Investigating Urban Growth and the Dynamics of Urban Land Cover Change Using Remote Sensing Data and Landscape Metrics

This study presents the result of an investigation into the dynamics of urban growth and urban land cover change in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of the United States using landscape metric and Landsat satellite data over a 30-year period. The goal was to assess the impact of urban growth on the land cover of the area in order to provide baseline information that can support a sustainable urban growth of the area in the future. To achieve this goal, archived Landsat satellite data were classified on a broad scale for four epochs (1988, 1998, 2008 and 2018) and a change detection of the land cover of the area was conducted using the four datasets. To understand the dynamics of the spatial pattern of the change that is taking place in the area, landscape metrics were incorporated into the analysis. The results showed that over the 30-year period, built-up lands doubled its original size, mostly from expansion and infills. Additionally, there was a small decadal increase in entropy values, which indicated that the area is still experiencing sprawl, but on a small scale. These results provided baseline data that can be incorporated into future urban growth plans for the area.