Explanation of Physical-Spatial Consequences of Agricultural Land Use Changes in the Villages of Khammam District of Rasht Township

The village is the first form of human collective life in a natural arena that has special economic, social-cultural, and physical characteristics. With changes in the activities and characteristics of rural settlements through the expansion of physical space, increase in population and changes in functions, some of them undergo profound transformation. Over time, they experience special physical conditions and gradually become inclined towards urban functions, and the activities also change from agriculture to industry and services. The present study was conducted with the aim of measuring agricultural land use changes and its physical-spatial consequences in Khammam district. The applied method is descriptive-analytical. Data and information have been collected by observation, documentary and field methods. GIS software is used for data analysis. Then, the changes in agricultural land use from 1996 to 2016 have been extracted, compared and analyzed in three classes of agriculture, man-made and barren space. The findings indicate that a significant area of productive land in the studied villages has been changed in favor of other uses. Field observations and questionnaire outputs also indicate that a large area of agricultural land, especially in the target villages of tourism, has been converted into second homes, tourist towns and residential complexes. Also, Most of the effects of tourism are on garden and agricultural lands.