Evaluating the Process of Physical Development of Residential Areas using Satellite Images (Case study: Hendijan city)

The increasing trend of population has caused cities to face significant physical development in recent years. In many cities, unplanned physical development has been associated with environmental degradation and environmental hazards. One of the areas that has faced with a lot of physical development in recent years is the city of Hendijan in Khuzestan province. In this research, Landsat satellite images, 30 meters high digital model and different information layers are used as the most important research data. The tools used in the research include ArcGIS (to prepare the desired maps), ENVI (to process satellite images and prepare land use maps) and IDRISI (to implement the LCM model). Also, the most important model used in the research was the LCM model, which was used to evaluate the spatial trend of land use changes. The results of this research have shown that the size of the residential areas of Hendijan city has increased by about 1.6 square kilometers during a period of 30 years. The results of the evaluation of land use changes in the region have shown that during the period of 30 years, 1.15 square kilometers of barren lands, 0.4 square kilometers of agricultural lands and 0.05 square kilometers of gardens have been converted into settlements. Also, the results of the evaluation of the spatial trend of changes have shown that the highest development rate of the residential areas was related to the northern areas of the ​​Hendijan.