Evaluation of Land Use Change Using Remote Sensing Data (Case study: Nukabad watershed, Khash city)

Identifying and reviewing land use change can help managers and planners to identify the factors affecting the change of user and the adoption of appropriate management decisions at different levels. The present study was carried out with the aim of studying land use change and land use classes using remote sensing method in Noukabad watershed in Khash city, Sistan and Baluchestan province. For this purpose, after determining the boundary of the study area, using maps 1:50000, associated temporal data were obtained from the Landsat Satellite of the American Geological Survey. After geometric, radiometric and atmospheric correction, land use classification based on satellite images for study periods (1994-2000-2005-2010-2016 years) were determined. The accuracy of the production maps was determined using the general accuracy and kappa coefficient. After the application of the land use map in the ArcGIS software environment, the comparison of land use changes between the studied periods (each statistical period with the previous statistical period) was performed. Based on the results, overall classification accuracy of user-generated maps for the years 1994 (97.45%), 2000 (97.21%), 2005 (98.04%), 2010 (97.09%) and 2016 (97.06%) were rated as relatively good. The results of land use change trend showed that the most changes were in mountainous rangelands and the least changes were related to rivers, and in the meanwhile, agricultural lands and residential areas had moderate changes, which the main reason of these changes can be considered climate change and human intervention. These results indicate that the correct recognition of land use changes is caused, Managers identify the strengths and weaknesses of their executive plans and take steps to resolve them.