The main aim of this research is to highlight the environment change indicators during the last 20 years in a representative area of the southern part of Iraq (Basrah Province was taken as a case) to understand the main causes which led to widespread environment degradation phenomena using a 1:250000 mapping scale. Remote sensing and GIS's software were used to classify Landsat TM in 1990 and Landsat ETM+ in 2003 imagery into five land use and land cover (LULC) classes: vegetation land, sand land, urban area, unused land, and water bodies. Supervised classification and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Build-up Index (NDBI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Normalized Difference Salinity Index (NDSI), and Topsoil Grain Size Index (GSI) were adopted in this research and used respectively to retrieve its class boundary.The results showed a clear deterioration in vegetative cover (514.9 km 2 ) and an increase of sand dune accumulations (438.6 km 2 ), accounting for 10.1, and 10.6 percent, respectively, of the total study area. In addition, a decrease in the water bodies' area was detected (228.9 km 2 ). Sand area accumulations had increased in the total study area, with an annual increasing expansion rate of (33.7 km 2 • yr −1 ) during the thirteen years covered by the study. It is therefore imperative that Iraqi government undertake a series of prudent actions now that will enable to be in the best possible position when the current environmental crisis ultimately passes.

This research utilizes the integrated remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) in the southern part of Iraq (Basrah Province was taken as a case) to assess the environmentally sensitivity area to desertification. The thematic layers of soil, vegetation, climate, and extent of sand movement are the main data required for estimating the desertification sensitivity index. These layers were extracted and manipulated from the available topographic map data, geologic map, satellite image (TM in 1990 and ETM+ in 2003), and field survey data analyses. Spatial analyst function in ArcGIS 9.3 software was used for matching the thematic layers and assessing the desertification index. The obtained data on change detection reveal that the area of active sand movement has increased from 4,118.3 to 4,558.

In recent years, land use/cover dynamic change has become a key subject that needs to be dealt with in the study of global environmental change. In this paper, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) are integrated to monitor, map, and quantify the land use/cover change in the southern part of Iraq (Basrah Province was taken as a case) by using a 1:250 000 mapping scale. Remote sensing and GIS software were used to classify Landsat TM in 1990 and Landsat ETM+ in 2003 imagery into five land use and land cover (LULC) classes: vegetation, sand, urban area, unused land, and water bodies. Supervised classification and normalized difference build-up index (NDBI) were used respectively to retrieve its urban boundary. An accuracy assessment was performed on the 2003 LULC map to determine the reliability of the map. Finally, GIS software was used to quantify and illustrate the various LULC conversions that took place over the 13-year span of time. Results showed that the urban area had increased by the rate of 1.2% per year, with area expansion from 3 299.1 km 2 in 1990 to 3 794.9 km 2 in 2003. Large vegetation area in the north and southeast were converted into urban construction land. The land use/cover changes of Basrah Province were mainly caused by rapid development of the urban economy and population immigration from the countryside. In addition, the former government policy of "returning farmland to transportation and huge expansion in military camps" was the major driving force for vegetation land change. The paper concludes that remote sensing and GIS can be used to create LULC maps. It also notes that the maps generated can be used to delineate the changes that take place over time.