Controlling and comparison of North and South Zagros Land Use Using Landscape Ecology Approach (Case Study: Provinces of Kurdistan and Kohgiloyeh and Boyer Ahmad)

Monitoring land use and land cover changes has an important role in planning and managing environment. Vegetative Zagros region, in terms of biodiversity and genetic reserves is very important. therefore, this research investigate the basic structure of Zagros vegetative landscape and then compare the northern and southern Zagros, in Kurdistan and kohgiloyeh and Boyer Ahmad provinces. For quantifying metrics related to the land use patches the analysis of the landscape metrics in combination with the gradient analysis method in GIS and FRAGSTATS was used. Results showed that the percentage of cover of sustainable land use for the province Kurdistan, is agriculture (45%), pasture (41%) and forest (12%) and for Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, forest (45%), pasture (35%) and agriculture (12%), respectively. Generally, have Kurdistan province landscape includes the larger patches, and has simpler and more continuity, while Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad province goes toward fine grain structure.