investigating the status of desertification vulnerability in joghataycounty, iran

This study sought to investigate the vulnerability of the joghatay county, khorasan razavi, iran, to desertification using several remote sensing products. to this end, sixmodispotential indicators, including enhanced vegetation index (evi), vegetation condition index (vci), salinity index (si), synthetized drought index (sdi), temperature condition index (tci), and precipitation rate of march 2020,were applied. these layers were then normalized and weighted using the min-max approach and analytical hierarchy method, respectively. finally, the vulnerability map was prepared via the weighted average method. the study’s results indicated that the majority of the study area (67.5%) fell within the low to moderate vulnerability classes. however, the high-risk class area should be taken into account seriously, as  it covers 365 km2 (~21%) (one-fifth) of the whole study area.moreover, the mountain foothills in the south and north of the area were classified within the high desertification vulnerability class, possessing the lowest vegetation density and highest temperature values. nonetheless, the central areas with the greatest vegetation density formed the lowest desertification vulnerability as expected. the comparison of the ground truth values (some 200 points of the study area were randomly visited, and each of them was assigned a 0 or1 score)and the rated scores revealed more than 75% compatibility.therefore, it could be argued that lack of vegetation due to climatic and edaphic measures and anthropogenic factors are responsible for the joghatay region’s high vulnerability to desertification.