a comparative study between khojeer and sorkheh hesar national parks in terms of the trend of land cover/use changes

internationally, one of the most important purposes to establish a national park is to protect a unique ecosystem with all its inclusive biota. therefore, this will facilitate the management and protection of the neighboring lands. unfortunately, this trend was reversed in iranian national parks. during recent decades, the land cover changes in protected areas have led to the decrease of the remnant biodiversity in these areas. in this article, land use/cover change and development trend was studied by using satellite images in khojeer and sorkhe hesar national parks between 1986, 2000 and 2010. the satellite images were corrected and they were classified in five classes. the surface areas of the classes have been determined separately and they were compared between each year. the results show that during the study period, both national parks appeared with land use change toward degradation. khojeer national park faced more with decrease in range lands and sorkhe hesar national park expressed with human development, which was superior compared to the khojeer.