The Effect of Land Use Changes on the Morphology of the Karoon River (Case Study:Tange –Aghili in Shoushtar)

Morphologic changes of Karoon River in allovial plain of Khouzestan have been accured considering tectonic, hydrologic and human factors. The purpose of this study is the investigation of land use change effects onto karoon river morphology. For this purpose, the river path and land usage in the studied area were processed by using four series of landsat TM and ETM satellite images of the years of 1989 , 2002 , 2005, 2010 and aiding of remote sensing process technique and GIS software. So, first of all, the images were modified by appropriate algorithm radiometrically and geo-metrically. Then, the land uses were categorized to five homogenous classes by ENVI software. Finally, the rate of changes in each class was analyzed by using land use changes method. Obtained results showed that during 21 years, residential and agricultural area have increased and the bare lands have been decreased. The morphology of Karoon river basin is inferred that in the period of study, change of morphology was all along been a member and these changes are not specific to a particular user. So, it could be concluded that the morphological changes induced by natural factors were more intense than other factors. The study of the effects of geomorphic features of river during1989-2010 showed that changes in geomorphic did not follow a regular pattern which could be due to changes in hydrological characteristics of Karoon.