Analyzing the Changes in Urban Green Space of Gorgan City-Iran During 1987–2014

In this research, the images of Landsat satellite 5, 7 and 8 (in the years 1987, 2001 and 2014) are used respectively to examine the process of the changes in urban green space of Gorgan City. After doing the necessary pre-processing operations in the images, the maps of land use/cover for each year were provided in three classes including built-up, barren land and green spaces by using supervised classification method. The accuracy of the classification process was assessed later. The findings showed that the green space has decreased about 4.55 km2 during 1987 - 2001. In addition, built areas has increased during the years of 2001–2014 at the rate of 15.39% equivalent to 5.48 km2, while green space has decreased 1.98 km2. The finding resulted from examining the process of changes during the 27 years reveal that green space has decreased significantly despite the physical expansion of the city, so that it has reduced from 16.40 km2 in 1987 to 9.87 km2 in 2014. The findings of this research can be considered as an effective step towards better management of Gorgan’s urban green space.