Ecological Monitoring and Assessment of Spatial-Temporal Changes in Land Cover with an Emphasis on Agricultural Water Consumption in Zayandeh Rood Region

In the recent years, human activities have led to changes in land use and land cover, consequently, these changes lead to the structure and function of ecosystems. Spatial-Temporal Change Detection of land use is important to understand the relationships and interactions between human and natural resources and to make appropriate decisions Due to changes in land use and land cover occurs in broad surfaces, therefore, remote sensing technology is a useful tool for evaluating changes. The aim of this study is to investigate trend change of land use and land cover of the surrounding of the Zayandeh Rood River, as well as to investigate the water demand for agricultural land use of remote sensing and GIS techniques. For this purpose, the OLI images in 1392 and ETM Landsat images of 1382, after correction and preprocessing required, land use /land cover map were produced using the hybrid classification, based on maximum likelihood image processing in 10 classes. The post-classification methods was used to monitor changes in the period of 10 years. The results showed that in the period, dried, more than 40 percent of the Gavkhooni wetland and Zayandeh Rood, the area as well as suffering damage to the structure and the physical – social and ecological sustainability. 19/2 percent increased was observed in the agricultural land in the western part of the study area when the amount of water consumption in the western part in the period 1382 -1392, 52/59 and 60/22 percent, respectively. After that central part, and the lowest water consumption was calculated for irrigated farming in the eastern part. Salty lands have been developed during this period, more than 90 percent. Urban expansion has occurred in the period 1382 -1392 with an area of ​​552 hectares per year.