Identification and zoning of Dieback oak forests in Ilam province using RS and GIS

The present resarch was performed to investigate the changes of Ilam oak forests following the occurance of tree declines and Identifying and zoning of Dieback oak stands. To study the status of Ilam forests, before the tree decline, the satellite images of Landsat 7 ETM 2001 was used. In order to identify the declined oak forest stands, classification of declined areas in terms of  topography, size and location of damaged forests in the province by training sample method in geographic information systems, satellite images of Landsat 8 in 2013 were used. The results from comparison of the satellite images of 2001 and 2013 show that the area of Ilam forests decreased about 26073 hectares (from 542252 to 516179 ha) which about 12847 ha is belongs to decline stands and about 13226 ha is belongs to construction of towns, roads, and etc. The most amount and percentage of tree decline was found in moderate class of forest density, climates of cold semi-arid, cold Mediterranean and sub-humid ultracold, in elevations of 800 to 1200 m, low slopes 0-15% and south west aspects. Also the most amount and percentage of tree decline was found in the cities of Ilam, darrehshahr and Badreh.