Evaluation of Drought Hazard Area of GharehAghaj Basin in Iran, Using GIS

Abstract

In GharehAghaj basin drought has the most profound effect on the way of living and regional economy. Drought Hazard by nature is a result of interrelated parameters concerned. The objective of this paper presents a model to assess hazard of drought using the Geographical Information System (GIS). The data analyzed have been gathered from the records, reports and maps published by the governmental offices of Iran. Various drought hazard indicators have different severity classification in different models. The drought hazard indicator maps take into account the meteorological, hydrological, physical and socioeconomic characteristics that related to drought hazard. Each of the hazard indicator maps and also final hazard map are classified into 4 hazard classes of drought: mild, moderate, severe and very severe. The final hazard classes were defined on the basis of hazard scores arrived at by assigning the appropriate attributes to the indicators and the final hazard map was prepared by overlaying different hazard indicator maps in the GIS, deploying the new model. The final Hazard Map shows that moderate hazard areas (89.87% of the basin) are much widespread than areas under severe hazard (10.13% of the basin) which are observed in the Southeast of the region.