scholarly journals Urban Growth Patterns and Forest Carbon Dynamics in the Metropolitan Twin Cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 12842
Author(s):  
Abdul Mannan ◽  
Fan Yongxiang ◽  
Tauheed Ullah Khan ◽  
Syed Moazzam Nizami ◽  
Beckline Mukete ◽  
...  

The unchecked and unplanned expansion of urban areas has led to the conversion of millions of green areas to gray areas. The recent urban growth patterns of Pakistan’s metropolitan twin cities, Islamabad and Rawalpindi, is a matter of concern for the surrounding green areas. The present study aimed to categorize and quantify the land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) patterns and the corresponding impacts on the forest carbon dynamics around Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Multispectral satellite images for the year 1990 (Landsat 5 TM) and 2020 (Landsat 8 OLI) were used to determine, quantify, and compare the LULCC inside and around the twin metropolitan cities. Field inventory surveys in the reserved forests of Rawalpindi and Islamabad were also conducted to determine the amount of stored carbon in these forests. Our results showed an accelerated annual urban expansion (i.e., an increase in the built-up area) of 16.49% and 26.72% in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, respectively, during the study period. Similarly, the amount of barren land and agricultural land was reduced at an annual rate of 2.08% and 2.18%, respectively, in Rawalpindi and 0.25% and 1.04% in Islamabad. A reduction in the area of barren mountains also occurred at an annual of 2.26% in Islamabad, while it increased by 4.16% in Rawalpindi. The amount of carbon stored in the reserved forests of Islamabad stood at 139.17 ± 12.15 Mg C/ha while that of Rawalpindi was 110.4 ± 13.79 Mg C/ha. In addition, total stored forest carbon was found to have decreased from 544.70 Gg C to 218.05 Gg C in Rawalpindi, while in Islamabad it increased from 2779.64 Gg C to 3548.16 Gg C. Investment in ecological urban planning, sustainable cities, and appropriate land-use planning is recommended to curb the degradation and conversion of the surrounding green areas of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-99
Author(s):  
M. Mamnun ◽  
S. Hossen

The main purpose of this study is to describe the spatio-temporal analysis of land use and land cover status and to identify land cover changes, especially of deforestation and degradation in evergreen, semi-evergreen rainforests of Chittagong Hill Tracts from 1988-2018 by using Landsat 8 OLI-TIRS and Landsat 5 TM satellite imagery. The ArcGIS v10.5 and ERDAS Imagine v15 software were used to process satellite imageries and assess quantitative data for land-use change assessment of this study area. The study revealed that the area of forest land and water body decreased by 17.92% and 5.43% respectively from 1988-2018. On the other hand, the area of agricultural land, barren land and settlement increased by 45.66%, 312.08% and 240.01% respectively. If the present condition remains constant, the projection of future land-use/ land cover changes for the next 15 years will predict that more than 7.37% dense forest (2253.83 ha) land will be decreased and 19.60% agricultural will be converted to other land uses. This study suggests that proper policy should be adopted urgently to conserve residual forest coverage and restore it to regain its past appearance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (26) ◽  
pp. 233-241
Author(s):  
Abdullah Sufi Ali ◽  
Farah Zaini

Urbanization has contributed significantly to global warming. Kuching city has grown rapidly in recent years as a result of favourable socioeconomic, political, and physical factors that will undoubtedly affect the urban climate and environment. Landsat Thematic Mapper (ETM+) imagery from 2005, 2010, 2016, and 2017 was used to determine the urban heat island effect by examining the relationship between land-use changes and land surface temperature (LST). The study discovered a significant increase in the built-up area of about 17.1 percent between 2005 and 2017 and a decline in barren land and vegetation areas of about 41.6 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively. Additionally, this study discovered that as land use changed from 2005 to 2017, the LST increased year after year. The findings of this study demonstrate that they are effective tools for urban planners and environmental scientists because they provide critical data for monitoring urban growth patterns and their impact on urban climate.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 265
Author(s):  
Janilci Serra Silva ◽  
Richarde Marques da Silva ◽  
Alexandro Medeiros Silva

As mudanças no uso e ocupação do solo, provocadas pelas ações antrópicas, têm provocado grandes alterações nas paisagens. Esses impactos podem ser estudados pelo monitoramento eco-ambiental utilizando-se informações espaço-temporais das modificações ocorridas na paisagem. Este artigo analisa as mudanças do uso e ocupação do solo e a degradação eco-ambiental na Bacia do Bacanga, com base em índices de vegetação  entre os anos de 1990 a 2014. Neste estudo foram utilizadas duas cenas, uma satélite TM/Landsat 5 e outra do OLI/Landsat 8, para os dias 9 de setembro de 1990 e 2 de setembro de 2014, respectivamente. O processamento das imagens foi desenvolvido através do software ArcGIS 10.1. Para isto foram utilizados mapas e histogramas para auxiliar na interpretação das informações apresentadas. Os resultados mostraram que os maiores valores de NDVI e SAVI  ocorrem na porção central da bacia. A presença das construções civis aumentaram as áreas com baixos valores de NDVI por conta da retirada da cobertura da vegetação nativa. Ao longo dos 24 anos decorridos de 1990 a 2014, a supressão de áreas verdes na bacia e sua substituição por estruturas urbanas como asfalto e concreto, resultaram na maior degradação eco-ambiental, resultando no crescimento urbano e das classes vegetação arbustiva/arbórea, Solo exposto e na diminuição das classes vegetação rasteira/arbustiva e água.   A B S T R A C T The changes in the land use and cover, caused by human actions, have created major impacts on the landscapes. These impacts can be studied by monitoring the eco-environmental using spatial and temporal information of the changes occurring in the landscape. This paper analyze the land use and cover changes and eco-environmental degradation in Bacanga River basin using vegetation indexes (NDVI, SAVI and IAF) between 1990 and 2014. In this study two scenes, one of TM/Landsat 5 and other OLI/Landsat 8 of September 9 1990 and September 2 2014 were used. The image processing was developed through the software ArcGis 10.1. For this purpose, maps and histograms to assist in the interpretation of the information presented were generated. The results showed that the highest values o NDVI, SAVI and IAF occur in the central portion of basin. The presence of civilian buildings increased the areas with low NDVI values because of the withdrawal of the coverage of native vegetation. During the 24 years which have passed 1990-2014, suppression of green areas in the basin and its replacement by urban structures such as concrete and asphalt, resulted in improved eco-environmental degradation, resulting in the urban growth and the class shrubland, beyond of decreasing the classes rangebrush and water Keywords: GIS, urban growth, vegetation indexes.  


Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 312
Author(s):  
Barbara Wiatkowska ◽  
Janusz Słodczyk ◽  
Aleksandra Stokowska

Urban expansion is a dynamic and complex phenomenon, often involving adverse changes in land use and land cover (LULC). This paper uses satellite imagery from Landsat-5 TM, Landsat-8 OLI, Sentinel-2 MSI, and GIS technology to analyse LULC changes in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. The research was carried out in Opole, the capital of the Opole Agglomeration (south-western Poland). Maps produced from supervised spectral classification of remote sensing data revealed that in 20 years, built-up areas have increased about 40%, mainly at the expense of agricultural land. Detection of changes in the spatial pattern of LULC showed that the highest average rate of increase in built-up areas occurred in the zone 3–6 km (11.7%) and above 6 km (10.4%) from the centre of Opole. The analysis of the increase of built-up land in relation to the decreasing population (SDG 11.3.1) has confirmed the ongoing process of demographic suburbanisation. The paper shows that satellite imagery and GIS can be a valuable tool for local authorities and planners to monitor the scale of urbanisation processes for the purpose of adapting space management procedures to the changing environment.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 627
Author(s):  
Duong H. Nong ◽  
An T. Ngo ◽  
Hoa P. T. Nguyen ◽  
Thuy T. Nguyen ◽  
Lan T. Nguyen ◽  
...  

We analyzed the agricultural land-use changes in the coastal areas of Tien Hai district, Thai Binh province, in 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020, using Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 data. We used the object-oriented classification method with the maximum likelihood algorithm to classify six types of land uses. The series of land-use maps we produced had an overall accuracy of more than 80%. We then conducted a spatial analysis of the 5-year land-use change using ArcGIS software. In addition, we surveyed 150 farm households using a structured questionnaire regarding the impacts of climate change on agricultural productivity and land uses, as well as farmers’ adaptation and responses. The results showed that from 2005 to 2020, cropland decreased, while aquaculture land and forest land increased. We observed that the most remarkable decreases were in the area of rice (485.58 ha), the area of perennial crops (109.7 ha), and the area of non-agricultural land (747.35 ha). The area of land used for aquaculture and forest increased by 566.88 ha and 772.60 ha, respectively. We found that the manifestations of climate change, such as extreme weather events, saltwater intrusion, drought, and floods, have had a profound impact on agricultural production and land uses in the district, especially for annual crops and aquaculture. The results provide useful information for state authorities to design land-management strategies and solutions that are economic and effective in adapting to climate change.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 212
Author(s):  
Rana N. Jawarneh

Urban expansion and loss of primarily agricultural land are two of the challenges facing Jordan. Located in the most productive agricultural area of Jordan, Greater Irbid Municipality (GIM) uncontrolled urban growth has posed a grand challenge in both sustaining its prime croplands and developing comprehensive planning strategies. This study investigated the loss of agricultural land for urban growth in GIM from 1972–2050 and denoted the negative consequences of the amalgamation process of 2001 on farmland loss. The aim is to unfold and track historical land use/cover changes and forecast these changes to the future using a modified SLEUTH-3r urban growth model. The accuracy of prediction results was assessed in three different sites between 2015 and 2020. In 43 years the built-up area increased from 29.2 km2 in 1972 to 71 km2 in 2015. By 2050, the built-up urban area would increase to 107 km2. The overall rate of increase, however, showed a decline across the study period, with the periods of 1990–2000 and 2000–2015 having the highest rate of built-up areas expansion at 68.6 and 41.4%, respectively. While the agricultural area increased from 178 km2 in 1972 to 207 km2 in 2000, it decreased to 195 km2 in 2015 and would continue to decrease to 188 km2 by 2050. The district-level analysis shows that from 2000–2015, the majority of districts exhibited an urban increase at twice the rate of 1990–2000. The results of the net change analysis of agriculture show that between 1990 and 2000, 9 districts exhibited a positive gain in agricultural land while the rest of the districts showed a negative loss of agricultural land. From 2000 to 2015, the four districts of Naser, Nozha, Rawdah, and Hashmyah completely lost their agricultural areas for urbanization. By 2050, Idoon and Boshra districts will likely lose more than half of their high-quality agricultural land. This study seeks to utilize a spatially explicit urban growth model to support sustainable planning policies for urban land use through forecasting. The implications from this study confirm the worldwide urbanization impacts on losing the most productive agricultural land in the outskirts and consequences on food production and food security. The study calls for urgent actions to adopt a compact growth policy with no new land added for development as what is available now exceeds what is needed by 2050 to accommodate urban growth in GIM.


Author(s):  
A. B. Rimba ◽  
T. Atmaja ◽  
G. Mohan ◽  
S. K. Chapagain ◽  
A. Arumansawang ◽  
...  

Abstract. Bali has been open to tourism since the beginning of the 20th century and is known as the first tourist destination in Indonesia. The Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar, and Tabanan (Sarbagita) areas experience the most rapid growth of tourism activity in Bali. This rapid tourism growth has caused land use and land cover (LULC) to change drastically. This study mapped the land-use change in Bali from 2000 to 2025. The land change modeller (LCM) tool in ArcGIS was employed to conduct this analysis. The images were classified into agricultural land, open area, mangrove, vegetation/forest, and built-up area. Some Landsat images in 2000 and 2015 were exploited in predicting the land use and land cover (LULC) change in 2019 and 2025. To measure the accuracy of prediction, Landsat 8 OLI images for 2019 were classified and tested to verify the LULC model for 2019. The Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural network was trained with two influencing factors: elevation and road network. The result showed that the built-up growth direction expanded from the Denpasar area to the neighbouring areas, and land was converted from agriculture, open area and vegetation/forest to built-up for all observation years. The built-up was predicted growing up to 43 % from 2015 to 2025. This model could support decision-makers in issuing a policy for monitoring LULC since the Kappa coefficients were more than 80% for all models.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-91
Author(s):  
Bhanu Priya Chouhan ◽  
Monika Kannan

The world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history. More than half of the world’s population now lives in towns and cities, and by 2030 this number will swell to about 5 billion. ‘Urbanization has the potential to usher in a new era of wellbeing, resource efficiency and economic growth. But due to increased population the pressure of demand also increases in urban areas’ (Drakakis-Smith, David, 1996). The loss of agricultural land to other land uses occasioned by urban growth is an issue of growing concern worldwide, particularly in the developing countries like India. This paper is an attempt to assess the impact of urbanization on land use and land cover patterns in Ajmer city. Recent trends indicate that the rural urban migration and religious significance of the place attracting thousands of tourists every year, have immensely contributed in the increasing population of city and is causing change in land use patterns. This accelerating urban sprawl has led to shrinking of the agricultural land and land holdings. Due to increased rate of urbanization, the agricultural areas have been transformed into residential and industrial areas (Retnaraj D,1994). There are several key factors which cause increase in population here such as Smart City Projects, potential for employment, higher education, more comfortable and quality housing, better health facilities, high living standard etc. Population pressure not only directly increases the demand for food, but also indirectly reduces its supply through building development, environmental degradation and marginalization of food production (Aldington T, 1997). Also, there are several issues which are associated with continuous increase in population i.e. land degradation, pollution, poverty, slums, unaffordable housing etc. Pollution, formulation of slums, transportation congestion, environmental hazards, land degradation and crime are some of the major impacts of urbanization on Ajmer city. This study involves mapping of land use patterns by analyzing data and satellite imagery taken at different time periods. The satellite images of year 2000 and 2017 are used. The change detection techniques are used with the help of Geographical Information System software like ERDAS and ArcGIS. The supervised classification of all the three satellite images is done by ERDAS software to demarcate and analyze land use change.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 224
Author(s):  
Fombe Lawrence F. ◽  
Acha Mildred E.

Worldwide urban areas are having increasing influence over the surrounding landscape. Peri-urban regions of the world are facing challenges which results from sprawl with increasing problems of social segregation, wasted land and greater distance to work. This study seeks to examine the trends in land use dynamics, urban sprawl and associated development implications in the Bamenda Municipalities from 1996 to 2018. The study made use of the survey, historical and correlational research designs. The purposive and snowball techniques were used to collect data. Spatiotemporal analyses were carried out on Landsat Images for 1996, 2008, and 2018 obtained from Earth Explorer, Erdas Image 2014 and changes detected from the maps digitized. The SPSS version 21 and MS Excel 2016 were used to analyze quantitative and qualitative data. The former employed the Pearson correlation analysis. Analysis of land use/land cover change detection reveals that built-up area has increased significantly from 1996 to 2018 at the detriment of forest, wetland and agricultural land at different rates within each municipality. These changes have led to invasion of risk zones, high land values, uncoordinated, uncontrolled and unplanned urban growth. The study suggests that proactive planning, use of GIS to monitor land use activities, effective implementation of existing town planning norms and building regulations, are invaluable strategies to sustainably manage urban growth in Bamenda.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
M. Haruna ◽  
M.K. Ibrahim ◽  
U.M. Shaibu

This study applied GIS and remote sensing technology to assess agricultural land use and vegetative cover in Kano Metropolis. It specifically examined the intensity of land use for agricultural and non agricultural purpose from 1975 – 2015. Images (1975, 1995 and 2015), landsat MSS/TM, landsat 8, scene of path 188 and 052 were downloaded for the study. Bonds for these imported scenes were processed using ENVI 5.0 version. The result indicated five classified features-settlement, farmland, water body, vegetation and bare land. The finding revealed an increase in settlement, vegetation and bare land between 1995 and 2015, however, farmland decreased in 2015. Indicatively, higher percentage of land use for non agricultural purposes was observed in recent time. Conclusively, there is need to accord surveying the rightful place and priority in agricultural planning and development if Nigeria is to be self food sufficient. Keywords: Geographic Information System, Agriculture, Remote sensing, Land use, Land cover


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