Assessment of the Isfahan desertification changes using remote sensing and artificial neural network

Desertification is the ecological and biological reduction of land that maybe occur naturally or unnaturally. The desertification process influences the arid and semiarid regions essentially and decrease the lands efficiency with increment speeds. Therefore, recognizing this phenomenon is very important. In this research, the Landsat satellite images 5 and 8 used as studies base for studying region desertification. Moreover, the topography maps 250000 and 50000 and geology maps used as complement too. After completing the information data base, first, the soil salinity and vegetation NDVI indices exerted on the satellite images. According to artificial neural network MLP method, the usage recognized in the studied region, according to controlled categorize method Fuzzy ARTMAP. According to studied satellite images Isfahan have been grown about 260 km2. During this 29 years’ periods, the eastern and southeast regions of Isfahan indicate the most decline in vegetation that have been encountered to decline about 60% relative to the first year of study. This decline amount is considerable in the north region of Isfahan too. With decreasing the vegetation in these regions, onset of saline and desert lands is visible that displaced to regions with vegetation. This increasing amount in saline and desert regions is about 580 km2 that represent decreasing the ecologic and biologic potential of region.