Investigate land use changes in North of Urmia lake basin

Rapid population growth raises serious problem to land-use changes. The increase of population growth every year is always followed by the increasing demand of land, especially the needs for production, housing, agriculture and others. People tend to ignore land-use capability and suitability which cause land degradation and affect water balance. Due to rapid population growth, Shabestar catchment has been subjected to considerable land-use changes over the last decade the aim of this study was to investigate land use changes in North of Urmia lake basin. For this purpose land use map were extracted over the three time periods, 1990, 2007 and 2015, satellite images ETM, TM. The result showed that the extent of farming, residential, gardens and bare lands since 1990 to 2007 have increased and at this period pasture land was decreased and Water zone was totally removed.

Keywords:

land use change , satellite images , remote sensing , North of Urmia lake basin