Investigation of land cover change over a 46-year period in Kiasar region of Sari

Nowadays, detection of land cover changes and their effects on natural resources and the environment has been feasible through the technology of remote sensing and GIS. The present study aimed to assess the coverage change in Kiasar area over a period of 46 years (from 1966 to 2012) using remote sensing technology and satellite images. To this end, we prepared the land use maps for the years 1966, 1987 and 2012 using topographic maps, image of TM sensor and image of LISS III sensor, respectively. At first, the required pre-processing workflow comprising geometric and atmospheric corrections, and the creation of spectral and aspect ratio indices was performed on the bands of both sensors. After determination of current land uses in the study area, the training samples were recorded using GPS from each land uses and resolution of training samples was obtained using transformed divergence severability index. Classification was performed using maximum likelihood, parallel piped and minimum distance classifiers. The changes were compared after classification. The analysis revealed that over a period of 46-year the forest areas declined from 98.16 km2 (53.12% of land area in 1966) to 18.39 km2 (9.95% of land area in 2012). In other words, over this period of time 43.17% of the forest areas were replaced by uncovered land, agricultural lands, dry farm lands and rangelands. These changed areas increased by 14.15, 13.61, 10.05 and 5.37%, respectively. In conclusion, RS has a high capability in detection of the land cover changes.