University of Twente Student Theses
Quantitative measures of urban land cover change: The case of Sancaktepe district of Istanbul metropolitan city, Turkey
Kowe, Pedzisai (2010) Quantitative measures of urban land cover change: The case of Sancaktepe district of Istanbul metropolitan city, Turkey.
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| Abstract: | Urban landscapes are complex systems, exhibiting a non-stationary temporal dynamics and complicated spatial heterogeneous land cover patterns. Thus, the characterisation and measurement is riddled with challenges to directly address the question of how patterns of urban development affect landscape dynamics. Based on a rapidly growing Sancaktepe district of Istanbul metropolitan city in Turkey, we tested how spatial or landscape metrics, derived from remotely sensed imagery and GIS data could provide objective information and useful descriptions of urban land cover change for urban planning purposes. Land cover data from classified satellite images of Landsat TM of 2002 and 2009 were used to analyse land cover changes, NDVI for spatial and temporal variation in biomass, landscape metrics for landscape configuration and composition (distribution, structure of discrete land cover classes on the landscape), the basic properties of a landscape mosaic. Key results indicate that the landscape pattern of Sancaktepe district underwent fundamental transition from bareland dominant landscape to built-up dominant landscape between 2002 to 2009. It was accompanied by the decline of vegetated land cover categories of forest and grassland, thus suggesting conversion of undeveloped land cover categories into developed land. The NDVI method also showed that the total amount of vegetation cover in Sancaktepe district declined over this period. Landscape metrics like number of patches, mean patch size, and total edge indicated that there was an increase in agglomeration of built-up patches while bareland showed fragmentation process which both attributed to densification and increase of unplanned urban development respectively in the study area. As a result, built-up showed high complexity in patch shape and irregular patterns, though bareland and forest showed irregularity patterns but became less complex in patch shapes, while grassland showed simple shapes and regular patterns as measured by Area Mean Weighted Shape index and Area Weighted Patch Fractal Dimension index. Landscape heterogeneity and evenness slightly decreased. It was concluded that landscape metrics are robust quantitative measures for analysing landscape composition and configuration change and also to monitor dynamic processes of agglomeration or coalescing, disintegrating and fragmentation of land cover patches. Consistent monitoring the direction, magnitude, distributions and patterns of urban land cover changes using the research methodology presented here could be useful and flexible framework for supporting urban planning and management purposes of a rapidly growing district like Sancaktepe in the Istanbul metropolitan city. Key words: Land cover, change detection, NDVI, remote sensing, landscape metrics, landscape structure and composition, usability, grain size. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | ITC: Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation |
| Programme: | Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation MSc (75014) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/90764 |
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