Abstract

Because of their multiple ecological functions, wetlands are considered among the most important wildlife habitats in any country, which provide many services to people, especially marginal people, by storing water, food, and having high biodiversity. On the other hand, wetlands are known as the most important natural ecosystems for the survival of many plant and animal species, especially native birds. Today, climate changes and human activities in wetlands around the world have led to a decrease in water volume and an increase in land cover/use changes in these areas. Also, the ever-increasing population and urbanization in the world due to increasing pressure on natural areas and excessive and unprincipled productivity of land are known as the major threats in wetland ecosystems. It is one of the most important prerequisites for optimizing land use and productivity.
In this study, in order to investigate the trend of land cover/use changes during a 15-year period (2007, 2014 and 2022) from the Landsat TM satellite images of 2007, and OLI_TIRS for the years 2014 and 2021, according to Table 1 Google Earth Engine (GEE) was used in the web system. It should be mentioned that the selected images are related to the months of May to August due to the maximum growth of vegetation and the time of the dominant green cover of the plant species of the region. In the present study, the NDVI index was used to differentiate and separate vegetation from other land use classes, and the NDWI index was used to distinguish water zones from other land uses. Through field visits to the study area and the capability of images used in information extraction, classification of satellite images and preparation of land cover/use maps were carried out during the years under study. Based on this, the classes of land cover/use in the studied area are divided into 10 classes, including water area, water bank, seashore, main tributary (Safidroud), access channel, vegetation, hand-planted forest, agricultural land, Bare lands and built lands were classified. In this study, random forest algorithm method was used to classify the images. The sampled points for each year were 1000 samples, which were sampled from the collection, 500 samples were used to train the algorithm and 500 samples were used to evaluate the classification under study. was placed Finally, after the end of the image classification stage, the overall accuracy method was used to evaluate the classification accuracy. ,
According to the results, among the classes of land cover/uses in the region, the most increasing trend is related to the land built in 2007 with an area of ​​588.02 hectares (16.64 percent) compared to 2022 with The area is 773.81 hectares (21.89 percent). While the least changes in the access channel with an area of ​​17.57 hectares (0.5%) in 2007 compared to 2022 with an area of ​​11.85 hectares (0.34%) is allocated In general, the obtained results indicate that the Kolab coastal area of ​​Kiashahr port underwent significant changes during the studied years (2007-2022). E (decreasing/increasing change trend) has been found. The prediction results of CA-Marcove model also showed that in this area, built lands among existing land uses with an area of ​​44 788 hectares (22.31%) in 2050 compared to 2022 with an area of ​​773.81 hectares (21.89%) has the highest increasing trend. While the agricultural lands with an area of ​​667.48 hectares (18.89%) in 2050 will have the largest decreasing trend compared to 2022 with an area of ​​707.92 hectares (20.04%). ,
In this regard, therefore, the continuous increase in land cover/use changes in Kolab Bandar Kiashahr will lead to the destruction and extinction of biodiversity in this area. Therefore, minimizing the adverse effects caused by these changes as well as controlling its continuation in the coming years requires proper planning and integrated management in the correct productivity of natural resources. Also, the findings of this study can help the stakeholders in creating an opportunity to develop appropriate strategies in the direction of protecting the Kolab of Kiashahr port and reviving this wetland ecosystem.