agroecological zones of karkheh river basin

an agroecological zones (aez) map is an essential tool for agricultural planning. by integrating the key components of the agricultural environments, it offers a bird's-eye view of internal diversity, agricultural potential and constraints that decision-makers find easier to understand than a pile of single-theme maps. in this study, aez map of the karkheh river basin has been prepared using the climate data covering the period 1973-1998, land use, land cover, and landforms/soils implemented in gis. a total of  46 unique units have been differentiated, of which only five units including, 1- semi arid-cool winter-warm to very warm summer- rainfed cultivation- non limiting soils by 18.26% area, 2- semi arid-cool winter-warm to very warm summer- forest- rock outcrops or very shallow soils by 17.04% area, 3- semi arid-cold winter-very warm summer- rainfed cultivation- non limiting soils by 10.26% area, 4- semi arid-cold winter-warm summer-range- rock outcrops or very shallow soils by 9.20% area, 5-semi arid-cool winter-warm to very warm summer- irrigated cultivation- non limiting soils and terrain by 4.86% area, occupy nearly 60% of karkheh river basin