Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

EVALUATION OF IMPACT OF VEGETATION DECREASE ON PRECIPITATION RATES IN BAGHDAD CITY USING REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUE

Ali K. Mohammed Ali1, Fouad K. Mashee Al Ramahi and Abdul-Rahman B. Ali

Abstract

With increasing interest in changes in the living environment and for human comfort, we have studied the relationship between vegetation decline and rainfall for 2008-2015-2018, respectively. This study describes the basic concepts of spectral indicators derived from satellite images and their relation to climatic factors, especially precipitation for Baghdad city. Where it was observed that the continuous urbanization led to a decrease in vegetation cover, and this has led to the disruption of the environment, many previous studies have shown that land use land cover changes will effect on climatic variables such as rainfall. With remote sensing technology by using satellite images, this study revealed that the decline in vegetation will affect precipitation rates. The methodology of the research was to obtain an accurate result, by using rainfall data for the years of study from the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), as well as the use of satellite imagery from Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 respectively, where they were processed and analyses and maps were then classified into 6 categories. The resultsof the classification showed that the urban land increased in its area where it formed 1383170400 m2 in 2008 and increased to 1475344800 m2 and 1612386000 m2 in 2013 and 2018 respectively. On the other hand, the area of vegetation cover declined for the years of study from 183109500 m2 in 2008 to 73785600 m2 in 2018. The NDVI was calculated and compared with the overall rainfall rate for each year, where there was a significant correlation between the decline in vegetation and precipitation.