Land cover changes Assessment in Malayer using landscape metrics

Due to the negative effects caused by the inappropriate use of land and land use changes, it is necessary to be aware about the variability process in the environmental impacts assessment witch arising from different developments to have the best planning and sustainable management of land. This study was conducted to check the effects of landscape changes in the city of Malayer. Malayer city due to various factors such as population growth, modernization of suburban neighborhoods and etc. is experiencing changes in land cover but among them the most effective factor is policies managers.

For achieving the studies objectives first step was mapping land cover change analysis, Landsat satellite images were used in the period between 2000 and 2014 and metrics were: class area (CA), number of patches (NP), patch density (PD), largest patch index (LPI) and landscape shape index (LSI).

Findings like landscape metrics analysis shows wide replacement of open lands in the area with green and built lands. This means that from 2000 to 2014 green space is nearly doubled and open land also have decreased about 50%.  Also the increase of number of patches was more than double that shows the microlithic landscape in the region.

The final results show that the changes of green lands are promising and improving and behind of this improvement there is nothing except management focus on green space which should continue in the future for sustainable development.