Land use/land cover changing aspect implications: Lesser Zab River Basin, northeastern Iraq

Research shows that regularly performed land use/land cover (LU/LC) variation detection is recommended to support different prospect organizations and management activities to resolve a variety of environmental problems. The current research aims to investigate the LU/LC pattern and measure the corresponding alteration in the arid and semi-arid climatic conditions by considering the Lesser Zab catchment, northeastern Iraq, as a typical basin area. Data from Landsat imageries for the years 1989, 1999, 2009, 2019, and 2021 were utilized. Generally, seven general classes have been noted within the study area through applying a supervised image classification process. Urban lands in 1989 covered 0.46%; however, in 2021, the urban lands increased to 5.59% compared to 1989. Agricultural lands were reduced by 11.1% between 1989 and 2021. It was identified that there has been a quick transformation from agricultural lands to urban lands. The studied basin witnessed a reduction trend in barren and agricultural lands, although urban lands experienced expansion. Whereas, a fluctuation in the occupied area by the water bodies and forest lands has been recorded during the studied period. Analyzing the spatiotemporal pattern of LU/LC would support strategy makers' detection to cope with the undesired impact of such an event. The unwanted impact of difficult ecological dynamics in the basin would be mitigated by giving particular attention to recovering the affected area to protect the basin's natural resources.