fire. In soil seed bank, Therophytes were the dominant life form of low severity burned and control spots and Hemichryptophytes were dominant in high severity burned spots.
Ecological Engineering, Sep 1, 2016
Disturbance and environmental heterogeneity are factors that affect forest ecosystems under diffe... more Disturbance and environmental heterogeneity are factors that affect forest ecosystems under different climates. Although fire is an important disturbance agent in deciduous oak forests of western Iran, its effects on vegetation composition are still poorly understood. This study examined the short-term impact of different fire intensities on the composition and diversity of herbaceous species, together with physical, chemical and biological soil properties. In sampling a large area that had burned in 2013, we surveyed the vegetation and soil properties in quadrats established in each of 25 plots that had been selected for each of three fire intensities. Detrended correspondence analysis revealed greater similarity in species composition between low-intensity fire (LFI) and unburned (Un) areas compared to LFI versus high-intensity fire (HFI). Compared to Un, LFI increased richness of annual and perennial herbaceous species, while HFI exerted the opposite effect. Moreover, the number of indicator species was decreased with increasing fire intensity. Higher soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and nitrogen (MBN) and basal respiration (BR), as well as microbial quotient (qMic) were found in Un compared to burned areas; these variables averaged 1098 g g −1 , 85.4 g g −1 , 17.08 mg CO 2-C kg −1 day −1 and 1.96 mg Cmic/g C total, respectively. Also, Shannon indices of herbaceous species were positively related to these microbial responses. Overall, soil microbial characteristics were more sensitive indicators of fire intensity than soil physico-chemical properties. These results suggest that low intensity fires could be used effectively as a management tool to obviate the effects of intense fires in such semi-arid ecosystems, thereby reducing forest floor fuel loads while maintaining or even improving herbaceous plant richness.
Land Degradation & Development, Aug 21, 2021
Additive partitioning of species diversity is a valuable approach for quantifying the spatial pat... more Additive partitioning of species diversity is a valuable approach for quantifying the spatial patterns of biodiversity sampled in hierarchically scaled studies. This approach may provide key insights into vegetation community restoration following terrestrial ecosystems degradation in different climatic conditions. The scale‐dependence of plant diversity in relation to different plant functional groups (e.g., herbaceous and woody) is still little understood. This research aims to investigate the influence of management options (protected vs. non‐protected) and climatic conditions (semiarid vs. Mediterranean) on different components of diversity in both herbaceous and woody species derived from local and regional scales (i.e., plot and site, respectively). In the studied areas, a total of 64 plots (1000 m2) at local scale and 128 micro‐plots (1 m2) among 16 sites at regional scale were selected for sampling the woody and herbaceous species data, respectively, by using a hierarchical sampling design. Diversity components of local (α1, β1) and regional (α2, β2) scales were extracted according to additive partitioning method. Differences in diversity component (α1, α21, β1 and β2) and floristic composition between management options and climatic conditions were evaluated using GLMM and DCA. The results indicate that all components of total species (both herbaceous and woody) diversity (α1, α2, β1 and β2) were significantly influenced by management options (p < 0.05) with greater values in the protected areas than the non‐protected areas. However, the climatic conditions only had significant effects on β2, with greater values in the Mediterranean compared to semi‐arid areas. Moreover, the separate analysis of herbaceous and woody species indicated that management options have a greater significant effect on different diversity components compared to the climatic condition. Detrended correspondence analysis showed that floristic variations along the axes are strongly affected by management in both climatic conditions. This indicates that protection measures mostly increased plant species diversity at the local and regional scales, which is independent of the climatic condition.
Management of underground resources has a special priority in arid and semi-arid in Iran. Increas... more Management of underground resources has a special priority in arid and semi-arid in Iran. Increasing underground resources is one of the useful ways for providing water requirements during the drought years. The main objective of this study was for mapping underground dam in the arid and semi-arid area in western Iran. The first and important stage of underground dam construction is recognizing an appropriate location of dam. In this research, after investigating the previous study and improving some basic information, different layers were integrated using GIS technology to determine the location which has a potential for these structures in the study area. These layers were including fault, slope, geology, geomorphology, rainfall, temperature and land use. The IRS satellite imagery in 2007 was used for providing the geomorphology map and land use map as well as well to determine the correct location of dams. Then, a number of 14 appropriate locations were selected using field data collection and the AHP method for constructing the underground dams in the study area.
Journal of Arid Land, Jan 4, 2019
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Papers by Marzban Faramarzi