Land Use and Land Cover Map of Ninevah GovernorateUsing Remote SensingData

Abstract

Changes in the nature of land use activities, in time and space, often result in land cover changes and, as such, are an indication of land management activities. This research represents an attempt to evaluate the ability of using the new version of Anderson's classification system up to the third level in the land use and land cover classifications of Ninevah Governorate using Landsat TM7 imagery. The study area represents one of the most varied and complex geomorphic landscapes in Iraq, and characterized by irregular land use and different land cover in the geomorphic distribution of landforms. Geomorphic agent represent the main factors in the spatial distribution of soil types, lithological escarpments, and the existing land use patterns. The land use and land cover map shows the whole of the apparent activities up to the third level according to the USGS system, and 27 classes of land use are shown in the final map. The results show that visual analyses of satellite images, applying methods similar to those commonly used for aerial photo analysis, are sufficient for observing features shown on 1:100,000 scale Landsat images. Digital classification is appropriate for some applications, but it was found that land use and land cover mapping projects of the type described here are not among them. These data were utilized to draw a new regional land use and land cover map of Ninevah Governorate at a scale of 1:250,000 .