A Remote Sensing Evaluation for Agronomic Land Use Mapping in the Tehran Province, Iran

Abstract

It has become essential to prepare land use maps because these are recognized as necessary tools for the preparation of land capability, land classification and land suitability maps which in turn provide guidelines for the regional planning, development and future orientation of agriculture in the regional system. The principal objective of this study is to identify, demarcate and map agricultural land use categories of Tehran province on basis of remote sensing survey technique. In this research, Landsat ETM images of July 2006 were used to expose the use of remote sensing technique in order to produce current land use map of the study area. Analysis indicates that the major parts of the area comprise rangeland with the total surface area of 1146585 ha. About 102080 ha of the total area was occupied by rock outcrop and forest land. The remaining surface area was under cultivation. @ JASEM Man has been using land for one purpose or another from time immemorial and the systematization of knowledge relating to land use dates as far back as the imposition of taxes on land according to its use and quality (Singh& Dhilloon, 2004). The beginning of land use studies and surveys may be traced to the regional surveys which were of a purely general academic interest until the planners discovered the value of land use studies (Singh, 1997). However, the idea of a map showing the use of land was mooted by Sauer (1919). Proximate survey technique was the earliest form of a survey technique which accurately marks the location of various objects on the surface of the earth. The new technique of land use mapping was developed to overcome the shortcoming of the proximate sensing technique. The satellites fitted with various remote sensing appliances like electro