Use of Remote Sensing in Monitoring the Trend of Changes of Anzali Wetland in Iran and Proposing Environmental Management Solution

There are two approaches regarding environmental changes. One of the is ignoring them and continuing present trend in future, and the other is identifying these changes and preparing environmental management program in order to control their negative impacts and plan for the improvement of environmental condition. Anzali international wetland is one of the protected wetlands in Iran which is influenced by water consumptions, pollution entrance and land use changes. This research aims to identify the trend of environmental changes of Anzali wetland in a temporal scale of ten years using remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) to provide data for environmental management plan of the wetland. In order to achieve this goal, firstly satellite images of the wetland’s area were obtained and interpreted to land cover maps. After that wetland characteristics were compared to derive trend of changes. The results indicate degradation in the wetland in period of investigation, and changes in wetland characteristics like area of water body and different vegetation types shows increase in wetland’s Eutrophication. Also the results show that this wetland is influenced by Caspian Sea level fluctuation.