Landscape change assessment of reservation areas using remote sensing and landscape metrics (case study: Jajroud reservation, Iran)

Shirkou Jaafari (), Yousef Sakieh (), Afshin Alizadeh Shabani (), Afshin Danehkar () and Ali-akbar Nazarisamani ()
Additional contact information
Shirkou Jaafari: University of Tehran
Yousef Sakieh: Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
Afshin Alizadeh Shabani: University of Tehran
Afshin Danehkar: University of Tehran
Ali-akbar Nazarisamani: University of Tehran

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2016, vol. 18, issue 6, No 10, 1717 pages

Abstract: Abstract Understanding and analyzing the dynamics of reservation areas, as one of the most valuable ecological resources, is of great importance for effective management of these environments. Monitoring the process of land-use/land-cover (LULC) transformations in these areas and knowing their driving forces would contribute to an informed decision making. In this study, an integrated application of satellite imagery interpretation and landscape ecology approach is implemented to quantify and analyze the landscape dynamics of Jajroud reservation area, Iran. The digital images collected by satellite at 1986, 2000, and 2010 were classified following an ensemble classification method. The resultant LULC maps included six categories of orchard, healthy rangeland, degraded rangeland, afforest, water, and urban. Landscape metrics-based analysis of temporal patterns of LULCs indicated that Jajroud reservation area has been undergoing rapid and drastic changes over the past 25 years. Based on class area metric at landscape level, changes were mostly due to the conversion of degraded rangeland and orchard to urban category. The impervious area expanded approximately fivefold from 1986 to 2010. Based on Largest Patch Index metric, the dominant land-cover class across the study time frame was degraded rangeland that decreased from 1986 to 2010. The main driving forces of urban growth in the area were willingness of local residents to sell their orchard lands and having financial interests. Because of rapid economic development and expansion of human-constructed elements, the landscape of the area experienced a fragmentation process during the last three decades. The study demonstrated that integrated application of satellite imagery and landscape metrics can be a useful and easy-to-implement tool for environmental impact assessment of an ongoing urbanization process.

Keywords: Land-use change; Landscape metrics; Remote sensing; Jajroud reservation area; Iran (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-015-9712-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:endesu:v:18:y:2016:i:6:d:10.1007_s10668-015-9712-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-015-9712-4

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().