Spatio-temporal Effect of Urbanization on Surface Water Bodies: A Method of RS and GIS

Abstract

This paper focuses on the spatio-temporal effects of urbanization on surface water resources in Wuhan, China. Specifically, the relationships between surface water bodies and their surrounding land use changes are discussed quantitatively by remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS). In this paper, surface water bodies and land use classifications in 1991 and 2005 are detected from Landsat TM/ETM+ images. On this basis, the area changes of water bodies and their transformations are extracted by overlap analysis. The result proves that most of the reduced surface water bodies had transformed into developed land in the urban districts. Finally, a comparative analysis indicates that the rate of increment of developed land in 100 m buffer (14%) is higher than in 1000 m buffer (8.8%). In other words, urban development is growing towards water bodies as urbanization. Therefore, the effects of urbanization on surface water bodies can be summarized as follows: (1) water bodies are likely to be occupied directly by developed land with urbanization; (2) the space of surface water is compressed due to urban expansion. This paper would provide a suggestion for urban planners and water resource managers.