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Multi-criteria Evaluation for Desertification Assessment and Map**: a Case Study from Jordan’s Marginal Land

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Abstract

Desertification assessment is vital to develop actions plans aimed to prevent desertification issues. Utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to manipulate and analyze data retrieved from various sources of data including satellite images and thematic maps, as well as the use of remote sensing through satellite images to retrieve environmental information on the earth’s surface, are crucial tools to understand related environmental dangers, which is used to monitor desertification and investigate different desert conditions. In this study, different physical and environmental factors associated with land desertification including vegetation cover, water, drainage systems, geomorphology, and soil moisture, were extracted and evaluated using various remote sensing techniques. In addition, multi-temporal analysis of Landsat TM data is used in this study to examine the state of vegetation and growth of irrigated area between 1983 and 1997. A GIS tool is utilized to aggregate and analyze different factors including soil, land use, and climate. A decrease in vegetation cover was clearly observed based on these analysis results. A severe desertification of the natural vegetation cover is the primary cause of this predicament. Finally, many maps describing the actual situation of study area is obtained following the GIS layers examination, however, the most important maps are soil erosion, vegetation degradation, salinization and desertification.

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Funding

This work was supported by ongoing institutional funding. No additional grants to carry out or direct this particular research were obtained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Survey, Faculty of Engineering, Al Al-Bayt University, Mafraq, Jordan

    Hussein Harahsheh

  2. Department of Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing, Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Al Al-Bayt University, Mafraq, Jordan

    Atef Faleh Al Mashagbah

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Al-Hussein Technical University, Amman, Jordan

    Heba Alzaben

Authors
  1. Hussein Harahsheh
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  2. Atef Faleh Al Mashagbah
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  3. Heba Alzaben
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis and also the first draft of the manuscript were written by Harahsheh. Al Mashagbah and Alzaben read, corrected and approved the final manuscript. The graphical and tabular presentation of the paper developed by Harahsheh, Al Mashagbah, and Alzaben.

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Correspondence to Atef Faleh Al Mashagbah.

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Harahsheh, H., Al Mashagbah, A.F. & Alzaben, H. Multi-criteria Evaluation for Desertification Assessment and Map**: a Case Study from Jordan’s Marginal Land. Dokl. Earth Sc. 513, 1279–1292 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1028334X23601529

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1028334X23601529

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