Urbanization and forest cover change in regional directorate of Trabzon forestry from 1975 to 2000 using landsat data

In this study, forest cover change and urbanization in the borders of Regional Directorate of Trabzon Forestry (RDTF), which is located in NE of Turkey, was investigated during a 25 year period. Spatial and temporal changes in forest cover were also analyzed using Geographical Information System (GIS) and FRAGSTATS™. Forest cover changes were detected from a time series of satellite images of Landsat MSS in 1975, Landsat TM in 1987, and Landsat ETM+ in 2000 using Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS. The results showed a decrease in forest area, productive forest area and degraded forest area. Total forest area decreased in the first period (1975–1987), however increased during the second (1987–2000) period. 36 807 hectares (7% of the study area) mixed forest area converted to conifer forest. During the whole study period, the average annual deforestation rate was 977 ha year−1, equivalent to 0.42% year−1 using the compound-interest-rate formula. Total number of forest fragments decreased from 135,039 to 132,839 (1.6%) during a 25 year period. On the other hand, total population lived in the borders of Trabzon City increased from 1975 to 2000 even though the rural population decreased. According to the results, the decrease of forest areas may well be explained by increasing population and urbanization. The decrease of number of patches and degraded forest area can be disclosed by the fact that the decline of rural population has positively affected the development of forest areas.