Papers by Hadi Beygi Heidarlou
Forest policy and economics, Apr 1, 2024
Annals of Forest Research, Jun 30, 2023
Evaluating the effect of ongoing conservation policies and forest cover changes in Iranian Zagros... more Evaluating the effect of ongoing conservation policies and forest cover changes in Iranian Zagros forests based on a Land Transformation Model: Transition to forest or deforestation?.
Remote sensing, Feb 5, 2024
The goal of this study was to estimate the areas under willow cultivation by farmers, as well as ... more The goal of this study was to estimate the areas under willow cultivation by farmers, as well as their growth and health status. Due to the extremely small patch size of land cover types in the study area, Sentinel-2 data were used to conduct supervised classification based on the random forest machine learning technique, and a large training dataset was produced from PlanetScope satellite imagery. The results of image classification using Google Earth Engine indicated that the Sentinel data were suitable for identifying willow-cultivated areas. It was found that these areas declined from 875.32 ha in 2017 to 288.41 ha in 2022. The analysis of the growth and health conditions of willow-cultivated plots also revealed that the temporal variations in the NDVI in these plots decreased significantly in 2022 as compared to previous years (p < 0.05). An in-depth analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between NDVI, precipitation, and temperature. It was found that the most efficient components explaining the process of browning the vegetation in the planted willow plots were the increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation. This research may be used to document the national and global monitoring efforts for climate change adaptation.
Sensors, Jan 12, 2023
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
International Forestry Review, Jun 1, 2020
Many countries have implemented policies to reduce the negative effects of deforestation. In Iran... more Many countries have implemented policies to reduce the negative effects of deforestation. In Iran, the Zagros Forest Preservation Plan (ZFPP) began in 2003. This study evaluates the effectiveness of ZFPP on land cover changes in two periods, before (1993–2002) and after (2002–2017) implementation of the plan. Logistic regression (LR) analysis was used to examine the effectiveness of key socio-economic, environmental and demographic drivers associated with deforestation activities. The results showed that despite the implementation of ZFPP forest conversion to other land-use types increased during the second period compared to the first. Calculating the annual rate of deforestation showed that this rate increased from -0.4% to -0.5%. The results of LR showed that the occurrence of deforestation in different years was significantly related to distance from rivers, croplands, cities, roads, and slope such that areas with low slope and close to these features have a high probability of deforestation activities.
Land, Mar 22, 2022
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra eBooks, 2022
One of the environmental factors affecting the forest ecosystem is fire. Local volunteer firefigh... more One of the environmental factors affecting the forest ecosystem is fire. Local volunteer firefighters are often those who first respond to forest fires. This study was conducted aimed to determine the factors affecting their willingness to participate in firefighting in the northern Zagros forests of Iran (Sardasht County). For this purpose, after extracting Sardasht fire statistics during a 14-year period (2006-2019), the villages with the highest frequency of fires in the above period were selected. Organizing, facilities and equipment, indigenous knowledge and education for firefighting were selected as factors affecting the willingness to participate in firefighting. The research tools were a questionnaire and face-to-face interview. The statistical population included 649 households. According to Morgan's Table, the number of samples required for the distribution of questionnaires was n=242. The questionnaire questions were designed openly and closed with scores based on the Likert scale and the factors affecting villagers' willingness to participate in firefighting were investigated by face-to-face interviews. The results of statistical analysis of data showed that organizing, knowledge and facilities had a significant effect on the participation of respondents. This study showed that for the villagers, organizing was the most effective factor and facilities was the last factor affecting their willingness to participate. Also, a positive and significant relationship was found between the participation and the level of education. Therefore, it is necessary for the promotion department of the Iran's Forests, Range and Watershed management Organization (FRWO), along with the protection unit of the organization, to provide special programs and policies for the organizing of the public, rural and volunteer firefighting forces before the fire spreads to control it in principle.
Land Use Policy, Feb 1, 2019
Zagros Forest provides various ecosystem services such as food, timber, water, carbon storage, ai... more Zagros Forest provides various ecosystem services such as food, timber, water, carbon storage, air purification, wildlife habitat as well as social and cultural benefits for both humans and animals. Due to the economic expansion beginning in the early 1990s in Iran and its resulting desertification, Zagros has lost numerous forests over the last 30 years. To overcome this issue, Zagros Forest Preservation Plan (ZFPP) has been under implementation in Northwestern Iran since 2003 to reduce forest destruction and attract the people's participation. However, it faced shortcomings caused by a variety of factors including insufficient funds, incomplete preservation, and unsuitable organization during implementation. This research aims to study the effect of ZFPP on forest loss in Sardasht County as a representative of Iranian Northern Zagros Forests. A series of Landsat images were used to analyze the forest loss before ZFPP implementation (1993-2002), after 10 years of implementation (2002-2012), and finally after its revision (2012-2016). Land Change Modeler (LCM) was employed to detect land cover changes for land cover prediction in 2024. We used land cover maps between 2002 and 2012 for calibration. We then compared the predicted land cover map from LCM with actual land cover map in 2016 for validation. The results indicated that 3330, 4562, and 1234 ha of forestlands converted to agricultural lands, rangelands, and built-up areas during 1993-2002, 2002-2012, and 2012-2016, with annual deforestation rates of-0.40%,-0.52% and-0.36%, respectively. The highest deforestation rate was observed between 2002 and 2012 because of the destructive effects of population growth. Land cover prediction indicated that per capita forest area would continue to decline while the other land cover uses would continue to grow more severely around the existing agricultural lands and built-up areas in Sardasht until 2024.
Journal of Sustainable Forestry, Apr 2, 2020
Our ability to forecast future Land use/cover changes (LUCC) is extremely limited due to lack of ... more Our ability to forecast future Land use/cover changes (LUCC) is extremely limited due to lack of understanding of how rapid and drastic changes like socioeconomic shocks and disturbances (e.g., policy changes and economic crises) affect land use/cover. Energy policies changing in Iran have been implemented since 2010. In this study, we explored whether changes in energy policies affect the sustainability of forest cover and LUCC. Results showed that in the time periods of before and after implementation of the policies, 2,841 and 3,155 ha of forests converted to other land covers, respectively. It was also revealed that forest and rangelands degradation and their conversion to croplands and built-up areas have had the most contribution to increasing area of these land covers. Calculation annual rate of deforestation showed an increase in deforestation activities after the plan (−0.40% versus −0.53%). On the other hand, the population growth in the first period was 10,074 people, which was higher than the population increase in the second period (9,803 people). Therefore, it can be argued that the effect of the energy policies is likely to be greater than the increase in population and it appears to be able to cause a transition of land systems.
Journal of Arid Land, Mar 1, 2023
This research aimed at mapping the risk of wildfire based on a number of influential factors incl... more This research aimed at mapping the risk of wildfire based on a number of influential factors including Elevation, slope, aspect, average annual precipitation, average maximum monthly temperature, land use/land cover, distance from road, distance from river, distance from agricultural lands and population density. The study was conducted in a study site encompassing 273.3 km2 near Sardasht in northwest Iran. The burned areas were initially mapped by field visits. Then, using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, influence of each factor on occurrence of fire was compared pairwise and weights were assigned to them. The frequency ratio method was used to derive a weight for individual classes of each factor. This was followed by mapping fire risk zones based on weighted combination of digital maps of the influential factors. The zonation map was later divided in five risk classes (ranging from very high to very low) by Jenks method. Validation of the risk map indicated the 98.44 percent of the observed fires to be located in the mapped high risk zones. This represents the high accuracy of the applied technique for wildfire risk mapping across the study site.
Applied Geomatics, Dec 10, 2022
Annals of Forest Research, Jul 1, 2022
Implementing a scheduled and reliable estimation of forest characteristics is important for the s... more Implementing a scheduled and reliable estimation of forest characteristics is important for the sustainable management of forests. This study aimed at evaluating the capability of Sentinel-2 satellite data to estimate above-ground biomass (AGB) in coppice forests of Persian oak (Quercus brantii var. persica) located in Western Iran. To estimate the AGB, field data collection was implemented in 80 square plots (40×40 m, area of 1600 m 2). Two diameters of the crown were measured and used to calculate the AGB of each tree based on allometric equations. Then, the performance of satellite data in estimating the AGB was evaluated for the area of study using the field-based AGB (dependent variable) as well as the spectral band values, spectrally-derived vegetation indices (independent variables) and four machine learning (ML) algorithms: Multi-Layer Perceptron Artificial Neural Network (MLPNN), k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN), Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Regression (SVR). A five-fold cross-validation was used to verify the effectiveness of models. Examination of the Pearson's correlation coefficient between AGB and the extracted values showed that IPVI and NDVI vegetation indices had the highest correlation with AGB (r = 0.897). The results indicated that the MLPNN algorithm was the best ML option (RMSE = 1.71 t ha-1 ; MAE = 1.37 t ha-1 ; relative RMSE = 24.75%; R 2 = 0.87) in estimating the AGB, providing new insights on the capability of remotely sensed-based AGB modeling of sparse Mediterranean forest ecosystems in an area with limited number of field sample plots.
International Forestry Review, 2020
Many countries have implemented policies to reduce the negative effects of deforestation. In Iran... more Many countries have implemented policies to reduce the negative effects of deforestation. In Iran, the Zagros Forest Preservation Plan (ZFPP) began in 2003. This study evaluates the effectiveness of ZFPP on land cover changes in two periods, before (1993–2002) and after (2002–2017) implementation of the plan. Logistic regression (LR) analysis was used to examine the effectiveness of key socio-economic, environmental and demographic drivers associated with deforestation activities. The results showed that despite the implementation of ZFPP forest conversion to other land-use types increased during the second period compared to the first. Calculating the annual rate of deforestation showed that this rate increased from -0.4% to -0.5%. The results of LR showed that the occurrence of deforestation in different years was significantly related to distance from rivers, croplands, cities, roads, and slope such that areas with low slope and close to these features have a high probability of ...
Annals of Forest Research
Implementing a scheduled and reliable estimation of forest characteristics is important for the s... more Implementing a scheduled and reliable estimation of forest characteristics is important for the sustainable management of forests. This study aimed at evaluating the capability of Sentinel-2 satellite data to estimate above-ground biomass (AGB) in coppice forests of Persian oak (Quercus brantii var. persica) located in Western Iran. To estimate the AGB, field data collection was implemented in 80 square plots (40×40 m, area of 1600 m2). Two diameters of the crown were measured and used to calculate the AGB of each tree based on allometric equations. Then, the performance of satellite data in estimating the AGB was evaluated for the area of study using the field-based AGB (dependent variable) as well as the spectral band values, spectrally-derived vegetation indices (independent variables) and four machine learning (ML) algorithms: Multi-Layer Perceptron Artificial Neural Network (MLPNN), k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN), Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Regression (SVR). A five-fold c...
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Papers by Hadi Beygi Heidarlou