Urban Spatial Expansion and Land use Changes in Surrounding Villages of the Sanandaj City (During the period of 1976 - 2008)

One of the most important results of accelerative urbanization is the spatial expansion of the city and gobble of their surrounding areas، swelling villages، and agricultural lands، which is noticeable in regional metropolitan. Sanandaj City as a regional metropolitan has experienced a rapid growth in both population and plan during the recent three decades. Continuous sprawl in this city has merged eight villages including their agricultural lands، gardens، and pastures in the city. Moreover، discontinuous sprawl in this city has caused to protuberance population and extending of surrounding villages. The outcome of this process was extensive changes in Land use in those villages. The period of this study is 1976-2008، the statistical population includes 11 Surrounding villages of the Sanandaj City and Sample size is 315 households. The methodology of our research is based on extensive documentary and field study including household questionnaires، and identifying past and present land use. Our findings show extensive changes in land use of the villages studied. During 1976-2008، on annually averaging basis 104 ha and totally 3319 ha of the arable، garden and pastures of the villages studied have been converted to the other land uses. The abovementioned changes were made by different factors and agents of the Sanandaj city including discontinuous spatial expansion.