ISSN 2319-8885
Vol.03,Issue.17
August-2014,
Pages:3555-3560
www.semargroup.org,
www.ijsetr.com
Land Use and Land Cover Changes of Al-Kut City in Iraq using Remote
Sensing and GIS Techniques
KAREEM NAJI MOHSIN1, J. VENKATESH2, DR. ABDUL HAQ HADI ABED ALI3
1
PG Scholar, JNTUH, Institute of Science and Technology, Center for Spatial Information Technology(Geo-Informatics and
Surveying Technology), Kukatpally, Hyderabad, India, Email: [email protected].
2
Assoc Prof, JNTUH, Institute of Science and Technology, Center for Spatial Information Technology, Kukatpally, Hyderabad,
India, E-mail: [email protected].
3
Assoc Prof, Highway and Transportation, Eng. College- AL Mustansiriyh University, Iraq,
Email: [email protected].
Abstract: This present study examines the use of GIS and Remote Sensing in mapping Land Use Land Cover of Al-kut, Iraq
between 2002 and 2010 so as to detect the changes that has taken place in this status between these periods. Subsequently, it
deals with a comprehensive evaluation and integrated analysis of Land Use/Land Cover titled, “Land use and Land cover
changes of Al-Kut city in Iraq using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques". This study has been carried out using satellite
based remote sensing and GIS techniques in Land Use/Land Cover identification, which located in wasit Province, Iraq.
Change detection is the measure of the distinct data framework and thematic change information that can guide to more
tangible insights into underlying process involving land cover and land use changes than the information obtained from
continuous change. Change detection is the process that helps in determining the changes associated with Land Use and Land
Cover properties with reference to geo-registered high resolution (HR) remote sensing data with the help of image
interpretation keys in identifying change between two time periods that is uncharacterized of normal variation. Change
detection is useful in many applications such as Land Use changes, habitat fragmentation, rate of deforestation, urban sprawl,
and other cumulative changes through spatial and temporal analysis techniques. The result of the work shows growth in built-up
land between 2002 and 2010, while waste land decreasing, which is due to the development in the city.
Keywords: GIS, High Resolution(HR), Land Use Land Cover, Change Detection.
I. INTRODUCTION
Development and population growth have triggered rapid
changes to Earth’s land cover over the last two centuries,
these rapid changes are superposed on long-term dynamics
associated with climate variability. Land cover change can
affect the ability of the land to sustain human activities
through the provision of multiple ecosystem services and
pave a path to monitor the long-term trends as well as inter
annual variability and at a level of spatial detail to allow the
study of human- induced changes. Land is becoming more
and more scare as a resource, and this is particularly true of
land available for primary production of biomass or for
conservation related purposes. Competition for land among
different uses is becoming acute and conflicts related to this
competition more frequent and more complex. This
competition is often most apparent on the peri-urban fringe,
where the continuing pressures of urban expansion compete
with agricultural enterprises, and with recreational demands.
Such situations frequently lead to rapid increases in the
economic value of land, and land tenure becomes an
important political issue. Many factors associated with global
change directly or indirectly influence how land is used.
These include biophysical influences, such as changes in
climate or natural or human-induced disasters, as well as
socio-economic aspects such as trade liberalization, the
globalization of markets, decentralization of decision
making, privatization, and the widening gap between the
"haves" and the "have-nots".
Land cover, defined as the assemblage of biotic and abiotic
components on the Earth’s surface, is one of the most crucial
properties of the Earth system. There are three fundamental
ways in which it is important (Turner et al., 1994). The first
lies in the interaction of land cover with the atmosphere,
which leads to regulation of the hydrologic cycle and energy
budget, and as such is needed both for weather and climate
prediction (DeFries et al., 2002). Second, land cover plays a
major role in the carbon cycle acting as both sources and
sinks of carbon. In particular, the rates of deforestation,
afforestation and regrowth play a significant role in the
release and sequestering of carbon and consequently affect
atmospheric CO2 concentration and the strength of the
greenhouse effect (IPCC, 2000;). Finally, land cover also
reflects the availability of food, fuel, timber, fiber, and shelter
Copyright @ 2014 SEMAR GROUPS TECHNICAL SOCIETY. All rights reserved.
KAREEM NAJI MOHSIN, J.VENKATESH, DR.ABDUL HAQ HADI ABED ALI
resources for human populations, and serves as a critical
study is 232 KM2 and this study using two satellite data
indicator of other ecosystem services such as biodiversity.
higher resolution 2002 and 2010 as shown in fig. 1.
Information on land cover is fundamental to many
national/global
applications
including
watershed
management and agricultural productivity. Thus, the need to
monitor land cover is derived from multiple intersecting
drivers, including the physical climate, ecosystem health, and
societal needs. In simple words.
Land cover is the physical material at the surface of the
earth. Land cover includes grass, asphalt, trees, bare ground,
water, etc. There are two primary methods for capturing
information on land cover viz. field survey and analysis of
remotely sensed imagery. The nature of land cover is
discussed in Lex Comber et al. (2005). Land cover is distinct
from land use despite the two terms often being used
interchangeably.
Fig.1. study area.
Land use is a description of how people utilize the land for
socio-economic activity - urban and agricultural land uses are
two of the most commonly known land use classes. At any
one point or place, there may be multiple and alternate land
uses, the specification of which may have a political
dimension. The origins of the ‘land cover / land use’ couplet
and the implications of their confusion are discussed in Pete
Fisher et al. (2005). The terms “land cover (LC)” and “land
use (LU)” are sometimes used interchangeably, they are
actually different. Land cover is what covers the surface of
the earth and land use describes how the land is used.
Examples of land cover classes include: water, snow,
grassland, deciduous forest, and bare soil. Land use examples
include: wildlife management area, agricultural land, urban,
recreation area etc. Two land parcels may have similar land
cover, but different land use. For instance, a golf course and
an office building are both commercial land uses. The former
would have a land cover of grass, while the latter would be
considered built up.
III. WORK PLAN
Generation of Thematic layers database is accomplished
through a series of procedural steps. The methodology used
in the preparation of land use/land cover map of the study
area is shown in fig.2. Basically the methodology comprises
of the following functional components:
 Data Acquisition
 Data Processing and Integration
 Developing of A classification Scheme
 Initial Land use/Land Cover Mapping
 Field Verification
 Land use/Land cover Maps Modification
 Final Production Thematic Maps And then,
 Statistical Analysis and Change Detection
 Report Generation
II. STUDY AREA
Al-Kut is a city in south of Iraq. Basically Iraq is located
between latitudes 29° 5’ and 37° 22’ N & longitudes 38° 45’
and 48° 45’ E , Iraq borders :Syria to the northwest, Turkey
to the north, Iran to the east, Jordan to the west, Saudi Arabia
to the south and southwest, and Kuwait to the south. Iraq has
a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (36 mi) on the
northern Persian Gulf. The capital city, Baghdad is in the
center-east of the country. Two major rivers, the Tigris and
Euphrates, run through the centre of Iraq, flowing from
northwest to southeast. These rivers provide Iraq with
agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and
desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia.
AL-KUT; is a city in Iraq and the capital of WASSIT
province is located in the Iraqi CITY of KUT, 180
kilometers southeast of the capital, Baghdad. KUT city lies
238 km south of Diyala, 272 km east of Babylon, lies 100 km
west of Iran, 353 km northeast Dewania, 187 km north
Nasiriya and 191 km northwest Amara , the total area of the
Fig. 2. Work Plan.
International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research
Volume.03, IssueNo.17, August-2014, Pages: 3555-3560
Land Use and Land Cover Changes of Al-Kut City in Iraq using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques
IV. CHANGE DETECTION
It can be seen that agriculture zone, built-up area and
water body have increased, while wasteland area decreased
by 240 ha in the study area. In the comparison of map of
2002 and of 2010, it can see from table(1) the total area
change percentage in different classes in the classified
different landuse / landcover maps, the total change in builup 0.94% followed by agriculture 0.84%, water bodies 0.60%
vegetation 0.07% with the increasing, while waste land is
decearsing highly, which reveals the development and uses of
this category under built-up and agriculture.
TABLE I: Total Area Change Percentage in Different
Classes
(a)
V. MAP PRODUCTION
This research work demonstrates the ability of GIS and
Remote Sensing in capturing spatial-temporal data. Attempt
was made to capture as accurate as possible five land use
land cover classes as they change through time. From our
result is production land use / land cover map for each class
in year 2002, 2010 from satellite data quick bird high
resolution 2002, 2010 by using Gis and compute the change
rate for each class and the range of improvement result as
shown in Figs.3 to 8.
TABLE II: Lu/Lc Classification Scheme
(b)
Fig.3. LU/LC maps of alkut city, (a) LU/LC maps of alkut
city 2002, (b) LU/LC maps of alkut city 2010.
(a)
International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research
Volume.03, IssueNo.17, August-2014, Pages: 3555-3560
KAREEM NAJI MOHSIN, J.VENKATESH, DR.ABDUL HAQ HADI ABED ALI
(b)
Fig.4. Agriculture land maps of alkut city, (a) Agriculture
Land Map of Alkut City 2002, (b) Agriculture Land Map
of Alkut City 2010.
(a)
(a)
(b)
Fig.6. Vegetation land maps of alkut city, (a) Vegetation
Land Map of Alkut City 2002, (b) Vegetation Land Map
of Alkut City 2010.
(b)
Fig.5. Bult-up land maps of alkut city, (a) Bult-Up Land
Map of Alkut City 2002, (b) Bult-Up Land Map of Alkut
(a)
City 2010.
International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research
Volume.03, IssueNo.17, August-2014, Pages: 3555-3560
Land Use and Land Cover Changes of Al-Kut City in Iraq using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques
VI. CONCLUSIONS
The analyses of LULC changes during 2002 and 2010; in
the study area revealed the following.
1. Built up land in study area has considerable increased
4480.068899 ha to 4254.581472 ha from 2002 to 2010.
2. Waterbodies has considerable increased from
961.573197 ha in 2002 to 1104.416854 ha in 2010. This
increment leads to growth and development in all around
features of the study area with the extensive project of
the government for the development of canal, tank and
reservoir.
3. Agricultural land has increase from 5473.442 ha to
15666.4647 during 2002 to 2010.
4. Forest vegetation area has also inceased from
414.412424 ha to 435.47555 during 2002 to 2010, due to
the availability of water bodies.
(b).
5.
Wasteland area has decreased from 1811.400708 ha to
Fig.7. Waste land maps of alkut city, (a) Waste Land
1517.540965 between 2002 to 2010, because increasing
Map of Alkut City 2002, Waste Land Map of Alkut City
land cover changes due to rapid population growth and
2010.
cultivation of agricultural land, buil-up area and due to
change in water capacity in study area.
The above five classes are the attempt that has been made to
link the LULC changes accord in the study area to the socioeconomic conditions of the area. Because it is well known
factors with increases in population, built up area increases,
cultivable waste land reduces. Agricultural land increases,
waste land decreases and water bodies also increased.
(a)
VII. REFERENCES
[1] DeFries et al., 2002. Human modification of the
landscape and surface climate in the next fifty years. In:
Global Change Biology, 8: 438-458.
[2] IPCC I and use, land use change and forestry. A Special
Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. UK. 377p.
[3] Lex Comber et al. (2005). "What Is Land
Cover?". Environment and Planning B: Planning and
Design (32): 199–209.
[4] ete Fisher et al. (2005). "Land use and Land cover:
Contradiction or Complement". In Peter Fisher, David
Unwin. Re-Presenting GIS. Chichester: Wiley. pp. 85–98.
[5] Turner CA Jr, Mack DH, Davis MM (1994) Blimp-1, a
novel zinc finger-containing protein that can drive the
maturation of B lymphocytes into immunoglobulin-secreting
cells. Cell 77:297–306.
Author’s Profile:
(b)
Fig.8. water bodies maps of alkut city, (a) Water Bodies
Map of Alkut City 2002, (b) Water Bodies Map of Alkut
City 2010.
KAREEM
NAJI
MOHSIN,
Received his Technical Diploma
Degree in Surveying from The
Institute of KUT/ Foundation of
Technical Education, Received his
Bachelor Degree in Surveying
technology from Technical college Baghdad/ Foundation of Technical
Education, IRAQ. Presently he
finished his Master of Technology in Jawaharlal Nehru
Technological University, Center for Spatial Information
International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research
Volume.03, IssueNo.17, August-2014, Pages: 3555-3560
KAREEM NAJI MOHSIN, J.VENKATESH, DR.ABDUL HAQ HADI ABED ALI
Technology, Institute of Science and Technology,
Hyderabad, INDIA. His research interest.
Mr. J.VENKATESH, M.Tech (Water
Resources Engg.), B.E (Civil Engg.)
,Associate Professor, JNTUH, Institute
of Science and Technology, Center for
Spatial
Information
Technology,
Kukatpally, Hyderabad, A.P- INDIA.
Dr. Abdulhaq Hadi Abedali, BSc in
Civil
Eng.(Mousl
University-Iraq1991), Higher Deploma in survey Eng.
(Technology
UniversityIraq1998), MSc in Highway and Airport
Engg.(Technology University - Iraq2000), PhD in Transportation Engg.
(Al-Mustansriya
University-Iraq2005). Visitor Researcher - School of Engineering –
University of Liverpool (Dynamic research group in
Pavement Engineering at Liverpool University).
International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology Research
Volume.03, IssueNo.17, August-2014, Pages: 3555-3560