Monitoring of vegetation using satellite images in Damavand rangelands

Monitoring the changes in the rangelands makes it possible to make informed decisions about the application of management and protection plans. The purpose of this research is to monitor the changes from rangelands in the five-year period from 2000 to 2015 using geographic information systems and ENVI software. In this regard, Landsat images were first prepared at the specified times. By using the Minimum Distance, Mahalanobis, Maximum Likelihood, and Decision Tree, three NDVI, EVI, and SAVI indicators were modeled in 2016. Then, the best classification method was obtained by evaluating accuracy by Kappa coefficient and overall accuracy. As a result, other images for the past years were classified by this method and five classes were classified as low-density, semi-collimated, dense, non-covered, and gardens, and agricultural lands according to the subject. Educational points were also selected for both land surveying and ROI. The results showed that the tree of decision-making with the SAVI index yielded the highest accuracy with a precision of 94.73. Thus, although the area of low density and semi-dense pastures in 2005 and dense pastures in 2010 has increased, overall, during the period 2000 to 2015, all three classes of rangelands decreased. The attention and the class of gardens and agricultural lands have increased at a low level. Based on the findings of the study period, the behavior of the indicators is similar. From 2000 to 2010, the indicators were incremental, but in 2015, they decreased. Hence, it can be said that during the destruction of rangelands, the amount of non-covered areas has increased.