Evaluation of Rangeland Suitability for sheep grazing using a Fuzzy-AHP approach (Case study: Forg-e-Darmiyan rangeland, Southern Khorasan)

One of the main problems of rangelands is that they are not used based on their potential and suitability, this has led to the rangeland degradation. Range suitability is the state that a grazing pasture can be used over many years without vegetation and soil resources damage The most important work in rangeland management is rangeland suitability assessment. In this study, the suitability of Furg Darmiyan rangeland for sheep grazing was assessed using three factors including forage production, water resources and sensitivity to erosion. Thus, interested maps were prepared and ranked using a hierarchical-fuzzy approach. The final rangeland suitability map was plotted using a weighted linear combination. The findings showed that low forage shortage resulted from consecutive droughts, topography, steep slopes, shallow soils and erosion can be mentioned as the most important limiting factors of sheep grazing in the study area. Overall, the results indicated the ability of multi-criteria decision-making approach in producing suitability maps which are more reliable and agreed with the ground truth.