Geography Reference
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in the change matrix), which represents the transform or gain from the other four
LULC-classes (i.e., natural vegetation: 304,983 ha, artificial surfaces: 98,939 ha,
bare areas: 263,863 ha, and the natural water-bodies: 13,703 ha) into an individual
class such as cultivated lands. Therefore, the total areas of cultivation were
1,783,286 ha in 2007; and (3) The negative trend (the vertical direction in the
change matrix), that represents the transformation or loss from an individual class
(e.g., cultivated areas) into one or more of the other four LULC-classes (i.e.,
natural vegetation: 86,738 ha, artificial surfaces: 25,600 ha, bare areas: 90,864 ha,
and natural water-bodies: 19,001 ha). Therefore, the total area of cultivation was
1,303,190 ha. The greatest difference was for the class of cultivated areas—
480,096 ha or +35.49 %.
The state of the land use/land cover in 2007 was expressed in the following
areas: cultivated (1,783,286 ha), natural vegetation (403,131 ha), artificial surfaces
(89,772 ha), bare lands (2,641,953 ha), and natural water-bodies (109,580 ha).
Nature of changes/quality. For this purpose, the change matrix was generated
(Tables
6.7
and
6.8
) based on classified images from 1987 and 2007. It presented
the nature of changes of the LULC-categories for the period 1987-2007. The
results were defined by twentieth detailed combinations of the five general classes.
Figures
6.12
,
6.13
show the statistics describing the nature of LULC-changes for
the period 1987-2007.
Results from the land cover change analysis, carried out from the post-classi-
fication approach, show that cultivated land increased from 1,080,987 ha in 1987
to 1,783,286 ha in 2007 on account of the transformed areas from natural vege-
tation, bare areas, artificial surfaces and natural water-bodies lands into managed
terrestrial areas. The greatest mistake was in accounting the change value in
artificial surfaces, especially based on the remotely sensed data obtained in 1987
(TM), since this approach was based on the classification results. These results
were not efficient in classifying the artificial surfaces because the low spectral
separability within the bare areas. However, what is important is that the artificial
surfaces (especially the built-up areas) had little spectral mixture with the culti-
vated areas (especially fallow), since the greatest interest of this study is related to
it. Also, it was possible to estimate the real artificial surfaces areas from the other
two remotely sensed data gathered in 2005/ASTER-images fused with ETM+-
images and 2007 (TM).
The change from cultivated to natural water-bodies can be explained, in
addition to the errors in classification process that exist almost in every classified
class. This was due to the changes in the water capacity (flooding) of the Euphrates
in relation to the water allowed to enter to Syria from Turkey, and the natural
conditions, such as the actual planted areas and the impacts of the climatic ele-
ments. It distributes nearly from the river-bed, especially in the upper-Euphrates
(Fig.
6.14
). The change from natural vegetation to cultivated areas can be
explained because of the construction of the irrigation projects (e.g., the lands of
Maskana-east and the 21,000 ha-project). This change-class was also found in the
marginal lands northeast from Lake Al-Asad to the Al-Balikh surrounded areas,
where some of these lands had been cultivated or sometimes left as uncultivated
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