Investigation of Hendijan Basin Land Cover Changes, Leading to Dust Sources of Khuzestan

Land cover change has become one of the most challenges due to the interaction of negative effects of climate change with human activities. In this study, land cover changes in the Hendijan Basin with a focus on the impact on dust sources located in Khuzestan province were investigated. Areas of forests, rangelands, woodlands, water, agricultural lands, residential and barren lands were extracted during 30 years at 1987 and 2017 using Landsat image processing. Dust sources located in Khuzestan have been monitored and land cover changes in have been revealed. The results show that trend of land cover changes inside and outside Khuzestan province is different from each other. In fact, the highest rate of change compared to beginning of study is occurred in mountainous part of the Hindijan Basin is due to increasing lakes of dams (9.7 times) and in the plain part due to the expansion of residential lands and also increasing cultivated area (8 and 4.9 times). Also, 936.31 square kilometers, has been added to barren lands, at the same time, the area of rangelands and forests has decreased 367.60 and 2633.40 square kilometers, respectively. Detection of changes in Khuzestan dust sources shows that the east and southeast area of Ahvaz, which was covered with vegetation and water (seasonal floods and flood plains) in winter of 1366, has become barren land in 1396. Monitoring land cover changes and reporting results helps managers make more informed decisions.