Detecting Spatial-Temporal Changes in Land Use Using Satellite Data in Haraz Basin

In recent decades, rapid and incorrect changes in land use have been associated with consequences such as natural resources degradation and environmental pollution. Detecting land use changes is a suitable technique for natural resources management. The goal of this research is to study the land use change in Haraz Basin with an area of 677000 hectares in 15 years (1996-2011) using Landsat data. After making the necessary corrections and preparing the indices, images were categorized into nine classes via supervised classification and Maximum Likelihood Algorithm. Finally, the changes were extracted by post-classification comparison. The results showed that there has been a 27.5% change in land use of the area during the 15 years. These changes are related to conversion of rangelands to bare lands and dry farming ones, and conversion of dense forests to sparse forests, horticulture, farming lands, and residential areas. These changes can be due to an increase in population and human activities, which result in increasing demands for natural resources and converting them into farming lands, horticulture, residential and industrial areas. These land use changes along with climate changes raise the alarm for the Haraz Basin status in the future.