Change detection of land cover in recent three decades using RS and GIS in Sabzkouh protected area

Sabzkouh protected area, with the variety of natural ecosystems and landscapes, is very rich from the point of diversity in climate, topography, habitats and wildlife that is located in central Zagros. Evidences show that its ecosystems such as other Iranian semiarid natural ecosystems, undergone changes in their vegetation structure over the past years. Obtaining multi-spectral and multi-temporal data via Satellite Remote Sensing (RS) with Geographical Information System (GIS) would be able to identify type, quantity and location of land use/land cover changes. The aim of present study is to detect land cover changes in recent three decades by RS in Sabzkouh region. Therefore, the images of Landsat MSS (1975) and Landsat ETM (2003), Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and Transformed Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (TSAVI1) were used as ancillary data to obtain land cover maps. These maps were produced by applying supervised maximum likelihood classifier and included five classes namely: agriculture, herbaceous rangeland, shrub and brush rangeland, barren land and forest. To detect changes, Post Classification Comparison approach was used. The net change calculations indicated that were added to shrub and brush rangelands and forest. On the other hand, herbaceous rangeland and barren land have been converted to the other classes.