Explaining the Fundamental Eeffective Factors ofL Use Changes: A political Eecology Approach (Case Study: Hamedan County)

The uncontrolled human activities and overuses of land and resources are the main causes of land use changes in a regional scale. The political ecology as a theoretical approach can be applied to shed a light on the quality and rate of human interventions and their impacts on land use system. The process of land use change in rural areas of Iran as well as Hamedan county has experienced a fast track. A prominent example of such changes is the expansion of construction in agricultural, garden and pasture lands around the rural settlements in forms of villas, second homes and rural houses extensions. The present study tracks the changes of land use in agricultural lands, pastures, constructions, barren lands and water bodies in peripheral villages of Hamedan city using Landsat imagery during 1998-2017. The applied method to the present study is a descriptive-analytical with an applicable approach which uses both quantitative and qualitative patterns of research. GIS was used for quantitative analysis and creating map layers. For qualitative analysis, the emphasis was on participatory approaches. Then, the obtained data and information were combined, categorized, and ranked using A’WOT method. The results of the study showed that some factors such as: slope, rainfall, soil fertility and rural population changes did not have a significant effect on land use change. Also, contrary to claims, it was indicated that poorer groups of the society are less affective actors of land grabbing and land use changes than the rich groups. Distance from Hamedan city and its surrounding highways have had a significant effect on land cover changes. According to the results of the present research, human factors, especially political factors, power and wealth relations were the most important factors of land use and land cover changes in the study area.