Remote Sensing and GIS Applications in Environmental Sciences

Soil degradation mapping using a GIS based multi-criteria decision- analysis in Khoy County

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 urmia university

2 Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, Faculty of Planning and Environmental Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

10.22034/rsgi.2025.67208.1138

Abstract

Nowadays, soil erosion is recognized as one of the greatest contemporary environmental and socio-economic problems because its significant agriculture, natural resources, the environment, and the social economy. The aim of this study is to zone the soil erosion risk in Khoy County. For this purpose, a land use map was first obtained using Landsat images and object-oriented classification techniques. In doing so, they were classified into respective classes including: agricultural lands, gardens and pastures, saline lands, residential lands, mountainous and barren lands, and weak vegetation cover. The next stage carried out, by identifying the factors affecting soil erosion in the region and preparing information of each factor in GIS environment. the standardization of the factors was carried out using the fuzzy membership function, the ranking method, and the weighting of the criteria using the ANP method using Super Decision software. the final modeling was done using the ANP multi-criteria analysis method. In the next step, the sensitivity analysis of the criteria was applied using training data. Then, by applying different stages of the model on the maps based on the GIS aggregation functions, the soil erosion sensitivity map of the area was developed in 4 classes with very high erosion to low erosion. The ANP analysis process method assigned the highest weight to the sixth criterion (distance from the watercourse) and the lowest weight to the second criterion (digital elevation model). According to the results and the erosion modelling map, the criteria of distance from the river, land use, and slope received the highest weight with weight values of 0.271, 0.25, and 0.197, respectively. It is observed that the largest area obtained from soil erosion modelling is related to the medium erosion class, which almost includes the classes of barren and mountains, pastures and some agricultural and garden lands. Considering the results obtained and the area of the very high and high erosion classes, it can be stated that, the Khoy County area has a very high potential in terms of environmental conditions in the region, including the abundance of waterways (the main river is the Qaturchay or Aland), as well as land uses in terms of erosion.

Keywords

Main Subjects

امروزه فرسایش خاک به عنوان یکی از بزرگترین مشکلات زیست­محیطی و اجتماعی-اقتصادی معاصر شناخته شده است؛ زیرا بر کشاورزی، منابع طبیعی، محیط زیست و اقتصاد اجتماعی تأثیر می­گذارد. هدف تحقیق حاضر، پهنه­بندی خطر فرسایش خاک محدوده شهرستان خوی می­باشد. بدین منظور ابتدا با استفاده از تصاویر لندست و تکنیک طبقه­بندی شی­گرا، نقشه کاربری اراضی استخراج شد و به کلاس­های (اراضی کشاورزی، باغی ومراتع، اراضی شوره زار، اراضی مسکونی، اراضی کوه­هاو بایر و پوشش گیاهی ضعیف طبقه­بندی شدند. در مرحله بعد، با شناسایی عوامل موثر در فرسایش خاک منطقه و تهیه لایه­های اطلاعاتی هر معیار در GIS، استاتداردسازی لایه­ها  با استفاده از تابع عضویت فازی، روش رتبه­دهی و وزن­دهی معیارها با استفاده از روش ANP با استفاده از نرم‌افزار سوپردسیژن صورت گرفت و مدل­سازی نهایی با استفاده از روش تحلیل چندمعیاره ANP انجام شد. در مرحله بعدی تحلیل حساسیت معیارها با استفاده از داده­های­آموزشی انجام شد. سپس با اعمال مراحل مختلف مدل بر روی نقشه­ها، نقشه پهنه­بندی فرسایش خاک منطقه در 4 طبقه با فرسایش بسیار زیاد تا فرسایش کم، استخراج گردید. روش فرایند تحلیل  ANP بیشترین وزن را به معیار ششم (فاصله از آبراهه) و کمترین وزن را به معیار دوم (مدل رقومی ارتفاع) تخصیص داده است. با توجه به نتایج حاصله و نقشه مدل­سازی فرسایش، معیارهای فاصله از رودخانه، کاربری اراضی و شیب، به ترتیب با مقادیر وزنی 271/0، 25/0 و 197/0، بیشترین مقدار وزنی رو دریافت کردند

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Remote Sensing and GIS Applications in Environmental Sciences
Volume 6, Issue 18
April 2026
Pages 77-58
  • Receive Date: 10 May 2025
  • Revise Date: 05 October 2025
  • Accept Date: 29 December 2025