Investigating the Effects of Urban Development on Rangelands and Forests of Sirvan City Using Remote Sensing 1987-2016

The aim of this study was to identify the effects of urban development on rangelands and forests of Sirvan city. In terms of nature, it has been a descriptive-analytical research by the use of Landsat 5TM satellite sensors of 1987, Landsat 7 ETM + sensors of 2000 and Landsat 8 of OLI sensors of 2016 in order to collect data. After performing geometric and atmospheric corrections on the maps, images were classified through maximum likelihood algorithm supervised method with and LCM method was used to analyze the changes. The attempt was made to study the trend of land use changes in Sirvan city to protect the forests and pastures of Sirvan city, so that it could be planned for better management. Findings showed that in the period 1987 to 2000, about 140 ha of pastures were built for human lands and in the period 2000 to 2016, about 395 ha of pastures and 20 ha of forests were built for human lands. In a period of 29 years, 6850 ha of pastures and 680 ha of forests were changed to agricultural lands and according to the results, urban development has turned the rangeland and forest lands of Sirvan city into residential lands.Urban Development.