effect of vegetation change of source area on dust storms occurrence in the west of iran

there are many reports of serious problems of dust storm events in the western parts of iran. based on many researches, iraq is one of the main sources of dust storms in western parts of iran. the radial basis function network (rbfn) model has been used to assess wind erosion hazard in iraq as a main source area of dust storms over several western cities of iran. the percentage of vegetation is the only changeable factor of rbfn model. the wind erosion hazard map in two time periods (2003 and 2012) verified the vegetation changes over time. the results showed that the vegetation percentage index in all land use types of 2003 was higher than those of 2013. in addition to drought as a natural parameter, overgrazing, dam construction on tigris and euphrates rivers (in turkey) and high amount of water for crop production are human and policy factors causing loss of vegetation cover in source area and wind erosion exacerbation.