Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Abstract

Wind erosion is one of the major problems in arid and semiarid regions, where the erosion and sand transport caused by wind can lead to serious problems for civilians live in those areas. The regions under wind erosion, includes the sources, transition and deposition areas. Amongst them, identification of the sources areas is significantly important, which affects our investigations, evaluation and control over wind erosion. It has been found that the application of Remote Sensing (RS) techniques and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is considerably useful to find the sources of sand in wind erosion. In this study, a combination method based on Image Processing and Wind Analysis (IPWA) has been introduced and used to identify the sources of deposited sand in areas under wind erosion. The method is based on utilizing and composing of image processing techniques such as image enhancement, threshold, false color composition, filtering, and Spectral Profile Testing and Analysis. The results are compared with other investigations to validate the method. It was observed that the results of the present method are well comparable with those of previous researches which are highly based on field investigations. Without extensive field measurements, the method reduces the time and the cost of investigation and provides a basis for repeating the operation at any time and everywhere, which is required.
 

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