ارزيابي روند تغييرات پوشش اراضي منطقه حفاظت شده ارسباران در فاصله زماني 2002، 2006 و 2008 ميلادي با استفاده از تصاوير ماهواره اي

Assessment of the Trend of Changes in Land Cover of Arasbaran Protected Area Using Satellite Images of2002, 2006 and 2008

Land use is one of the main factors by which man has affected his environment, and historically the most important land use change induced by human has been the destruction of forest areas and changing them into arable lands and settlements.In this research, assessment of trend of changes in land cover of Arasbaran protected area is carriedout by use of three time series of satellite images. The most important land cover classes distinguishedin the area are river, orchards, settlements, farms, bare lands, rangelands and forests.Findings show that the reduction of valuable forest areas of Arasbaran which is noticeable in theperiod of 2002 to 2006, grows with much higher speed in 2006 to 2008 in a way that in only two years, more than 10 percent of forest land cover has disappeared which this destruction trend is veryconsiderable.