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Multi-temporal Satellite Data for Land Use/Cover (LULC) Change Detection in Zakho, Kurdistan Region-Iraq

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Abstract

Historical and current status of the land is essential for efficient environmental management. This can especially be noticed in regions that are vitally affected by climate variability and human activities such as Zakho district, Kurdistan Region-Iraq. The information and status of land use/cover (LULC) help to design an efficient and sustainable environmental management program. The present study illustrates the spatiotemporal dynamics of LULC in Zakho district, Iraq. Landsat satellite imageries of two different time periods, i.e., Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) of 1989 and Landsat Operational Land Imager (OLI) of 2017 were acquired and the changes in Zakho over a period of 28 years were quantified. Supervised classification methodology has been employed using Maximum Likelihood Algorithm. The images were categorized into eight different classes namely dense forest, sparse forest, grass, rock, soil, crop, built-up and water body. The results showed that during the last 28 years, build-up land had been increased from 9 km2 in 1989 to 49 km2 in 2017. Crops and rocks lands have been increased as well by about 102.1 and 15.39 km2, respectively. Moreover, a very slight increase has been observed in water body and soil by about 3.5 and 0.98 km2, respectively. On the other hand, dense forest, spare forest, and grass lands have been decreased by 92.83, 14.26, and 53.68 km2, respectively. This chapter concluded that a major change in Zakho district land happened in a negative trend regarding the natural environment.

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Correspondence to Yaseen T. Mustafa .

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Mustafa, Y.T. (2020). Multi-temporal Satellite Data for Land Use/Cover (LULC) Change Detection in Zakho, Kurdistan Region-Iraq. In: Al-Quraishi, A., Negm, A. (eds) Environmental Remote Sensing and GIS in Iraq. Springer Water. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21344-2_7

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