Mapping mangrove forest extent in Iran using Sentinel-2 imagery

Mangrove forests are coastal ecosystems that provide various benefits for ecology, economy and society. To manage these forests sustainably, accurate mapping of their distribution using modern techniques is crucial. This study aimed to map the mangrove forests along the southern coast of Iran from Khuzestan province to Sistan and Baluchestan province and identify new sites using remote sensing. The Mangrove vegetation index (MVI) was applied to Sentinel-2 images on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud computing platform. The MVI images were classified by the random forest algorithm. The final maps were evaluated by accuracy, F1-score and other common indices. The results indicated that the total area of mangrove forests in southern Iran was about 12471.8 ha (accuracy 0.98, F1-score 0.97) in October 2021 in 40 sites across four provinces: Khuzestan (286.7 ha), Bushehr (296.9 ha), Hormozgan (11281.9 ha) and Sistan and Baluchestan (606.3 ha). Moreover, some new sites, such as the mangroves of Mahshahr Harbor with an area of around 290 ha in Khuzestan province, were discovered in this study.