Landscape change assessment of reservation areas using remote sensing and landscape metrics (case study: Jajroud reservation, Iran)

Understanding and analyzing the dynamics of reservation areas, as one of the most valuable ecological resources, is of great importance for effective management of these environments. Monitoring the process of land-use/land-cover (LULC) transformations in these areas and knowing their driving forces would contribute to an informed decision making. In this study, an integrated application of satellite imagery interpretation and landscape ecology approach is implemented to quantify and analyze the landscape dynamics of Jajroud reservation area, Iran. The digital images collected by satellite at 1986, 2000, and 2010 were classified following an ensemble classification method. The resultant LULC maps included six categories of orchard, healthy rangeland, degraded rangeland, afforest, water, and urban. Landscape metrics-based analysis of temporal patterns of LULCs indicated that Jajroud reservation area has been undergoing rapid and drastic changes over the past 25 years. Based on class area metric at landscape level, changes were mostly due to the conversion of degraded rangeland and orchard to urban category. The impervious area expanded approximately fivefold from 1986 to 2010. Based on Largest Patch Index metric, the dominant land-cover class across the study time frame was degraded rangeland that decreased from 1986 to 2010. The main driving forces of urban growth in the area were willingness of local residents to sell their orchard lands and having financial interests. Because of rapid economic development and expansion of human-constructed elements, the landscape of the area experienced a fragmentation process during the last three decades. The study demonstrated that integrated application of satellite imagery and landscape metrics can be a useful and easy-to-implement tool for environmental impact assessment of an ongoing urbanization process.