Trend of habitat change for Persian fallow deer (Dama dama mesopotamicus) in Dez and Karkhe National Park and Protected Area using GIS and RS

The forests and grasslands of Dez and Karkhe National Park and Protected area are considered as the last habitat for Persian Fallow Deer (Dama dama mesopotamica). In this research the trend of habitat change for was studied in two separate time periods of 1973-1989 and 1989-2007 by interpretation of data gathered from MSS 1973, TM 1989 and LISSIII 2007 Two unsupervised and supervised classification methods were used, Initially the maps of five cover and land-use classification including: settlements; agriculture; forest; degraded forest, and water classification were prepared Then, the accuracy classification was assessed, using Cross Tabulation method. The results indicate that in the total time of study the forest cover reduced 35% and degraded forest increased by 48%, from which 23% reduction in forest cover and 32% increase in degraded forest happened in the second period of study. In the total period of study 25% of forest cover converted to degraded forest and another 10% along with 20% degraded forest converted to agricultural lands. Therefore the vast habitat change and reduction of forest cover can be considered as one of the important factor resulted in rapid population reduction of Fallow Deer, which caused no sign of species presence to be recorded in the region for the past decade.