Investigating the Effect of Dam Construction on Land Use Change and Land Cover in the Period 1991 to 2020 (Case Study: Gotvand-Khuzestan Dam)

Humans are always trying to change land to use natural resources to meet their needs. One of the land use changes that take place in order to benefit from sustainable water resources is dam construction. Dam construction has many positive and negative consequences for the environment from the beginning to use. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of Gotvand Dam on the problem of collision of water flow path with salt domes and large volume accumulation of salt behind the dam lake. Images of the Landsat 5 satellite TM sensor for 1991, Landsat 7 satellite ETM+ sensor for 2008, and Landsat 8 satellite OLI sensor for 2020 were used to classify images, and prepare land use maps of the studied basin. Reviewing and evaluating the land use maps of the study area showed that agricultural lands are being developed after the operation of the dam. Also, barren lands were decreasing as well as the area's water content was increasing during the study period. In the second period of study (2008-2020), the population of the regions with an increasing area has been increasing. Also, the rangeland and meadows had a decreasing trend during the first and second periods. The results of classification accuracy using the object-oriented method for three periods of 1991, 2008, and 2020 were obtained as 0.92, 0.97, and 0.93, respectively. In general, it can be stated that the construction of the dam has increased the area under cultivation of land and by increasing population and urbanization in the construction area of the dam, destruction and reduction of rangelands occurred.