List of Articles Azad Kakehmami

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  1 - Study of the relationship between land use and vegetation changes with the land surface temperature in Namin County
  Azad Kakehmami Ardavan Ghorbani Sayyad Asghari Sarasekanrood Ehsan Ghale Sahar Ghafari
  10.30495/girs.2020.674652
  http://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.26767082.1399.11.2.2.8
  Background and ObjectiveRapid development of cities due to extensive changes in land use and land cover has had negative effects on global environmental quality. Land cover and  land use changes, and the development of urban and agricultural regions and deforestati More

  Background and ObjectiveRapid development of cities due to extensive changes in land use and land cover has had negative effects on global environmental quality. Land cover and  land use changes, and the development of urban and agricultural regions and deforestation are changing the regional and local temperature regime. Knowing the land surface temperature degrees contribute significantly to a wide range of issues relating to the Earth science such as urban climate, global environmental changes, and the study of the interaction of human and the environment. The lack of sufficient meteorological stations to be aware of temperature values in regions lacking a station is considered as a major flaw in monitoring the land surface temperature. Due to the information limitations, collecting data especially to a large extent,  is associated with many problems and obstacles, and the real-time access is difficult or impossible. Therefore, the need to use remote sensing technology with time conditions along with the feature of continuity and data collection in wide ranges can be very effective. The purpose of this study is to investigate the land surface temperature of Namin county in a period of 28 years and to compare the obtained results with land use and vegetation changes. Materials and MethodsThe data used in this study included  Landsat 8 satellite image of the OLI sensor in order to extract land use map and  TIRS sensor image to extract land surface temperature for the year 2015. Moreover, Landsat 5 satellite image of the TM sensor were used to extract land use map by using visible and infrared bands, and also to extract land surface temperature by using thermal bands for the year 1987. Images were taken in late spring and early summer due to the lack of high cloudy and snowy covers , as well as the high intensity of sunlight. The eCognition8.9 software was used for object-based classification. Classification in five classes (dry and irrigated farming, rangeland, forest and residential) and six classes (dry and irrigated farming, rangeland, forest, residential and water bodies) were selected  for the years 1987 and 2015 respectively. To assess the accuracy and comparison of the obtained maps, the error matrix, overall accuracy, and kappa statistics were used. Split-Window method was used to extract the land surface temperature of the study area. Finally, in order to analyze the relationship between land surface temperature with vegetation index, the correlation coefficients between land surface temperature and vegetation index were calculated based on land use types in the years 1987 and 2015. Results and Discussion The highest land use area in the years 1987 and 2015 belongs to the rangeland use with 43781 and 34114 hectares  respectively and the second land use area belongs to dry farming use with 23854 and 33277 hectares respectively. Moreover due to the lack of water use , the lowest land use area in 1987 belongs to residential use with 1301 hectares, while in 2015 with the construction of water structures, water use with an area of 86 hectares has the lowest land use area. The highest land use area increase was in the dry farming with 9423 hectares, which is a significant increase compared to 1987. The highest recorded temperature for Namin county in 1987 and 2015 was related to dry farming use (34°C and 27°C, respectively), indicating the concentration of heat in these regions. This type of land use has the highest temperature due to the factors such as the dryness of the products at this time and the harvest of the products. In 1987, dry farming use had the highest temperature (34°C), but in 2015 it experienced a decrease in temperature (27°C), despite the fact that it had the highest land surface temperature compared to other  types of land uses in 2015. The reason can be attributed to the factor of harvesting crops. Due to the fact that the rainfed crops in the study area are mostly wheat, and at this time of the season, most of the wheat is ripe or harvested, so the transpiration of these products is insignificant. The lowest recorded temperatures in Namin county are related to the uses of water bodies (21°C), forest (21°C) and irrigated farming (22°C), respectively. Since water has a high heat capacity, it has the greatest effect on reducing the temperature. In forest and irrigated farming land uses, due to the higher vegetation density, the land surface temperature has the lowest value (23°C and 24°C in 1987 and 21°C and 22°C in 2015 respectively) compared to the other land use types. Agricultural land use in this area has the lowest land surface temperature (24°C in 1987 and 21°C in 2015) after forest areas. Due to the fact that the crops cultivated in this area are plants such as potatoes and these plants have more water needs, therefore these plants have a high greenness value at June to early July, which has led to more transpiration in the area where they are cultivated than other areas, thus it has been very effective in keeping the land surface temperature cool. The rangeland use has had high land surface temperatures (27°C and 25°C, respectively) in the two study  years, and there is little difference between the two years. According to the study season which was late June to early July, the high temperature of this land use type is due to the increase in the areas lacking canopy cover or areas having low or scattered vegetation. Due to the fact that in August, most of the leaves and brunches of the existing plants are dry and the transpiration is low, high temperatures are also recorded. The relationship between land surface temperature and vegetation index in rangeland use in the two study years had the highest correlation (0.91 in 1987 and 0.83 in 2015), while the correlation coefficient of the forest use was the lowest (0.46 in 1987 and 0.23 in 2015). Conclusion Land use type and land use and vegetation changes have a significant effect on land surface temperature changes. However, areas without vegetation have a higher land surface temperature than the areas with vegetation. The results showed that there was no significant correlation between vegetation cover and land surface temperature, which is mainly due to sufficient vegetation. In general, the results showed that in most areas with lower temperatures, there is high density vegetation indicating an inverse relationship between vegetation index and land surface temperature. Manuscript profile
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  2 - Analysis of land use/ cover changes in Ardabil province using landscape metrics
  Azad Kakehmami Mehdi Moameri Ardavan Ghorbani Sahar Ghafari
  10.30495/girs.2020.674952
  http://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.26767082.1399.11.3.4.2
  Background and ObjectiveAssessing the process of land use and land cover (LULC) changes leads to a clear understanding of how humans and the environment interact. Landscape metrics can be used as a basis for comparing different scenarios of landscape or recognizing chan More

  Background and ObjectiveAssessing the process of land use and land cover (LULC) changes leads to a clear understanding of how humans and the environment interact. Landscape metrics can be used as a basis for comparing different scenarios of landscape or recognizing changes and developments in landscape over time. The use of landscape metrics, while saving time, makes it possible to assess the environmental impact of human activities in the shortest time. Population growth in recent decades, the region's high potential for farming, rising expectations and higher demand for income, low employment rates, tourism in the region, the development of communication routes, as well as inappropriate decisions in recent years have led to many changes in Ardabil province. Given the ecological importance of the study area, it seems that the analysis of the relationship between landscape metrics and LULC changes of Ardabil province in the period 1987 to 2015 is a way to quantify the impact of these changes on the landscape. Materials and MethodsIn this study, the data of Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor (1987) and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor (2015) were used in a 28-year period to evaluate the trend of LULC changes in Ardabil province. In order to accuracy assessment and geometric correction of LULC maps, 1:25000 topographic maps of the National Cartographic Center of Iran were used. After preparing LULC change maps, LULC metrics were extracted using the FRAGSTATS software. In order to avoid the production of additional information, based on the literature review and expert knowledge, and according to the appropriateness of the criteria with the aim of studying and paying attention to the correlation between there, a set of landscape metrics related to LULC change was extracted. Then, the index of class area (CA), percentage of landscape (PL), number of patches (NP), mean patch size (MPS), edge density (ED), largest patch index (LPI), total edge(TE) and patch density (PD) were calculated and their relationship to LU/LC changes was analyzed by comparative analysis method. Results and Discussion The biggest change in the mean patch size of LULC in the period of 1987 to 2015 (75186 and 1164.354 hectares, respectively) is related to rangelands with a decreasing trend. Population growth in recent years and the resulting to decrease distances between urban and rural areas, low-density construction, transportation network development, and strip or linear growth have led to an increase in the number of man-made patches over time. Moreover, in order to access the living needs, Due to the climatic potential there is an increase in farmlands by changing rangelands throughout the region, especially in the north (Parsabad and Bilesvar counties) and south (Khalkhal county) of Ardabil province, which reduces the percentage of rangelands (From 58.17 to 53.89%). In fact, the process of rangelands change is fragmented, which reduces the mean patch size and, in other words, reduces the stability of the rangelands. On the other hand, man-made land use types have spread in a very heterogeneous and inappropriate way in Ardabil province, which has increased the common border with natural patch and as a result has increased the influence on natural patch (forests and rangelands) and further destroyed them. The increase in class area, largest patch index, total edge, patch density and number of patches of water bodies in the period 1987 to 2015 are due to the increased construction of dams in this period. The increase in requirement and the desire to produce more, and on the other hand the availability of water resources in this period, has changed the rangelands to farmlands (irrigated farming) and as a result, the development of agricultural levels in the region. On the other hand, with the increase of water resources in the province, in the largest patch index of the patches occurred during the study period in dry farming lands. Evaluation of the number of patches showed that the biggest change during the period 1987 to 2015 was related to dry farming class with an increasing trend (2651 patches), which due to human population growth in recent decades, high potential of the region for agriculture and increasing expectations and demand to earn money, this increase indicates the fragmentation and disruption of the landscape, which has resulted in a decrease in forest and rangelands and an increase in farmland land uses. The highest changes in edge density in the period 1987 to 2015 are related to rangelands with an increasing trend (11.78 m/ha) and the lowest change in edge density is related to the forest with an increasing trend (0.66 m/ha). Comparison of edge density showed that the expansion of man-made lands and the increase in agricultural land use (dry and irrigated farming) have increased the edge density of rangeland patches and have been fragmented more than other. The increase in the agriculture level due to the joining of the patches to each other has caused the decrease in the number of patches and the increase in the mean patch size due to the reduction of fragmentation. From the increase in the number of patches in the study period (from 20065 to 23802 patches), it can be concluded that due to human intervention and occupation, the tendency of land appearance in Ardabil province is towards fine-grained structure and the number of man-made artificial and semi-natural patches which has reduced forest and rangelands. The results showed that residential and farmlands (dry and irrigated farming) during the study period had a perfectly aligned change trend, while the reverse trend with forest and rangelands, which can be due to the direct effect and intensity of human presence in determining the distribution pattern for all kinds of LULC. Conclusion Due to the uncontrolled growth of residential and farmlands (dry and irrigated farming) in recent years, to prevent further destruction and also to preserve forests and rangelands, it is recommended to perform land use planning based on structural elements and concepts of landscape. The change in the landscape structure has taken in land use types with different degrees, and quantifying these changes using landscape metrics is one of the issues which can help analyze the pattern of spatial changes. Manuscript profile