Changes detection in the urban area and vegetation using the post-classification method and the NDVI index

Detecting changes in an area due to urbanization, industrialization, and to reduce or increase vegetation is important in the better management of environmental plans and urban green spaces. This study was done using Landsat 8 satellite imagery and aimed at determining urban and vegetation changes in Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni. For this purpose, the years 1991 and 2016 were selected as the beginning and end of a 25-year period. And after per-preprocessing operations, the classification was performed using the SVM method. Also, the vegetation index (NDVI) was calculated. To determine the accuracy of the classification were used Kappa coefficient index and overall accuracy (Kappa coefficient for the beginning and the end of the period was 0.88 and 0.92, respectively, and the overall accuracy was 90.9 and 93.73 respectively for 1991 and 2016 respectively). And the results showed that vegetation, water areas and land decreased by 16.14%, 12.6% and 13.51%, respectively, also urban and road areas increased by 28.44% and 7.33%, respectively. Keywords:Landsat 8, Change detection, Vegetation index, Bandar-e Emam Khomeyni