The Impact Of Land Use Changes On Forest Biomass Productivity In Markia Basin Using Remote Sensing Techniques And Geographic Information Systems

Abstract

The current research aims to study the impact of changes in land use in the Markia River Basin on the biomass productivity of forests in the basin. Spot - kvi - Bka satellite images with spatial resolution (10 - 2.5 - 2.5 m respectively) were used to produce land use maps for the years (2010 - 2015 - 2020). The results showed a decline in the class of the forest lands from 95.39 km² to 89.72 km2 and 88.17 km² respectively. The class of mixed-use lands decreased from 21.01 km² to 12.43 km2, 12.03 km². While the class of agricultural land increased from 208.05 km² to 218.70 km2 and 218.29 km², respectively. also, the urban land area increased from 17.98 km² to 21.92 km2 and 23.35 km², respectively. While the changes were subtle in the barren and neglected lands.

Class changed from forest lands to other land types was also calculated. The area of land that changed from forest lands to urban lands, agricultural lands, mixed-use lands, and affected by fires was (0.30, 5.43, 1.75, 0.76) km², respectively. While the area of land that was converted from agricultural land to forest land was (0.56) km², and from mixed-use lands to forest land was (0.46) km².

Changes in land use during the years studied led to changes in the productivity of biomass in forest lands of the Markia Basin. Losing 1 km² of forest area corresponds to a loss of approximately 94.12 kg/ha of biomass productivity.