Application of Sentinel-2 satellite data in investigating land cover changes in the bed of Anzali wetland

Wetlands as an integral part of the global ecosystem in flood prevention or mitigation, feeding aquifers and providing unique habitat for plants and animals and other services and benefits are key elements of a regional conservation strategy. Anzali International Wetland in Guilan Province is one of the 10 most valuable wetlands in the world, which has undergone many changes in land use and vegetation due to structural changes resulting from man-made processes, and its nature and ecological functions have been endangered. The purpose of this study is to investigate the application of remote sensing data in mapping changes in the spatial pattern of the landscape with the help of field work training areas at the bed of the wetland and to analyze the changes of territorial cohesion based on the metrics of the landscape. First, satellite data were analyzed and Sentinel-2 images from 2016 to 2020 were classified by training areas. Then, a map of land cover in 7 classes of agriculture, barren, reed, forest, rangeland, water and urban area was created for mapping and analysis of land use metrics. After extracting class-level and landscape-level metrics in Fragstats software and determining appropriate metrics using PCA method with R and Canoco software, LPI, LSI, ENN_MN, CA, TE, NP, SHAPE_MN, PARA_MN, IJN, ARE_ Applications were selected for better analysis of the area. Analysis of metrics indicates that, in general, the landscape is fragmented, more complex and irregular in form, and more discontinuous in terms of the degree of integration of structural elements.