Climatic factors affecting dune mobility in the west of Khorasan Razavi Province, Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Research Institute of Forest and Rangeland, AREEO, Tehran

2 M.Sc. of Desert Management, Research Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Khorasan Razavi

3 Associate Professor, Research Institute of Forest and Rangeland, AREEO, Tehran

4 Assistant Professor, Department of Nature Engineering, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Jiroft, Kerman

Abstract

Dust, considered as one of the important causes of land degradation, covers extensive areas of the west part of Khorasan Razavi Province. Much of the dust can be stabilized with a type of vegetation, which depends on climatic factors mainly wind power and rainfall. Changes in these two factors affect other factors such as temperature, evaporation, relative humidity, which lead to drought and can have serious consequences for man and environment. The present study aims at the climatic factors affecting dust in the west of Khorasan Razavi Province. At first, yearly as well as monthly data were prepared for the meteorological stations, and then the relationships among the number of dusty days, climatic factors and drought index (SPI) were investigated. Moreover, drought severity index (DSI) was calculated to study the frequency and intensity of dust, and the regression coefficients of the indices were obtained. The investigation of the trend of climatic changes in almost three decades in the western cities of Khorasan Razavi indicated that the conditions were favorable for increasing dust. Additionally, the results showed that a significant positive correlation between the increase of dust and DSI on one hand and the days with horizontal visibility less than 200 m.

Keywords

References

  1. Ahmadi Birgani, H. (2008). Simulation of sand dune motion using experimental and numerical methods, case study: Rig Boland Kashan, MSc Dissertation, Tehran University (in Farsi).
  2. Alipour, N. Mesbahzadeh, T. Ahmadi, H. Malekian, A. Jafari, M. (2018). Synoptic analysis of dust events and its relation with drought in Alborz and Qazvin provinces, Quarterly of geography (Regional planning), 30(1): 59-68 (in Farsi).
  3. Asghari podeh, Z., Shafie zadeh, M., Fakheran, S., Gilani, A. (2015). Assessment and Zoning of Spatio-temporal Changes in Dust Storms Using DSI Index in Khuzestan Province, 2nd National Conference on Climate Change and Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources (in Farsi).
  4. Bing, L., Wenzhi, Z., Rong, Y. (2008). Characteristics and spatial heterogeneity of Tamarix ramosissima Nebkhas in desert-oasis ecotones, Journal of Acta Ecologica Sinica: Vol. 28(4), Pp. 1446-1455.
  5. Bogle, R., Redsteer, M.H, Vogel, J. (2015). Field measurement and analysis of climatic factors affecting dune mobility near Grand Falls on the Navajo Nation, southwestern United States. Geomorphology, 228, pp.41-51.
  6. Boroghani, M., Moradi, H.R., Zangane Asadi, M.A. (2016). Analysis of the Dust Occurrence and Zoning in Khorasan Razavi Province, Environmental Erosion Research, 5(4), 20, 45-57 (in Farsi).
  7. Csavina, J., Field, J., Félix, O., Corral-Avitia, A.Y., Sáez, A.E., Betterton, E.A. (2014). Effect of wind speed and relative humidity on atmospheric dust concentrations in semi-arid climates. Science of the Total Environment, 487, pp.82-90.
  8. Gu, Y., Liou, K.N., Chen, W., Liao, H. (2010). Direct climate effect of black carbon in China and its impact on dust storms. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 115(D7).
  9. Indoitu, R., Orlovsky, L., Orlovsky, N. (2012). Dust storms in Central Asia: Spatialand temporal variations, Journal of Arid Environments, 85:62-70.
  10. Lancaster, N. (1989). The dynamics of star dunes: an example from the Gran Desierto, Mexico. Sedimentology, 36(2), pp.273-289.
  11. Miri, A., Ahmadi, H., Ekhtesasi, M.R., Panjehkeh, N., Ghanbari, A. (2009). Environmental and socio-economic impacts of dust storms in Sistan Region, Iran. Inter. J. Environ. Stud. 66: 343-355.
  12. Muhs, D.R. Holliday, V.T. (1995). Evidence of active dune sand on the Great Plains in the 19th century from accounts of early explorers, Quaternary Research, 43(2), pp.198-208.
  13. Namdari, S., Karimi, N., Sorooshian, A., Mohammadi, GH, Sehatkashani, S. (2018). Impacts of climate and synoptic fluctuations on dust storm activity over the Middle East. Atmospheric environment, 173: 265-276.
  14. Norouzi, S., and Khademi, A.H. (2015). Spatial and Temporal Variation in Dust Deposition Rate in Isfahan and its Relationship with Selected Climatic Parameters. Journal of Science and Technology of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Sciences Soil and Water. 72: 161-149 (in Farsi).
  15. O’Loingsigh, T., McTainsh, GH. Tews, EK. Strong, CL., Leys, JF., Shinkfield, P., Tapper, NJ. (2014b). The Dust Storm Index (DSI): a method for monitoring broadscale wind erosion using meteorological records. Aeolian Research, 12: 29-40
  16. Rashki, A., Kaskaoutis, D.G., Sepehr, A. (2018). Statistical evaluation of the dust events at selected stations in Southwest Asia: From the Caspian Sea to the Arabian Sea.Catena, 165: 590-603.
  17. Song, H., Zhang, K., Piao, Sh., Wan, SH. (2016). Spatial and temporal variations of spring dust emissions in northern China over the last 30 years, Atmospheric Environment, 126:117–127.
  18. Yarahmadi, D., Nasiri, B., Khoshkish, A., Nikbakht, H. (2015). Climatic fluctuations and dusty days in the west and southwest of Iran, Desert Ecosystem Engineering Journal, 3(5), 19-28. (in Farsi).
  19. Yarahmadi, D., Nasiri, B., Khoshkish, A., Nikbakht, H. (2015). Climatic fluctuations and dusty days in the west and southwest of Iran, Desert Ecosystem Engineering Journal, 3(5), 19-28. (in Farsi).
The Journal of Geographical Research on Desert Areas
Volume 7, Issue 2
March 2020
Pages 25-45

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics