Characteristics of Land Cover and Land Use in Certain Sub-Basins of the Sangzor River Basin

This article analyzes the land cover and land-use characteristics of the Tangatoptisoy, Jum-Jum, Baxmazorsoy, and Novqa sub-basins, located in the middle reaches of the Sangzor River basin. The study determined the total area and proportions of various land cover types within these basins, including pastures, arable land, forests and orchards, settlements, and areas devoid of vegetation. Remote sensing data—specifically the ESA WorldCover 2021 global land cover dataset—served as the methodological basis for obtaining land cover information. These data were generated with a spatial resolution of 10 meters based on imagery from the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites. The analysis revealed that pastures and arable land constitute the primary land-use types in the studied basins. Pastures account for 81.1% of the Tangatoptisoy basin, 67.7% of the Jum-Jum basin, 64.1% of the Baxmazorsoy basin, and 43.3% of the Novqa basin. In the Novqa basin, the share of arable land reaches 40.4%, indicating a relatively high level of agricultural development. The obtained results are of significant scientific and practical importance for assessing natural resource utilization in the Sangzor basin based on the basin principle and for identifying the spatial characteristics of land use.