Determining patterns of coastal use and monitoring its changes in Qeshm island by the approach of coastal construction management

Coastal land use changes of Qeshm Island can have different reasons that haven’t been investigated. Researchers have used images by medium resolution, especially RS with pixel 30m. in this research, a series of high-precision aerial photos with scales of 1:10,000 and 1:20,000 were used to extract patterns of coastal land use for the 51 years ago. The goals are investigation of coastal land use changes of Qeshm Island during the last half century.

The study area was defined in a buffer of 2500 m from the coastline to the land side of Qeshm Island, and the beach use patterns in this area were investigated and analyzed. At first, information sources were used to extract the coastline and determine the study area, by aerial photos of Qeshm Island in the years of 1346, 1369, 1374, 1386 and 1396. The aerial photos were ground-referenced and existing borders and land uses. In order to predict the area of ​​man-made use and its relationship with geographical effects and environmental criteria in the coastal areas of Qeshm Island, a geographically weighted regression model was used.

The results showed that barren lands, rocky hills and scattered forests are the dominant patterns of Qeshm coastal land use with relative frequency of 29.3%, 23.7% and 10.3% respectively. In the years 1346 to 1396, barren lands, agriculture, rocky hills, mangrove forest and coastal rocks have decreased by 4851, 297, 7099, 219 and 2938 hectares respectively; However, human settlements, Tepe Mahor, clay beaches, sandy beaches, wharf-ports and industrial areas have increased by 2094, 3813, 136, 5351, 644 and 1249 hectares, respectively. In the eastern areas, especially the Darghan-Qeshm axis, the most coastal land use changes related to human constructions include the construction of the Tula industrial town, the development of Qeshm and Darghan urban settlements, the construction of Bahman and Zakari wharves, the development of Darghan city and the Laft wharf. The area of ​​the coastal city of Qeshm on the east coast increased from 450 ha in 1386 to 730 ha in 1396 and the growth of the city has been towards the south and southwest. The geographically weighted regression model showed that with the variables of distance from natural habitats, distance from protected areas, beautiful coastal views and distance from the port, the area of ​​man-made use in the coastal areas of Qeshm Island can be predicted.

Analysis and review of aerial photos of Qeshm Island in the coastal area 2500 meters wide from the coast line in 1346 to 1396 in a period of 51 years showed the use of barren land that lacks forest cover. are, rocky hills and thin and scattered forest covers are the dominant uses of the coastal areas of Qeshm Island; But the planning, policies and development of the ecotourism industry as well as the capacity of marine and energy industries lead to human development and industrial, commercial and residential constructions in the coastal areas of Qeshm, especially in the year 1374 to 1396.