Identification of land sensitivity to wind erosion using field data in Hamoun-e Baringak, Sistan

Abstract

This study provides an applied method to estimate the land sensitivity of wind erosion in the Hamoun-e Baringak Sistan, as an ephemeral lake. Due to the wide extent of the sources of dust and sand production in Sistan, finding areas that are prone to wind erosion is of paramount importance in prioritizing stabilization. For this purpose, indices of transport rate (erodibility), soil shear strength, and SAVI were conducted. To investigate the land erodibility to aeolian transport, 74 graduated pins were embedded randomly in the ephemeral Baringak Lake bed and the aeolian transport rates were measured for the total study period. The shear strength of the soil surface was measured using Torvane. The vegetation canopy density was extracted from digital images using the SAVI index. The results showed that there is a very significant relationship (1%) between soil shear strength and SAVI indices with transport rates. It means that this proposed method may be also applied to estimate land sensitivity in environments instead of threshold friction velocity of wind erosion in the field. Comparison of the results of regression model estimation with transport rates in the field were significant.

Keywords

• transport rate
• shear strength
• erosion pin
• sistan