Assessment of Eco-geomorphological potential of Mongolia

The eco-geomorphological analysis includes the impact assessment of relief under various ecosystem conditions in as much relief has various ecological roles, both direct and indirect. Rising elevation above sea level is mostly influenced by climate indirectly leading to reduced air pressure, oxygen deficiency, reduction of air temperature, excessive solar radiation, and creation of strong wind. The depth of relief dissection of the bumpy surface of mountainous areas created by floods and mudflows, and the depth of the bumpy surface increases energy consumption and poses risks during mountain climbing, and also has negative economic implications if economic activities are undertaken in such terrain. On the other hand, mountainous landscapes have a specific impact on human well-being and also have considerable potential for promoting tourism. Although, in the steppe environment, relief dissection increases the unique features of the landscape and increases the potential of tourism in other respects, however, it is assessed negatively to a large extent. The nature of corelationship between and the interdependence of the terrestrial surface and population, terrestrial surface and livestock, terrestrial surface and agriculture, which are significant in the study into the inter-relationship between environment and human society, was assessed and determined, and the relevant conclusion was drawn.


INTRODUCTION
The concept of eco-geomorphology was first used in science by a British geomorphologist Donald Coates in the early 1970s, while another scientist T.G. Runova proposed a consolidated idea of surface assessment and research during the mid-1980s [1; 2]. Humans take into account reliefs when choosing their habitat. Eco-geomorphological analysis has been conducted in the last decades, and the present study aimed to determine if a person's place of residence is comfortable for the person or not. Relief is one of the main factors of any chemical, physical, or biological process in the environment. Suitability assessment of human habitat and land has been changing gradually and methodological ______________________________________________________________________________ Proceedings of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences PMAS approaches to modern research on ecogeomorphological assessment of landscape have aimed to develop indicators of suitable conditions for relief and to regulate the relationship between the surfaces, the population and the economy [1]. Besides, relief is the most important component of geographical coverage, and is also characteristic of other natural factors and its interactions depend greatly on the surface features. Relief is a key natural element that regulates the moisture and heat distribution on Earth, and its shape and size are closely related to the geological structure of the territory. Also, relief is a key factor (most important resource) in determining the distribution of natural resources, such as macro-microclimate, surface water, groundwater, soil, flora, and fauna [3; 4].

А. Study area:
The area studied in this research work covered the entirety of Mongolia with a total territory of nearly 1564.1 thousand square kilometers [5] and the study area covered the high Altai Mountain ranges with perpetual snow to dry-hot Gobi desert zone, also the country's climate conditions vary between extreme continental and temperate zone with monsoon wind.

B. Data and materials used:
Raster and vector data were used to assess the ecogeomorphological potential of Mongolia. The basic morphometric parameters of the geomorphology (elevation, slope, aspect, depth of surface dissection, distribution of the solar radiation) originating from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission -Digital Elevation Model (SRTM DEM) [6] were retrieved. When evaluating some terrain parameters, such as the density of surface dissection, which is difficult to retrieve, more accurate Multi Error Removed Improved Terrain -Digital Elevation Model (MERIT DEM) [7] was used. MERIT DEM has made significant improvements to flat areas (relatively flat plains, rivers, and valleys) that have experienced high levels of error beyond topographic fluctuations, making it easier to estimate geomorphological elements, such as river networks, steppes, and relatively low hills.
Thematic layers were developed for the evaluation of eco-geomorphological potential using climatic data that primarily affect morphometric measurements and hydrological, geological, and geomorphological factors, and for their processes. C. Methods: Methods of quantitative analysis (mathematical, modeling, and scoring) have been used for the evaluation of the ecogeomorphological study. Scoring is an important indicator of how ecogeomorphological studies combine natural conditions and resources in an area [8]. Ecogeomorphological research is aimed at assessing the geomorphological conditions of the area for any business activity. In other words, this kind of research is important in solving problems, such as choosing the suitable form and condition of relief for optimal planning of population, livestock and agricultural location, protecting the particular object from exogenetic processes that change the relief, and anticipating the difficulties caused by relief condition. Ecogeomorphological research is a descriptive study, especially when new cities, settlements, roads, electrical and engineering networks are built, ensuring their normal operation and determining whether the engineering geomorphological condition can, in turn, affect the ability to run a business in the area and to live comfortably in the future or not. First of all, criteria need to be defined to conduct an ecogeomorphological assessment. In order to choose this criterion, it is necessary to inform the differences between engineering geomorphology and eco-geomorphology (Table 1) [3] Proceedings of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences The objective of this research was to determine the eco-geomorphological potential of the surface components of the area. Engineering geomorphological assessment takes into account the engineering characteristics of the surface (mainly to determine the stability of the relief), while ecogeomorphological assessment aims to take into account the following characteristics and features of the surface in order to create comfortable living conditions: the consequences of people's living conditions, health, and safety (and psychological wellbeing). This assessment considers the appearance of the surface, differences, and unique formations [3; 4; 8]. The general scheme of the methodology for this study is shown in Figure 3.

PMAS
In order to calculate the overall assessment of eco-geomorphological potential, firstly, the eco-geomorphological assessments for the population, livestock and agriculture were evaluated on a scale of 1-5 points for the values of the spatial distribution of the selected factors. When many factors are compared, one is more important than the other and is likely to have a higher importance. Therefore, the AHP (analytical hierarchy process) method was used to rank the evaluation criteria [9].

Snow cover (sn)
Total solar radiation (sr)

Annual precipitation (ps)
Annual average wind speed (w)

SRTM
The meteorological station and thematic maps which were created by other researchers Climatic factors that dominate geomorphological processes and morphometric parameters.

Geographical factors Climatic factors
In the three sub-chapters: population, livestock, and agriculture, each of the above thematic layers was evaluated by the corresponding scores and indicators.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Assessment of eco-geomorphological potential for the population. There is no detailed study in our country determining the surface of a comfortable living environment and construction work. In order to consider relief in a building, it is first necessary to determine the dynamic changes in the surface and the morphometric parameters [10]. In order to detect the favorable and negative conditions of geomorphological conditions in human habitat, the methodology of ecological and geomorphological assessment of the urban population was first evaluated based on the studies of [11][12][13]. Another important indicator in urban and residential environment is the issue of engineering infrastructures, such as roads and networks. In order to assess the ecological and geomorphological capacity of the population, it is necessary to conduct geomorphological surveys by road and infrastructure engineers.

Figure 5. Eco-geomorphological potential for population (by natural belts and zones)
Comparing the assessment of ecogeomorphological potential for population by provinces and provincial municipalities: According to the statistical information of the National Statistical Office of Mongolia, the urban population category includes 2,197,970 people, which is roughly equivalent to 70 per cent of the total population of the country. The term urban population refers to all the population and households living in the capital city, provincial centers, and villages [14][15]. This category does not include the population of rural settlements or soum centers. According to this indicator, there are about 300,000 people are living in 315 soum centers, and in total, 77 per cent of Mongolia's population, or 2.5 million people, live in province and soum centers, cities, and villages. Such inland migration, on the one hand, has been due primarily to the attractivness of the market and, secondly, temporary migration to areas with high ecological potential or favorable habitats. On the other hand, the number of migrants in the western regions such

Figure 7. Eco-geomorphological potential for population (by aimags)
Assessment of eco-geomorphological potential for livestock: Eco-geomorphological potential and evaluation criteria were set differently for each of the types of livestock in the spatial distribution map of landscape, and the results were summarized. In this study, we estimated that 3.8 per cent of the area had low (2) potential, 64.6 per cent had moderate (3) potential, and 31.6 per cent had high (4) potential, while there were no areas with very low (1) and very high (5)

PMAS
ecological favorable areas did not condition each other's location. This means that it is not possible to raise five heads of livestock in one unit of land, one household, and on only one pasture land. On the one hand, assessment of the eco-geomorphological potential for livestock has the advantage of complementing assessment of the eco-geomorphological potential for the population because more than 20 per cent of our population are engaged in nomadic livestock breeding. Evaluation criteria were calculated based on studies by [12,[17][18][19]].

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Assessment of eco-geomorphological potential for agriculture: The rugged nature of Mongolia's mountains and depressions has a different effect on agriculture. The impact of relief on agriculture should be considered primarily in relation to surface slope, surface obstacle, mountain slopes, absolute altitude, and micro-features of relief. Relief has a significant effect on the natural resources indispensable for agriculture, such as precipitation, solar radiation, fertile soils, and surface and groundwater distribution. For example, there are thick forests and foliage at the back side of a mountain, but there are no forests in the front part. This is directly related to the micro-differences in the relief. Therefore, the yield per hectare of two farms in the same geographical area appears to be different. The evaluation criteria of Munkhdulam (2017) were followed since it was difficult to develop criteria for this sub-topic [20].  Figure 11. Assessment of eco-geomorphological potential for agriculture  Figure 12. Eco-geomorphological potential for agriculture, (by natural belts and zones)

Assessment of the eco-geomorphological potential of Mongolia:
The ecogeomorphological potential assessment map of Mongolia was produced using the above three thematic layers (eco-geomorphological potential assessment for population, livestock, and agriculture), which had been rated on a scale of 1-5, along with the weights calculated using the GIS-based Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP).

Figure 15. Assessment of the eco-geomorphological potential of Mongolia, (by natural belts and zones)
Following is a comparative result of the integrated assessment of eco-geomorphological potential of Mongolia by aimags and the capital city: In Darkhan-Uul, Orkhon, Dornod, Sukhbaatar, Govisumber, Khentii, Selenge, Tuv, Bulgan aimags and the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, the areas with very high or high ecological potential comprised of more than 85 per cent of the total territory of these aimags, while in Khuvsgul, Bayankhongor, Umnugovi, Khovd, Govi-Altai, and Bayan-Ulgii aimags, the areas with very high or high ecological potential accounted for less than 25 per cent of the total area of these aimags.

CONCLUSIONS
The spatial resolutions of the thematic layers used as evaluation criteria by default in Mongolia were developed at 500 m, depending on the repeatability and availability of the data. In the eco-geomorphological assessment, the ecological potential was assessed as very low, low, moderate, high, very high, taking into account the population, livestock, and agriculture, also as a follower of the relief factors and the climatic factors that have the greatest influence on the surface changes and modern processes that take place on them. The relief plays various direct and indirect ecological roles. Rising elevation above the sea level creates microclimate zones, such as lower air pressure, oxygen deficiency, and reduction of air temperature, excessive solar radiation, and creation of strong winds, so relief factors have a significant impact on our daily lives.
In Mongolia, steppe and forest-steppe zones are high eco-geomorphological potential zones, whereas landscapes with low and very low eco-geomorphological potential are common in the high mountain belts, gobi, and desert zones. Landscape with very high and high eco-geomorphological potential cover more than 85 per cent of the total territory of Darkhan-Uul, Orkhon, Dornod, Sukhbaatar, Govi Sumber, Khentii, Selenge, Tuv, and Bulgan aimags and the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, which are located in the abovementioned zones with high potential.
Moreover, these aimags have a large population and urban concentration, and also these are the main regions for livestock and agriculture development. The findings of this study are significant by summarizing geomorphological or relief factors with climatic factors affecting them, and we recommend that further research work should concentrate on enhancing the resolution of climate data for doing large scale research in a smaller area. We have developed the map of eco-geomorphological potential in Mongolia by default, and the map can be applied as a basis for urban planning and agriculture, especially for the planning of livestock and agricultural areas.
Acknowledgments. This research work was carried out within the framework of research project "Assessment of the landscapeecological potential of Mongolia natural zones" that was funded by the Science and Technology Foundation of Mongolia and implemented by the Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences during the years 2017-2019. We would like to thank the project leader, and all colleagues at the Division of Physical Geography, Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, who provided direct and indirect assistance in the successful implementation of the research, and for the invaluable suggestions at the initial stage of the research