Change detection of Mighan desert basin using ETM+, TM, MSS images and climate data in the period of 1973 to 2011

In recent years, threat of desertification or desert growth has been one of the most important issues on a local and global scale. This could be the results of climate change and poor environmental management. The remote sensing technology with its ability to produce high spatial and spectral resolution satellite images is known to be an effective tool for the detection and evaluation of changes. The present study with uses climate data and Landsat Satellite ETM+, TM, MSS images for the years 1973, 1985, 2000 and 2011 to analyze the trend of climate and desert changes. To obtain the climate change, climate parameters and magnitude of changes, band subtraction method and fuzzy logic were used. Satellite images were classified using Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC) in ARC GIS10 software. Results showed that in consequence of climate changes (reduced rainfall and increased temperature) the magnitude of fuzzy changes were equal to 0.84843, 0.92983 and 0.92795 for the periods of 1973-1985,2000-1985, and 2000-2011 respectively. The area of desert has increased15.9, 8.6, and 9.9 square kilometers respectively during these three periods and during 38 years desert area has reached from123.8 to158.4 square kilometers which shows an average annual growth rate of 0.9052 km2 and that correlation between the reduced rainfall and increased deserts -0.998.