Urban Land Use Cover Research Articles

Evaluating land use/cover change with temporal satellite data and information systems

Rapid changes in land use land cover (LULC) adversely affect the environment. In order to provide information for policymakers to support sustainable development, detailed data about these regions is urgently needed. Use of remote sensing (RS) in combination with geographical information System (GIS) is one of the effective information technology tools to generate LULC change information. In this study, it is aimed to explore the temporal and spatial characteristics of urban expansion by using RS integrated with GIS. For this purpose a study area is selected from a coastal urban area and LULC changes are determined from high resolution satellite images. It is found that in the study area there are 135.72% increase in the rate of built-up area. The urban expansion has been accompanied by 29.38% loss of vegetation cover.

Geospatial variability in the egg raft distribution and abundance of Culex pipiens and Culex restuans in Urbana‐Champaign, Illinois

The aim of this study was to determine whether areas of high Culex pipiens and Culex restuans abundance in an urban environment, based on fixed oviposition surveillance sites, corresponded to remotely sensed data. A land use land cover (LULC) classification, based on Landsat‐7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data acquired in July 2003 and Landsat‐5 TM data from July 1991, was compared to the abundance of Culex egg rafts in Urbana‐Champaign, East‐Central Illinois. We performed a maximum likelihood, unsupervised classification and generated three land cover classifications: urban, non‐urban and water. Ground coordinates of the Culex surveillance sites were overlaid onto LULC maps with 10 m2 grid cells. The grid was stratified based on levels of drainage: 0 = poorly drained and 1 = well‐drained. Total LULC change from 1991 to 2003 in the Urbana‐Champaign study site was relatively low, at 12.1%. The most frequent LULC category was maintained urban. The egg raft rate was significantly higher in urban LULC habitats. Remote stratification of the urban land cover using QuickBird visible and near‐infrared (NIR) data revealed that high‐density canopy coverage was most frequently associated with high Culex abundance in oviposition traps. We demonstrate that optical remote sensing can identify land use parameters associated with high Culex oviposition.

Temperature Trends of the U.S. Historical Climatology Network Based on Satellite-Designated Land Use/Land Cover

The 1221 weather observation stations that compose the U.S. Historical Climatology Network were designated as either urban, suburban, or rural based on data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (OLS). The designations were based on local and regional samples of the OLS data around the stations (OLS method). Trends in monthly maximum and minimum temperature and the diurnal temperature range (DTR) were determined for the 1950‐96 interval for each of three land use/land cover (LULC) designations. The temperature trends for the OLS-derived designations of LULC were compared to similarly designated LULC based on (i) map- (Operational Navigation Charts) and population-based estimates of LULC (ONCP method), and (ii) LULC designations that resulted from of a survey of the network station operators. Although differences were not statistically significant, the DTR trends (degrees Celsius per 100 years) did differ between the LULC classes defined by the OLS method, from20.41 for the rural stations to 20.86 for the urban stations. Trends also differed, although not significantly, between the methods used to define an LULC class, such that the trends in rural DTR varied from 20.41 for the OLS defined stations to20.67 for the ONCP defined stations. Although the trends between classes were not significantly different, they do present some contrasts that might confound the interpretation of temperature trends when the local and regional environments associated with the analyzed stations are not considered. The general (urban, suburban, or rural) LULC associated with surface observation stations appears to be one of the factors that can influence the trends observed in temperatures and thus should be considered in the analysis and interpretation of temperature trends.