Journal of Spatial Analysis

---

Classifying daily climate circulation patterns has always been considered by climatologists. Investigating climate changes such as rainfall and the temperature in a same single time and place suggests that these changes are strongly influenced by atmospheric circulation patterns.

Regarding so, climate changes, known as variables here, such as rainfall, temperature, and other related phenomena, which are exemplified as flood, drought, glacial, and etc. are associated with special types of climate circulation patterns. The continuity and alternation of the systems are classified or identified climatically, therefore weather classification system is one of the main objectives of the synoptic climatology (Huth, 1996). Since every weather type creates its own special environmental condition, lack of identification in weather type frequencies leads to a difficult environmental explanation and alternation (Alijani, 1380: 64).

Identifying atmospheric circulation patterns different things that can be expressed inductively such as frequency, intensity, and spatial distribution of climate changes in rainfall and its physical causers (VicenteSerrano and LopezMoreno, 2006).

Heavy rainfall in many watersheds, particularly in the basin and sub-basin which involve less time exposure, causes floods and it also damages human, natural resources, infrastructure utilities and equipment. Before the occurrence of this kind of rainfall, it requires a deep understanding of the synoptic systems of their creator. This understanding is only possible through the classification and identification of rainfall patterns which used to cause floods in the studied basins.

The present study also aims at identifying and classifying the synoptic patterns of rainfall during the statistical stage of the study in the basin which caused flood in Taleqhan basin.

Taleqhan basin with area of (65/1242) per square kilometers is located in "36֯, 5', 20" to "36֯, 21', 30" north latitude and "50֯, 36', 26" to eastern longitude "51֯, 10', 18".

The study area is 120 kilometers away from North West of Tehran and located in a relatively high mountainous area in Alborz Mountain. This area is ranging from 1700 meters to 4400 meters above sea level. Average rainfall in this basin ara is 515/16 mm and its annual temperature fits 10.5 centigrade.  About 79 percent of rainfalls occurs from the cold weather period in November to March. It is also know as semi-humid cold weather based on the De Martonne classification.

Circulation algorithm (CA) and pattern clustering algorithm (PCA) were determined based on the daily methods in synoptic scale by applying information from stations in Taleqhan basin (Gateh deh, Dehdar, Dizan, Snkranchal, armouth, Ange, Joostan, Zidasht). In order to classify the weather type, daily average rate of 500 HPa and the sea level pressure (SLP) were extracted and reconstructed over the period (1980-2011) at the 2.5 degree of NCEP. Selected range includes 608 points from latitude of 10 to the 60 of northern degree, and latitude of 10 to 80 of eastern degree.

Principal components method mixes the interrelated points and reduces the matrix size, so 13 main components are remained that they includes 93 percent of the total variance. This study employs S array and Varimax rotation to identify different types of weather. It also makes use of K-Means clustering method to classify daily weather types. And finally, a matrix was formed in 118×608 dimension for 118 common days of rainfall among stations. All days were divided into four groups. They offer the most common climate circulation patterns in the proposed area. At the end, and finally integrated maps of sea level pressure and 500 HPa were drawn for each weather type. 

According to the results from factor analysis, 13 main elements were selected that they included 93% of the total variance of the data. According to the above mentioned method, all days (118 days) during the statistical period (1980-2011) were divided into 4 groups which provide the most climate circulation patterns in the study area. Then, integrated maps of sea level pressure and 500 HPa range were drawn for each of the types. Clusters were numbered according to the K-Means arrangement, and they were named based on the pressure patterns and the way circulation lines were ordered.

The classification shows two different resources for rainfall in this basin.

A: Those rain systems that are entered to the country from the West and South affect this basin. These systems humidity are caused by the Red Sea, the Mediterranean sea, the Black Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. (B) Some parts of the Caspian coast rainfalls and the northern part of the Alborz mountain that has received their humidity from the Caspian Sea and it has infiltrated northern high-land, causes the rainfalls. It enters the basin from the wide valley of Sefid Rood. According to the rainfall measuring stations data, the least rainfall area is in western, which includes low-land areas. And the most rainfall area is its northern east. Rainfall in this area, in terms of rainfall time distribution in a year, is the Mediterranean. It does not involve a complete dry climate in summer and it takes 3 to 4 percent of the total rainfall.  Rainfall in the basin, respectively, is distributed in winter, spring, fall, and summer.

---

Investigating the threats of mangrove forests
with the help of remotely sensed data
 
Behzad Rayegani: Assistant Professor of College of Environment, Department of Environment
 
 
Mangroves are a group of trees and shrubs that live in the coastal intertidal zone. Mangrove forests are very important because they are known as natural heritage and crucial in protecting coastal ecosystems. Mangrove forests stabilize the coastline, reducing erosion from storm surges, currents, waves, and tides. The intricate root system of mangroves also makes these forests attractive to fish and other organisms seeking food and shelter from predators. So, they are ideal places to support the elements of seafood networks. However, these forests are in danger of degradation because of rapid population growth, poor planning and unsustainable economic development. In the process of regenerating an ecosystem, it is necessary to identify the precursors of the threat, to consider the means to eliminate these threats. Therefore, identifying the threatening factors of the mangrove forest ecosystem is the first step in the restoration and protection of the ecosystem.
This study aims to investigate the change and the destruction in Mangrove forests and to identify threatening forces in the Hara Protected Area. Remote sensing is now widely used in studies of ecosystem changes because its information is available for the past, and there are many highly-developed techniques for change detection through remote sensing. Therefore, in order to identify the threatening factors of mangrove forests, remote sensing techniques were used to identify changed areas during a 15-year period. Images of ETM+ and OLI sensor from 2001 to 2015 were collected in the Hara Protected Area (Khorekhoran International Wetland). Given that we have used the multiple-date remote sensor data in this study, it was necessary to use absolute atmospheric correction methods for radiometric harmonization of data. So, with the aid of the ERDAS IMAGINE 2014 software, the Atmospheric and Topographic Correction (ATCOR) model was applied to all data. Subsequently, due to the difference in radiometric resolution of the OLI sensor with the ETM+ sensor, the output of ATCOR of both sensors was stretched into 8-bit data in order to eliminate the existing divergence in radiometric resolution. Also, based on spatial information, one of the image of OLI sensor at the current time was corrected geometrically, and then other images were registered to this image to eliminate geometric errors. There are many ways to detect changes with the help of remote sensing data, but we used two widely used techniques in this study: 1) post-classification comparison; 2) Change detection techniques of Algebra. Totally four different change detection methods were applied to these images. Change detection techniques of Algebra image method include image difference, image ratio, regression and post-classification comparison were used. At first, with the knowledge of the studied area, by combining the two supervised and unsupervised classification (hybrid method), the pixels that were known as mangrove forests were identified in both time periods of study. Then pixels with decreasing trend were determined by post-classification comparison method. From the image of the mangrove forests with the logic of Boolean (OR), a mask of mangrove was obtained, which showed the areas of mangroves during the two periods. This mask was used to make the second group of methods for determining changes (Algebra method) applied to the data. By doing this, in all algebra methods, the histogram showed the normal distribution. Finally, the vegetation spectral indices were applied to the data and their coefficient of variation was obtained in the Boolean mask area. Among these indices, NDVI showed better performance, so the algebra operation was used for this index. Accordingly, areas with decrease, increase and no change trends were visited and then overall accuracy and kappa coefficients were determined.
The results showed that the method of post classification comparison has the highest accuracy in the monitoring of vegetation changes in mangrove forests. This method with a total accuracy of over 93% and a kappa of more than 0.9 showed the highest accuracy in the detection methods of the changes, therefore, in the final examination and prioritization of the regions, this method was used. The surveys showed that the smuggling of fuel due to pour gasoline into the water and camel grazing are the most important destructive factors in the mangrove forest. After determining the rate degradation in four regions, these regions were ranked in order to carry out reclamation and restoration projects.
In the case of intelligent use of the capabilities of remote sensing, one can easily identify the threatening factors of an ecosystem. In the case of mangroves, the only limiting factor is tidal conditions. It is therefore recommended that, as in this study, images are chosen to determine the changes that are in a same tidal state
 
 
Keywords: Remotely Sensed change detection, Image Algebra Change Detection, Post-classification comparison, Determination of thresholds
 
 
 
 

---

Flood susceptibility mapping using frequency ratio and weight of evidence technique: a case study of Kermanshah Province
 
abstract
Flood is considered as one of the most destructive natural disasters worldwide, because of claiming a large number of lives and incurring extensive damage to the property, disrupting social fabric, paralyzing transportation systems, and threatening natural ecosystems. Flood is one of the most devastating natural disasters causing massive damages to natural and man-made features Flood is a major threet to human life (injure or death of man and animal life), properties (agricultural area, yield production, building and homes) and infrastructures (bridges, roads, railways, urban infrastructures). The damage thet can occur due to such disaster leads to huge economic loss and bring pathogens into urban environments thet causes microbial development and diseases Therefore, the assessment and regionalization of flood disaster risks are becoming increasingly important and urgent. Although it is a very difficult task to prevent floods, we can predict and compensate for the disaster. To predict the probability of a flood, an essential step is to map flood susceptibility.
The methodology of the current research is includes the following steps:
Flood inventory mapping;
Determination of flood-conditioning factors;
Modeling flood susceptibility and its validations.
 Et first , 146 flood locations were identified in the study area. Of these, 102 (70%) points were randomly selected as training data and the remaining 44 points (30%) cases were used for the validation purposes. In the next step 1 flood-conditioning factors were prepared including geology, landuse , distance from river , soil , slope angle, plan curvature, topographic wetness index, Drainage density elevation, rainfall. Then, the probability of the flood occurring for each class of parameters was calculated. Et the end, the obtained weights for each class in the Geographical Information System (GIS) were applied to the corresponding layer and flood risk map of th studied region was prepared. Subsequently, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn for produced flood susceptibility maps.
To determine the level of correlation between flood locations and conditioning factors, the FR
method was used. The results of spatial relationship between the flood location and the conditioning factors using FR model is shown in Table 2. In general, the FR value of 1 indicates
an average correlation between flood locations and effective factors. If the FR value would be larger than 1, there is a high correlation, and a lower correlation equals to the FR value lower than 1.
The analysis of FR for the relationship between flood location and lithology units indicates thet Cenozoic group has the highest FR value. In the case of land-use, it can be seen thet the residential areas and agriculture land-use have values. One of the most important factors affecting the flood is distance from the river. The results showed thet the class of >500 m FR was the most effective one. The analysis of FR for the relationship between flood location and slope angle indicate thet class 0-6. 1 has the highest FR value. In the case of slope aspect, flood event is most abundant on flet and East facing slopes According to the analysis of FR for the relationship between flood location and plan curvature, flet shape has the highest FR value., A flet shape retains surface run-off for a longer period especially during heavy rainfall . Flood locations are concentrated in areas with a TWI >6. 8 drainage density > 4. 6 km/km2 and altitude classes of 1200 m. In the soil layer, the tallest weight is from the earth with a small transformation of gravel. Finally, the maximum weight is the maximum rainfall.
In this study, all parameters of WofE model were calculated for each conditioning factor. In the lithology unit, the Cenozoic class has the highest flood susceptibility. Among the different land-use types, agriculture categories had the highest values . The distance from the river from 0 to 1000 m indicated positive influence in flooding, while the areas more than 1000 m or far from the river represented the negative correlation with flood occurrence. In the soil layer, clayey soil and tuberous soil had the highest weight. The analysis of WofE for the relationship between flood occurrence and slope angle indicated thet slope angle from 0 to 6. 21 had positive influences in flooding. In the case of slope aspect and plan curvature, flet area had a strong positive correlation with flood occurrence. Effectiveness increases wit increasing TWI classes. The results of drainage density indicate thet areas with higher drainage densities are more susceptible to flood occurrence. By increasing the height of the flooding reduced sensitivity classes. byn flooding rainfall and flood events increased with increasing rainfall.
 
The prediction accuracy and quality of the development model were examined using the area under the curve (AUC). Specifically, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to examine the basis of the assessment is true and false positive rates . So the results showed thet based on the area under the curve, the FR and WofE models show similar results and can be used as a simple tool for verifying the map prepared for flood sensitivity and reducing its future risks.
Floods are the most damaging catastrophic phenomena in the worldwide. Therefore, flood susceptibility mapping is necessary for integrated watershed management in order to have sustainable development. In this study, flood susceptibility zones have been identified using FR and WofE methods. Et first step, a flood inventory map containing 146 flood locations was prepared in the kermanshah Province using documentary sources of Iranian Water Resources Department and field surveys. Then, eleven data layers (lithology, landuse, distance from rivers, soil texture, slope angle, slope aspect, plan curvature, topographic wetness index, drainage density, and altitude) were derived from the spatial database. Using the mentioned conditioning factors, flood susceptibility maps were produced from map index calculated using FR and WofE models, and the results were plotted in ArcGIS. Finally, the AUC-ROC curves using validation dataset were prepared for the two models to test their accuracy. For this reason, of 146 identified flood locations, 102 (70%) cases were used as training data and the remaining 44(30%) was used for validation. The validation of results indicated thet the FR and WofE models had almost similar and reasonable results in the study area. Based on the overall assessments, the proposed approaches in this study were concluded as objective and applicable. The scientific information derived from the present study can assist governments, planners, and engineers to perform proper actions in order to prevent and mitigate the flood occurrence in the future.
 
Key words: Flood susceptibility mapping, validation, method of frequency, weight of evidence, GIS- Kermanshah