Analysis of the Relationship between Land Use Changes and Landscape Metrics (Case study: Barandozchai Watershed, Subbasin of Urmia lake watershed )

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Mohammad Koohani
• Javad Behmanesh

Urmia University

10.22067/geoeh.2024.86229.1452

Abstract

This study seeks to examine the correlation between changes in land use and landscape metrics. Sentinel-2 satellite imagery from the years 2016 and 2022 was sourced from the European Union's Copernicus website. Various preprocessing techniques were applied using different software, and the images were classified using both knowledge-based and object-oriented methods within the eCognition software platform. Subsequently, land use maps were created, and land cover metrics were assessed at both landscape and class levels using Fragstats 8.2 software.
The findings indicate that at the class level, the split index (SPLIT) recorded the highest value for the blue area, while cohesion (COHESION) showed the lowest value for both years. The grassland class displayed the highest SHAPE-MN and LSI indices, suggesting patch disorder. Failure to implement protective measures could lead to further degradation of grasslands in the Barandozchay watershed.
Furthermore, there was a declining trend in most indices related to watershed connectivity at the landscape level. Indices such as ENN_MN, CONTAG, and COHESION, representing the mean Euclidean distance between nearest neighbors, contagion, and patch cohesion respectively, exhibited a decreasing trend from 2016 to 2022. Conversely, the LSI and NP indices showed an increasing trend, indicating greater irregularity within the area.
Analysis of land use changes and land cover metrics in the Barandozchai watershed revealed that the blue area had the highest fragmentation, while dry farming experienced the least. Additionally, grassland patches demonstrated the highest connectivity, whereas dry farming patches exhibited the lowest.
At the landscape level, the results indicated a uniform distribution of patches in the Barandozchai watershed. However, an increase in the number of patches, margins, and reduction in patch size led to fragmentation and the formation of separate patches. These findings can provide valuable insights for land use management and conservation efforts in the study area.

Keywords

• Ecosystem degradation
• change trend
• Sentinel-2 satellite imagery
• object-oriented classification
• Segmentation

Main Subjects

• Biological hazards

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