Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1
Center for Remote Sensing and GIS Research, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran 1983969411, Iran.
2
Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, Faculty of Geography, The University of Tehran, Tehran 1417935840, Iran.
Abstract
The Persian Gulf, as a semi-enclosed marginal sea of the Indian Ocean, has long been regarded by historical geographers and cartographers as a distinct geographic phenomenon. This study aims to integrate historical cartographical sources with satellite imagery and geographical information systems (GIS) to investigate the spatial continuity and geographical stability of the Gulf from antiquity to the present.. Historical maps, obtained from the National Cartography Center of Iran (NCC) and the Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies (CAIS) and spanning from classical antiquity to the early modern period, were analyzed to document patterns of geographic depiction and labeling of the Persian Gulf across different cartographic sources. Contemporary geospatial analyses were conducted using 17 Landsat-8 and Landsat-9 scenes to generate a satellite-based mosaic, from which key spatial characteristics including area, maximum length, average width, and coastline distribution in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman were derived. In addition, the geometric centroid and Standard Deviational Ellipse (SDE) were calculated to assess the overall spatial configuration and directional distribution of the Persian Gulf. The results indicate a high degree of consistency in the location, extent, and geometric characteristics of the region over time, with a pronounced spatial association along the northern coastline. The close correspondence between historical cartographic representations and satellite-derived spatial metrics highlights the continuity of the geographic feature commonly identified as the Persian Gulf. By linking ancient maps with contemporary remote sensing data, this study provides a spatially explicit perspective on the long-term cartographic representation of the Persian Gulf.
Keywords
)