استعمالات الأرض و الغطاء الأرضي في لواء بني كنانة في الأردن (1993-2006)‎ باستخدام تطبيقات الاستشعار عن بعد و نظام المعلومات الجغرافية

Abstract EN

The present research study was undertaken to generate land use / land cover maps for Bani Kenana in Irbid Governorate with a total area of 250m2.

Topographic maps with a scale of 1:100,000 published in 1993, satellite data of Landsat TM obtained in 2000, and Google Earth images of 2006 were used for generating the maps.

Bani Kenana area showed highly dynamic and was undergoing rapid changes.

In view of this fact, it is essential to review these changes from time to time.

Results showed that in the mentioned years built up area increased from 1.3 km2 to 3.4 km2 to 3.62 km2 by about 2.7 times at the expense of agricultural lands, and an increase in areas planted with olive trees, from 56.5 km2 to 60.7 to 64.1 km2 for the three periods respectively.

Analysis of agricultural land for wheat production showed a decrease from 31.8 km2, to 27.38 km2 to 15.15 km2 respectively, while the areas occupied by forests remained around 47 km2.

Bare rocks occupied 10 km2, fruit trees 5.11 km2, and roads occupied 3.3 km2 from the total area, while the rest of the area of 100 km2 was classified as grazing lands.

In addition, analysis of the statistics obtained from Department of Statistic and from the Ministry of Agriculture showed clear discrepancies between them and inconsistent with information obtained from the analysis.

The study recommends that the expansion of municipal boundaries at the expense of agricultural lands should be minimized.