Environmental Assessment in National scale (Iran)

There is global agreement that the future of the earth planet is at risk. Environmental problems, result of human activities that threaten the sustainability of global life-support systems. An efficient environmental assessment can only be achieved by realistic understanding of the geographical scope, trends and driving forces of global environment change. This study is carried to evaluate the land based on the characteristics of landscape units at the national level (Iran). Any Landscape unit is a complex natural - anthropogenic territorial supersystem, where two subsystems (natural and anthropogenic) coexist and interact within the boundaries of their comparatively stable natural basis. Landscape surveys can be designed at local, regional, national and global levels. The results of the study have shown that more than ۷۰ percent of Iran's area has a derivative (secondary) Landscape (with no sensible current human impact) and left with a biological productivity lower than of the original modal landscapes. They have a natural self-regulation processes. Since natural self-regulation plays a leading role in the secondary landscape functioning, these landscape can be in a sustainable state with a reasonable management and biological productivity. This research can describe the state of the land at the national level and provide a useful guide to decision-makers.

Keywords:

Landscape , anthropogenic structure , land Assessment , derivative landscape.