Land Use Changes and Their Effects on the Value of Ecosystem Services in Hamadan- Bahar Plain: With Emphasis on Semi-Natural Areas

This paper investigated the temporal variation in and implications of agricultural land use for ecosystem services in Bahar-Plain in Hamedan Province. Using aerial photographs of the year 1968 and Landsat images of the year 2016, land cover change and ecosystem service values (ESV) were studied for an area of 167 km2. There was a marked reduction of semi-natural lands by approximately 94% within 48 years, while the residential and industrial lands increased by over 631%. Upon the large decrease in semi-natural land areas, the greatest loss in ESV (12 million dollars) occurred as this service had the highest estimated coefficient for the area. In 1968 and 2016, the estimated cost for the total ecosystem services were 71.8 and 64.3 million dollars per year, respectively. This made it possible to estimate the loss of ESV due to land use change at 7.5 million dollars per year (9.38 dollars per hectare per year). Although, there was no significant change in ecological buffer zones, the average number of these areas decreased from 49.3 in 1968 to 34.3 in 2016. In conclusion, it is recommended that land use and land cover policy should be made for future economic ‎development programs, along with the protection of natural and semi-natural areas as well as ‎diversity. ‎