Original Research ArticleUsing Ecosystem Service Modeler (ESM) for Ecological Quality, rarityand Risk Assessment of the wild goat habitat, in the Haftad-Ghollehprotected areaAmir Ansaria, Mohammad H. Golabib,*aDepartment of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Arak University, Arak, 38156-8- 8349, IranbCollege of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Guam, Mangilao, Guam, 96923, USAarticle infoArticle history:Received 9 March 2019Received in revised form14 August 2019Accepted 16 August 2019Available online 22 August 2019Keywords:Haftad-ghollehWild goat (Capra aegagrus)Wildlife diseaseHabitat quality and rarityHabitat risk assessmentabstractIn recent years, the destruction of habitats has reduced the wild goat population in the Haftad-Ghollehprotected area. The wild goat (Capra aegagrus) is known as symbol of biodiversity of Markazi Province. Inafield study conducted between 2007 and 2017, the number of wild goats were surveyed and threat totheir habitat were determined as the population and the ecological conditions as well as their move-ments in the Haftad-Gholleh were identified. Landsat image of year 2018 was used to produce digitalland use maps for this study. Ecological Quality, Rarity and Risk Assessment was performed with ESM,HQR and HRA models. The images were classified into three classes including; Agriculture-livestock,Rangeland, and Residential regions. The results indicated that 75% of the casualties of the wild goat byPeste des Petits Ruminants disease were from the Chekab Valley and 25% from the Sibak Valley. Almost80% of deaths among the population of wild goats were observed in the month of July. However, thereare two important mountainous and plains habitats in the Haftad-Gholleh Area. Among the biggestthreats and more devastating stressors in the region were to villagers, agricultural-livestock and roadsdevelopment. However, among the stressors, the agriculture-livestock caused more deaths in themountainous h
