Spatial analysis of desertification phenomenon using remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) technology Northwest Wasit Province /Iraq - a case study

Abstract

The phenomenon of desertification became a real threat to the environmental, economic and social system in our contemporary world. The need arises to find an active means and technologies to measure and study the phenomenon of desertification on deferent levels. This research has been studied an area northwest Wasit Province/Iraq using remote sensing data for two satellites (LandSat7, LandSat8) at different dates (year2000, year2013). Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), moving standard deviation index (MSDI) and Albedo have been adopted from satellite images to measure the desertification levels in study area. The result showed high clear of low, high and intense desertification at average of yearly changes (24, 104.52, 138.32 km2/year) respectively, while the vegetation cover and low desertification level have been a decrease (18.87, 246.97 km2/year) respectively. This was due to the climate changes in the world and the human factor which contributed widely in land deterioration and desertification phenomenon in the study area.