The Investigation of Agricultural Land Use Change Trend and their Effects on Sustainable Development Components (Zayandehrood Basin of Isfahan Province)

Currently, one of the most serious problems of agriculture in Iran is agricultural land use changes. This is a second fundamental issue after water shortage. Land use change is the main important example of human impact on the environment which induced many changes in social, economic and physical structure. So this investigation conducted to study the land use trend and their influence on sustainable development components. In this study Zayandehrood basin of Isfahan province was selected as the study area. In the present study in consistent with the nature of the research, Quantitative-qualitative methodology were used. According to the results the rate and speed of land use change process in studied area was intensely increased, as settlement lands during the study time increased from 14 thousand hectares to nearly 39 thousand hectares and their effects on sustainable development component could be divided in four elements (environmental, economic, social and agricultural).