Land Cover Classification Analysis, Using Satellite Imagery (A Case Study in Shahriar County)

The importance of accurate and timely information describing the nature and extent of land resources and changes over time is increasing. We have developed a methodology to map and monitor land cover change using multi temporal Landsat data in Shahriar county of Iran for 2001 and 2014. Land cover mapping is achieved through interpretation of Landsat satellite images of 2001 and 2014 image using ENVI 4.3. Based on the Anderson land cover classification system, the land covers are classified as mountainous, bare land, rangelands and residential land. To evaluate the change maps for the 2001to 2014 interval, we randomly sampled the areas that classified as change and no-change and determined whether they were correctly classified. The maps showed that between 2001 and 2014 the amount of residential land increased from 17% to 37.4% of the total area, while rangelands, mountainous and bare land decreased from 32% to 26%, 26% to 13.2% and 24% to 23.6% respectively. The results quantify the land cover change patterns in the Shahriar County and demonstrate the potential of multi temporal Landsat to provide an accurate, economical means to map and analyze changes in land cover over time that can be used as inputs to land management and policy decisions.

Keywords:

Land cover change , Satellite Images , ENVI , Classification , Shahriar County