Monitoring Land Cover Changes of Forests and Coastal Areas of Northern Iran (1988-2010): A Remote Sensing Approach

Caspian Sea coastline in the Mazandaran province has been altered as a result of activities of developers attracted to aesthetic and coastal recreational aspects of forest ecosystems. Advances in GIS and RS techniques, has made it possible to study the coastal areas for better management. Hence, the present study was undertaken to determine land cover changes via applying cross classification and tabulation analysis. Landsat satellite images of 1988, 2001, 2006 and 2010 were evaluated pixel by pixel. Results showed 33487 ha of forest areas had decreased and about 21367 and 13155 ha of agricultural and residential lands had increased, respectively. The greatest change in forest areas were pertaining to agricultural and residential lands (30424 and 1265 ha, respectively). In addition, 10984 ha of agricultural lands were transformed to residential areas. Extensive land use changes, inevitably contributed to increasing of soil erosion and sedimentation in the Caspian Sea watersheds, decreasing of water quality and limiting access to clean water for recreation, fishing and industry. Results of this research could be applied to better land use managing of the Caspian Sea coastline and its watersheds, impact assessment of development projects, identifying of vulnerable areas and monitoring Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).