Spatial Structure of Land Use Dynamics in Kathmandu Valley
نویسندگان
چکیده
Quantifying landscape pattern and its change are essential for the monitoring and assessment of environmental consequences of urban area. This paper aims to analyze spatiotemporal patterns of urban landscape changes in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal by combining remote sensing, GIS and landscape metrics. Multi-temporal satellite images from high resolution (CORONA, SPIN and IKONOS) to moderate resolution (LANDSAT: MSS, TM) were processed to identify the temporal changes in landscape patterns. A hybrid approach with a series of steps was developed for mapping the land uses in the valley. Four land use maps were prepared from the images for the year 1967, 1978, 1991 and 2000. A set of landscape metrics was used to evaluate temporal dynamics of land uses from the maps at class and landscape levels. The results suggested that the urban/builtup area in the valley increased from 3% in 1967 to 13% in 2000 where the shrubs lands decreased from 20% to 9% and forest lands from 23% to 17%. This trend was more escalated in the 1980s. In the valley floor, the agricultural land was changed to urban lands whereas in rural areas much of the shrubs and forest lands were transformed into agricultural land. The number of patches in the study area was increased from 595 in 1967 to 776 in 1991 toping to 1090 in 2000. Although the landscape in urban rural fringe areas seems to be fragmented, except a slight increase in AWMPFD, decreasing trend of the ENNMN, CONTAG and SHDI shows the improving homogeneity in overall landscape. ∗ Corresponding author.
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