Investigation on the changes of desert lands using remote sensing data (Case study: Kashan)

Due to the human activities and natural phenomena, the face of the earth is constantly changing. The use of remote sensing technology is considered as the best tool for change detection and evaluation. With advances in this technology and satellite images with high spatial and spectral resolution as well as a variety of image processing techniques, the changes in land-use could be estimated and managed. In the present study, the land use changes of Kashan Salt Lake were investigated in a 12-year period. Landsat TM images of 1990 and Landsat ETM+ images of 2002 were used in this study and after carrying out the required actions in the preprocessing stage the map of change detection was produced by supervised classification. Results showed that 35.18% of the study area has changed and the highest percentage of the changes is related to the mulching land class. Although, several considerations, including spatial resolution changes and spectral power changes should be taken into account in interpretation and comparison, significant changes in the study area indicate the necessity of further studies to achieve more accurate results.