Analysis of land use and land cover change of Sidon City, Lebanon

Abstract

The rapid industrialization and urbanization of an area requires quick preparation of actual land use and land cover (LULC) maps in order to detect and avoid overuse and damage of the landscape beyond sustainable development limits. Remote sensing technology fits well for long-term monitoring and assessment of such effects. The aim of this study is to analyze the expansion of urbanization and LULC changes in Sidon City, Lebanon between 1985 and 2015. The study site is a fast growing region. Therefore, monitoring land changes is an important issue in landscape planning and resource management. In this study, an analysis is carried out for LULC changes in Sidon district via satellite imagery and geographic information systems (GIS). The applied methods consist of two major components: remote sensing-based land classification and GIS-based land change analysis. Seven land cover classes have been detected for evaluating and quantifying the land cover changes for each class within the time frame series from 1985 and 2015. The final results in this study shows the urban expansion and built up areas were clearly detected. Built-up areas took over various unused open areas and in many cases it replaced different agricultural lands. Also results shows the agricultural land changes where some crop types dominates others in some areas and some has been completely transformed to built-up areas. The result from this research indicates that the civil war and conflict with neigbhouring countries brings decline in agricultural areas, impacting the economic aspect of agro trading and destruction of property and development. Yet, after the conflicts ended, Saidon saw significant increase in urbanisation and development activities at local scale. Keywords: GIS, land-use, land-cover, remote sensing, Sidon, urban expansion