Journal of Spatial Analysis

Investigation of desertification trend needs an understanding phenomena creating changes singly or action and reaction together in the manner that these changes end up in land degradation and desertification. In the investigation of pedological criterion affecting on land degradation in alluvial fans, first, maps of slope classes, land use and geology were created, then a map of units was founded by overlaying and crossing these maps and grid layer created by extension of ET GeoWizards in ArcGIS 10.3 software. In this research three indices of erodibility, salinity and permeability of soil were considered, finally according to the seven level scales, each of them was shown as the classified map. In this research, nonparametric methods of Friedman and Kendalls' W rank tests were used to prioritize the options, in the manner that after defining crisp numbers in seven level scales, the rank means were calculated. The rank means obtained from Friedman and Kendalls' W rank tests alter from 7/00 to 17/33. Obtained results from the nonparametric methods showed that 74/18 % (4245/77 ha) and 25/82 % (1477/67 ha) of the area were classified into two classes of medium and very heigh desertification potential, respectively. The results also showed that the youngest and old gravel fans of the area have desertification potential of very high (798/75 ha) and low (152/23 ha), respectively.