DETERMINATION OF LANDUSE IN THE BAIJI AREA NORTH IRAQ,

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The current research has been used the American satellite images (US Landsat-type ETM +), obtained from the University of Maryland in the United States of America. Dating on May 2006. The images has been analyzed and classified to produce landuse maps of the study area by using ERDAS IMAGINE software Ver.8.4, and the Global Mapper Program V. 10. The spectral specification was analyzed to determine and identify the main categories of land cover classification by using Supervised Classification. The studied area was divide into twelve items included green vegetation (light and thick vegetation); Sand dunes ;water; urban; river terraces; hard rock (gypsum); soft rock(claystone siltstone and sandstone); Arid soils (rich in sand clay and gravel); wet soils (sabkha ); soft soils( rich in Gypsum fragments); and the plowed soil. The final results indicated that the area of green vegetation is amounted to approximately (357.77) km² and representing the proportion of 16.17% of the study area. while the soft soils( rich in Gypsum fragments)ranked in the first to reach (511.01) km², representing accounted for 23.10% of the study area, while the presence of sand dunes play the most important negative factor affecting the region and It occupies a total area of 173.67 km².