Investigating the effect of geothermal power plant on vegetation around the site using satellite images processing (Case Study: Geothermal power station of Meshkinshar)

The life and development of human societies requires energy production and consumption, the need to pay attention to the environment and the fatalities of fossil fuels for energy production has focused on the use of energy from renewable energy sources. New energies are important because they are a good alternative to fossil fuels. Fossil fuels cause environmental pollution and air pollution. Geothermal plants, on the other hand, also have environmental impacts on vegetation around the power plants. In this research, various vegetation indices have been used to investigate the potential damaging effects of Meshkinshahr geothermal power plant on vegetation around the site of the power plant. Investigations using Landsat 7 and 8 satellite images and ETM + and OLI sensors from the target area and extracting the SAVI index in two periods of 2000 and 2017 showed that the vegetation index of the areas around the site of the power plant Geothermal has dropped to 6.68 square kilometers. Residential, soil and water areas also increased 53.69, 14.26 and 0/255% respectively. Comparison of two classified images showed that the lagoon class in 2000 had an area equal to 11.18 km2, down from 95.91 km2 in 2017. In addition, the class of residential areas in 2000 has an area of 95.74 km2, in 2017, it is up to 120.41 km2, the soil class ranges from 219.59 km2 to 405.82 km2 and the water class ranges from 0.43 to 0.69 km2 has risen.The life and development of human societies requires energy production and consumption, the need to pay attention to the environment and the fatalities of fossil fuels for energy production has focused on the use of energy from renewable energy sources. New energies are important because they are a good alternative to fossil fuels. Fossil fuels cause environmental pollution and air pollution. Geothermal plants, on the other hand, also have environmental impacts on vegetation around the power plants. In this research, various vegetation indices have been used to investigate the potential damaging effects of Meshkinshahr geothermal power plant on vegetation around the site of the power plant. Investigations using Landsat 7 and 8 satellite images and ETM + and OLI sensors from the target area and extracting the SAVI index in two periods of 2000 and 2017 showed that the vegetation index of the areas around the site of the power plant Geothermal has dropped to 6.68 square kilometers. Residential, soil and water areas also increased 53.69, 14.26 and 0/255% respectively. Comparison of two classified images showed that the lagoon class in 2000 had an area equal to 11.18 km2, down from 95.91 km2 in 2017. In addition, the class of residential areas in 2000 has an area of 95.74 km2, in 2017, it is up to 120.41 km2, the soil class ranges from 219.59 km2 to 405.82 km2 and the water class ranges from 0.43 to 0.69 km2 has risen.