Climate-related hazards such as sand and dust storms (SDS) have various impacts on human health, socio-economy, environment, and agroecosystems. Iran has been severely affected by domestic and external SDS during the last two decades. Considering the fragile economy of Iran’s rural areas and the strong dependence of livelihood on agroecosystems, SDS cause serious damage to human communities. Therefore, there is an urgent need to conduct a vulnerability assessment for developing SDS risk mitigation plans. In this study, various components of SDS vulnerability were formulated through a geographic information system (GIS)-based integrated assessment approach using composite indicators. By implementing a GIS multiple-criteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA) model using socioeconomic and remote sensing data, a map of rural vulnerability to SDS was produced. Our results show that about 37% of Iran’s rural areas have experienced high and very high levels of vulnerability to SDS. Rural areas in the southeast and south of Iran, especially Sistan and Baluchestan and Hormozgan provinces are more vulnerable to SDS. The findings of this study provide a basis for developing SDS disaster risk-reduction plans and enabling the authorities to prioritize SDS mitigation policies at the provincial administrative scale in Iran.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.