In this research with respect to increasing role of
Geoinformation sciences in environmental studies and the
importance of sustainable development in urban planning, Shiraz
city as the most important city in the southern part of Iran was
selected for urban growth studies and the estimation of natural
resources destruction during past three decades. For this purpose
different satellite images of the study area since 1976 to 2005, and
population censuses of Shiraz city in this time period were used.
Four main land use types such as water, constructed areas,
vegetation and bareland areas were classified from satellite
images of Shirajz city. Then land use coverage for different dates
of the classified maps have been measured and with respect to
population, the built-up and vegetation per capita also calculated.
The results of this study showed that in despite of general belief,
in recent years the vegetation coverage has not decreased
extremely but it was not grown correspondingly to urban growth.
It is recommended that the future planning will be more focused
on protection of available vegetation and compensation of
destroyed coverage