Monitoring LULC Changes in Babil Province for Sustainable Development Purposes Within the Period 2004–2023

Land use and land cover studies are fundamental to achieving sustainable development goals by providing the information necessary for informed decision-making in social and economic development and natural resource management. This study relied on remote sensing data to analyze and assess land use and land cover changes in Babil Province, Iraq, over the past two decades. The study focused on identifying the patterns and factors influencing these changes, using Landsat satellite imagery to create digital maps classifying land into four main categories: urban lands, bare soil lands, water bodies, and vegetation lands. The results showed a noticeable expansion of urban lands at the expense of bare soil lands, primarily attributed to population growth, economic development, and improved security conditions. This study underscores the importance of sustainable land management and urban planning in Babil Province. These results highlight the importance of sustainable land management in Babil Province, including sound urban planning considering urban expansion's environmental, social, and economic effects. The classification was implemented using a maximum likelihood classifier, and the accuracy assessment yielded satisfactory results with an overall accuracy of 93.5517%. This study encourages using artificial intelligence to track and analyze land use changes in Babil.