Production of Environmental Sensitivity Maps for Desertification in Southern Marshes of Iraq

Abstract The arid and semi-arid regions have faced critical desertification problems in the last decades. This phenomenon is caused either by human actions or natural circumstances. study aims to identify sensitive areas of marshlands southern Iraq using Environmental Sensitivity Areas Index (ESAI) for desertification. area located between longitudes (46.1° 48.1° E) latitude (29.55° 32.55° N), which includes parts governorates Al-Amarah, Al-Basara Al-Nasiriyah with an about 27,989 km2. Satellite image processing Landsat OLI sensor 2021 was adopted characterize general appearance interest area. Arc Gis ver.10.7 programs were used analyze different data produce Desertification (DSI) maps parameters evaluating marshes’ Nine are grouped into three orderly indices concerning behaviour desertification, weighting factors assigned each index. found that highly represents (10781.14 km2 total area) 38.52% covers 38.42%, 10752.92 low sensitivity appear throughout marshes, representing 23.06%, 6454.67 result shows suffering from reduced water supplies destruction grazing urban expansion cultivation seasonal crops.