Urban development change detection based on Multi-Temporal Satellite Images as a fast tracking approach--a case study of Ahwaz County, southwestern Iran.

Rapid land-use/land-cover changes in suburbs of metropolitan cities of Iran have recently caused serious environmental damages. Detection of these changes can be a very important step in urban planning and optimal use of natural resources. Accordingly, the present study was carried out to track land-use/land-cover (LULC) changes of Ahwaz County in southwestern Iran using remote sensing techniques over a period of 26 years, from 1987 to 2013. For this, ISODATA algorithm and Maximum Likelihood were initially used for unsupervised and supervised classifications of the satellite images. The accuracy of the LULC maps was checked by the Kappa Coefficient and the Overall Accuracy methods. As the final step, the LULC changes were detected using the cross-tabulation technique. The obtained results indicated that urban and agricultural areas have been increased about 57.5 and 84.5 %, respectively, from 1987 to 2013. Further, the area of poorly vegetated regions, in the same period, has been decreased to approximately 36 %. The largest land conversion area belongs to the poorly vegetated regions, which have been declined to about 10,371 and 1,334 ha during 1987-2007 and 2007-2013, respectively. Approximately 1,670 and 382 ha of the agricultural lands have also been changed to built-up areas by about 1,670 and 382 ha during the same periods. As a result, it was found that the northwest, southwest, and south of the county were highly subjected to urban development. This would be of great importance for urban planning decision-making faced by the planners of the city in the present and future.