Forest losses and gains in Kurdistan province, western Iran: Where do we stand?

Abstract

Zagros forests in Kurdistan province of Iran are important habitats for many species including Persian squirrel. In the past few decades, human activities such as clear cutting and agriculture have reduced the quality and quantity of these forests. The current study used Landsat Thematic Mapper images from years 1987, 2000, 2010 and 2015 to map and monitor changes in the forest extent and density in the region. Radiometric, geometric and topographic corrections were applied to the satellite images. For supervised classification training signatures for different classes were established. Training sites were evaluated for possible discrimination of each class using transformed divergence method. The maximum likelihood algorithm was used for supervised classification and post-classification method was used to detect changes over a period of 28years. The final map of land covers consisted of seven classes including barren land, agriculture, dense forest, semi-dense forest, mixed of sparse forest and rangeland, wetland plant, and water bodies. The results of change detection showed an increase in the amount of forests in this period of time, however, 3083.8hectares of dense forests, which is one of the most important areas for wildlife such as the Persian squirrel, has reduced. This information can be used by natural resource managers and it is prerequisite for further ecological studies on wildlife species in the region.