Using Remote Sensing for Detecting Land Use Changes with Emphasis on Urban Development(Case Study: Anzali Wetland Watershed)

In the last two decades, the increase in technology and global population has led to environmental change and degradation. Remote sensing is a new technology which provides accessibility and the ability to extract basic information for managing earth resources. In this study, land use changes in the Anzali watershed in Gilan province has been detected using GIS/RS. Initially, we produced land use maps using satellite images of Landsat (MSS 1975, TM 1989, ETM+ 2000) and IRS (LISS III) in six land use classes. Then, land use changes were compared over 32 years using the post classification method. Studies showed that the urban area has rapidly increased from 4878 ha in 1989 to 19089 ha in 2007.