Land Use Change Detection in Esfarayen Region, Northern Khorasan, in Past Four Decades

According to the studies conducted in northern Khorasan province in Iran, land use changes are among the most effective factors in desertification of the region. In this province, lack of accurate and updated information for land use mapping and change detection analysis are among the major issues. Therefore, the aim of this study has been mapping and monitoring the land use changes in Esfarayen region, northern Khorasan province over 36 years. For this purpose, Landsat satellite images of two periods including 1973 and 2009-have been selected, and the geometric and radiometric corrections have been applied too. Then, using different image analysis methods, such as fuzzy classification, land use maps of the study area were produced. For change detection purposes, the post-classification technique was used. The results of change detection analysis showed that in the studying period (36-year), irrigated agriculture class has changed the most among extracted land usese in the region and the area has increased from 4,269 to 15,586 hectares. Another important change has been occurred in residential area (Esfarayen city) which has increased from 57 hectares to 664 hectares. Also, the area of industrial land use such as Esfarayen Industrial Complex and Esfarayen Dam which have been constructed in recent years, showed an increasing about 22 hectares. Population increase and migration are two main reasons for these dramatic changes. In contrast to the mentioned land uses, rangeland and irrigated - orchard classes showed a significant decrease because of development in industrial and water resources sectors. An environmental positive change which has been occurred in the study area was that the range woodland has increased about 10 percent in 36 years because of rehabilitating of 12 thousand hectares of rangeland and bare lands. As the results showed, remote sensing technology could be used as an effective land management tool for development and conservation of natural resources of the country.