A land covers classification system for environment assessment in semi-arid regions of Iran

Abstract

Land degradation is a major danger which restricting different areas of Iran. Systematic description of the environment<br />for detection of environmental changes and the human-related causes and responses is essential in land cover change<br />study. Use of land cover data allow detection of where certain changes occur, what type of change, as well as how the<br />land is changing. Existing systems for classification of land cover is limited in the storage of the number of classes and is<br />often internally inconsistent. Therefore, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), developed the<br />land cover classification system (LCCS), a comprehensive parametric classification based upon systematic description of<br />classes using a set of independent quantifiable diagnostic criteria. With this approach land cover change detection<br />becomes possible at the level of conversion of a class, whereas modification within a certain class type becomes<br />immediately identifiable by a difference in classifier, or through the use of additional classifiers as is shown in a series of<br />examples illustrating the application of the approach to primarily vegetated areas. Our study showed this approach is<br />match with exist information and dates for land cover mapping in Iran.