Land Use/Land Cover Change Analysis Using Multi-Temporal Remote Sensing Data: A Case Study of Tigris and Euphrates Rivers Basin

Azher Ibrahim Al-Taei (), Ali Asghar Alesheikh and Ali Darvishi Boloorani
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Azher Ibrahim Al-Taei: Faculty of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran 19967-15433, Iran
Ali Asghar Alesheikh: Faculty of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran 19967-15433, Iran
Ali Darvishi Boloorani: Department of Remote Sensing & GIS, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran 14155-4665, Iran

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 5, 1-14

Abstract: Multi-temporal land use/land cover (LULC) change analysis is essential for environmental planning and recourses management. Various global LULC datasets are available now. However, they do not show strong consistency on a regional scale and are mainly time limited. Therefore, high-quality multi-temporal LULC mapping with reasonable consistency on a regional scale is still demanding. In this study, using the Landsat 7, Landsat 8, and the NASA digital elevation model (DEM), LULC mapping of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers basin (TEB) was performed by random forest (RF) classifier in the Google Earth Engine platform during 2000–2022. The spectral bands, spectral indices, morphological, and textural features were applied in the developed procedure. The results indicated that the proposed approach had accurate performance (accuracy = 0.893 and an F score = 0.820) with a good consistency with previous studies. The feature importance evaluation was carried out using Gini index, and spectral indices were identified as the most important features in LULC mapping. Overall, severe LULC change has happened in the TEB during the last two decades. Our results revealed the expansion of water and built-up classes while trees class has experienced a decreasing trend. From a regional perspective, three main areas in the east and south-east of Iraq, north-west of Iraq, and east of Syria were identified where LULC change was intense. These areas are prone to land degradation and dust storms emission problems, and it is necessary to take steps to prevent severe LULC changes in them.

Keywords: land use/land cover change mapping; Tigris–Euphrates rivers basin; remote sensing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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