Ecological Engineering 46 (2012) 68–74 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Ecological Engineering jo u r n al hom ep age: www.elsevier.com/locate/ec oleng Evaluation of desert management and rehabilitation by petroleum mulch base on temporal spectral analysis and field study (case study: Ahvaz, Iran) Mirmusa Hashemimanesh a,∗ , Hamidreza Matinfar b a Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran b Department of Soil Science Engineering, Lorestan University, Khoramabad, Iran a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 15 May 2011 Received in revised form 20 April 2012 Accepted 28 April 2012 Available online 30 May 2012 Keywords: Anti-desertification Afforestation Change detection Remote sensing, Supervised classification a b s t r a c t In past decades, Iranian desert areas have undergone widespread land use transformation. Sand dune stabilizing projects and anti-desertification programs were initiated in 1965 and now cover about one million hectares of degraded land in Iran. This project aimed to stabilize sand dunes, to induce afforesta- tion, to establish windbreaks and to apply mulch. Currently, more than three million hectares of arid land has been reclaimed across the country. In this study, maximum likelihood supervised classification and post-classification change detection techniques were applied to Landsat and TM/ETM images acquired in 1991 and 2002, respectively to map the anti-desertification process in southwestern Iran. A supervised classification was carried out for each of the two images. The results of this classification were refined using auxiliary data, visual interpretation and expert knowledge of the area. A post-classification change detection technique was used to produce change image through a cross module. Changes were assessed according to different classes. Observations made during the course of this study demonstrate that an obvious, positive change has taken place as a result of the petroleum mulch project. Results show that sand dune areas decreased from 66.4% to 56%, and in this case afforestation areas increased from 2.1% to 7.3%. However afforestation increased soil organic matter and recuperation of soil moisture storage con- ditions and chemical reactions such as dissolution of minerals and established more suitable conditions for crop growth. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Desertification, a human-induced land degradation process occurring primarily in fragile ecosystems of arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid climatic areas, is one of the most serious envi- ronmental and socioeconomic problems worldwide and a major threat for the sustainability of agriculture and economic develop- ment (Su and Zhao, 2003). In particular, desertification of sandy areas driven by wind erosion often results in coarse, poor soil and low land productivity, which can degrade the human living envi- ronment and impede socioeconomic development. Thus in recent years, the study and control of sandy area desertification are receiv- ing increased attention by the international community (Zhao et al., 2007). Desertification became well known in the 1930s, when parts of the US Great Plains turned into a “Dust Bowl” as a result of drought and poor farming practices, although the term itself was not used until around 1950. During the dust bowl period, millions of people were forced to abandon their farms and livelihoods. Greatly ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: Mirmusa@yahoo.com (M. Hashemimanesh). improved methods of agriculture and land and water management in the Great Plains have prevented that disaster from recurring but desertification presently affects about one sixth of the world’s pop- ulation and 70% of all dry land (amounting to 3.6 billion hectares) and one quarter of the world’s total land area (United Nations, 2004). Afforestation is a primary tool for controlling desertification and soil erosion in China (Cao et al., 2011). Under these programs there has been significant progress in afforestation; 28 million ha of plantation were established from 2000 to 2005 (Chazdon, 2008). Through more than 50 years of Iranian desert research activity, many research projects have been done to address the problems associated with desert land and to introduce land improvement measures to control desertification. The first committee for soil and water conservation was established in 1958 in collaboration with the F.A.O. The committee decided on measures to stabilize shifting sand dunes and in 1959 a small-scale research project was put into effect in a 10 ha area of Khuzestan province. In 1965 another sand dune fixation project was carried out in a 100 ha area in southern Khorasan. Due to the success of these projects, these measures to control desertification were immediately put into effect in other parts of the country that were facing simi- lar problems. These projects mostly consisted of (a) biological 0925-8574/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2012.04.038