Altitudinal Zone Land Use Changes in Iğdir Plain Using Overlay Analysis Combined with Remote Sensing Methods Aydın T 1 and Ali Çelik M 2* 1 Department of Geography, Iğdır University, Iğdır, Turkey 2 Department of Geography, Kilis 7 Aralık University, Kilis, Turkey ABSTRACT Increments in populations, variations in irrigation systems coupled with drainage conditions caused significant changes in land use. In order to examine the changes in land uses between 1987 and 2017, Iğdır plain and its surrounding area were investigated using ArcGIS and Erdas Imagine. During these periods, urban area has increased by 142%. In Iğdır province, urban areas expanded towards agricultural areas. Depending upon drainage-amendment, irrigation opportunities and ever-mounting mechanized agriculture, dry agriculture areas have transformed into irrigated agriculture areas. Moreover, available urban areas expanded in favor farming and pasture areas. Herein, urban area increased from 7 to 13% by raising the area 27.000 hectares for the last 30 years. With the overlay analysis, up to recent years, the urban areas which are in the 800-1000 meters altitude zone have increased from 2 to 6%. In addition, the agricultural areas which were of 121.500 hectares in 1987 decreased 9000 hectares to 112.500 hectares in 2017. In the same years, irrigated agricultural areas that were of 27.000 hectares increased up to 72.000 hectares in 2017. However, dryland agricultural areas that were of 94.500 hectares in the same year decreased as 40,500 hectares. Thereby while the irrigated agricultural areas which occupied the 6% of total use increased up to 16%, the dryland agriculture areas which was 21% decreased to 9% in 2017. While 84% of the lands of 800-1000 altitude zone were dryland agricultural areas and 6% of the land was irrigated agriculture areas in 1987, the dryland agricultural areas decreased to 19% and the irrigated agricultural areas increased up to 68% in 2017. KEYWORDS: Iğdır plain; Overlay analysis; Remote sensing; Altitudinal zone; Land use INTRODUCTION Sharp and sudden changes in land uses depending on the dynamic changes associated with population movements from rural to urban areas and economy can emerge. In this context, the land use changes must be monitored at regular intervals in order to reveal and clarify the extent of the changes using remote sensing methods. With the regular and proper monitoring the areas, hindering the anthropogenic sources on wetlands, forests and other ecological factors and decreasing the flood and soil erosion are essential. In the recent years in Turkey, wetlands disappeared and disasters increased depending on the improper monitoring the land use changes. Along with the current study, land use changes in Iğdır plain- for the first time were examined for the last 30 years (1987 and 2017). Iğdır, which is our field of study, is in Erzurum-Kars zone in Eastern Anatolia Region. I ğdır has a border with Armenia in the north, Azerbaijan and Iran in the east. The border of Iğdır with Armenia and Azerbaijan is Aras River. On the other hand, the border of Iğdır with Iran has been formed by eastern part of Little Mount Ağrı (Ararat). Iğdır has a border with Ağrı in the southwest and with Kars in the northwest (Figure 1). This city is between 39°59 ’ and 44°49 ’ east longitudes; and 39°37 ’ and 40°07’ north latitudes. Iğdır province consists of two different geomorphic units; highland and bottom land. The northern half of the area is Journal of Remote Sensing & GIS Research Article * Correspondence to: Mehmet Ali Çelik, Department of Geography, Kilis 7 Aralık University, Kilis, Turkey, Tel: +905422215958; E-mail: mehmetalicelikk@gmail.com Recieved: March 19, 2019; Accepted: April 23, 2019; Published: April 30, 2019 Citation: Aydın T and Ali Çelik M (2019) Altitudinal Zone Land Use Changes in Iğdir Plain Using Overlay Analysis Combined with Remote Sensing Methods. J Remote Sens GIS. 8:263. DOI: 10.35248/2469-4134.19.8.263 Copyright:© 2020 Ali Çelik M. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. J Remote Sens GIS, Vol.8 Iss.2 No:1000263 1