An Investigation of the Factors Affecting landUse Changing (Case Study: Mahmoudabad County)

Nowadays, uncontrolled land use changing is one of the major challenges of the agricultural section of Iran. Hence, a big part of agricultural lands and also forest lands turned out of production cycle and natural resource. Mahmoudabad town as one of the agricultural areas of Iran is not an exception. The main objective of this investigation, was to recognize the factors affecting land use changing in that area and to propose some proper solutions.   Natural scientists define land use in terms of syndromes of human activities such as agriculture, forestry and building construction that alter land surface processes including biogeochemistry, hydrology and biodiversity. Social scientists and land managers define land use more broadly to include the social and economic purposes and contexts for and within which lands are managed (or left unmanaged), such as subsistence versus commercial agriculture, rented vs. owned, or private vs. public land. While land cover may be observed directly in the field or by remote sensing, observations of land use and its changes generally require the integration of natural and social scientific The research method applied in this study was descriptive-analytical and which analyzed economic and social variables as effecting factors on land use changing. In this study, two hundred and twenty questionnaires completed in Mahmoudabad town level. Spss software was employed to analyze the data extracted from the Questionnaires. In addition to investigating the abovementioned variables, Satellite land sat eight and seven and four was used from nineteen seventy-seven to two thousand and fifteen. Finally, the "ENVI" software and supervised classification method of maximum likelihood were used to provide the classification map (GIS) for each usage. Based on the satellite data by Land sat eight, seven, TM and Mss, forest lands decreased from thirty eight percent to three percent. While the surface area of construction increased from six percent to eighteen percent from nineteen seventy-seven until Two thousand and fifteen. Findings have revealed that, the process of land use changing of Mahmoudabad town has begun in recent years, especially from 1988. Findings also indicated that economic factor specially, low price of agricultural production, high cost of life, high inflation in society, more valuable lands from agriculture activity are the most important factors influencing land use changing of Mahmoudabad town lands. As well as, among the social factors, population growth in rural area and Mahmoudabad city, the reluctance of youth to agriculture activity, changing in standards of living and tendency to urbanization are the most important factors influencing land use changing of Mahmoudabad town lands. Generally, economic (mean 2.99) factors were more effectiveness from society factors (2.81). Therefore, we have attempted to propose suitable solution by recognizing these factors. The results obtained from the satellite pictures during from nineteen seventy seven to two thousand and fifteen indicated that forest lands decreased from thirty eight percent to three percent. While the surface area of construction increased from six percent to eighteen percent. As well, economic factors were more efficient from social factors. Low price of agricultural production and increasing of population in Mahmoudabad town are the mail factor that influenced land use change.