Spatiotemporal Patterns of Urbanization: Mapping, Measurement, and Analysis

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter examines the spatiotemporal pattern of urbanization in Kathmandu Valley using remote sensing and spatial metrics techniques. The study is based on time series data compiled from satellite images acquired in the last four decades. A five-step hybrid technique is presented to create land use and land cover maps from remote sensing imagery. Urban built-up areas had a slow trend of growth in the 1960s and 1970s but have grown rapidly since the 1980s. The metrics of the urbanization process has confirmed that the landscape in the valley consists of fragmented and heterogeneous land use combinations. However, the refill type of development process in the city core and immediate fringe areas has shown a decreasing trend in the neighborhood distances between land use patches, and an increasing trend towards physical connectedness, which indicates a higher probability of homogenous landscape development in the upcoming decades.KeywordsLand changeSpatial metricsUrbanizationUrban mappingLULCKathmandu ValleyNepal