Three Decades of Land Use Changes Analyzing in Anzali, Using GIS/RS

Land use surveys and review of environmental changes are one of the most important aspects of environmental management for future planning.

After image processing by using ERDAS software Landsat images (TM, ETM+) and Aster image (taken in 1989, 2000 and in 2011(in order to demonstrates Anzali land use changes during 3 decades, each image was classified separately, in six classes of land uses/covers: 1- built-up areas, 2- agricultural, 3- barren, 4- forest,         5- wetland, and 6- water bodies and then, the primary land use map was extracted for each image. Having finished the image classification stage, accuracy of classification was determined and area coverage for all six types of land use within the Anzali were calculated over three decades.

The results predicted a declining trend of 10.64% in forest, 8.52% in Anzali wetland and 11.54% in barren land during1989 to 2011, and also an increasing trend of 7.1% in urban areas for a time span 1989-2021. Major expansions in urban areas were witnessed around western and eastern borders of the city, particularly close to the eastern border. Scattered expansions were also predicted in Anzali wetlands registered in Ramsar Convention (Southern borders).

This study provides an opportunity to define and apply better strategies for environmental management of land use in order to make an optimized balance between urban development and ecological protection of environmental resources.