This study analyses the expansion of urban growth and land cover changes in five Saudi Arabian cities (Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah, Al-Taif and the Eastern Area) using Landsat images for the 1985, 1990, 2000, 2007 and 2014 time periods. The classification was carried out using object-based image analysis (OBIA) to create land cover maps. The classified images were used to predict the land cover chan...

A particular challenge for undertaking urbanization mapping of Beirut is the absence of a unified understanding of the city. Migration, informal settlements, a lack of urban planning, political corruption, as well as internal conflict have made this task even harder. The population in Lebanon is unevenly distributed among regions, where one third of the population resides in the Greater Beirut ...

In this research, a constrained cellular automata (CA) model based on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is developed to simulate and forecast urban growth. As we know, many factors impact urban growth, and relationships among them are complex and non-linear. In geographic CA research, models with different rules and symbology have been developed to simulate those relationships. Yet, in previous d...

BECAUSE THE YEAR 2000 figures prominently in urban population projections , it is timely to assess whether the United Nations' earliest projections of urban population growth in developing countries, made in the 1970s, have been reasonably accurate, and if not, why. Despite being accompanied by advice to interpret urban population projections with caution and not as forecasts (United Nations 19...

Abstract Using a spatial equilibrium model and data of 286 Chinese cities at the prefecture above- level from 2002 to 2013, this study estimates contribution each city national GDP growth. The results reveal several interesting patterns. First, what an individual contributes aggregate growth is not represented clearly by city's based on standard accounting calculation. Second, increased real wa...

This study explores the combined application of remote sensing, spatial metrics and spatial modeling to the analysis and modeling of urban growth in Santa Barbara, California. The investigation is based on a 72-year time series data set compiled from interpreted historical aerial photography and from IKONOS satellite imagery. Spatial metrics were used both specifically to assess the impact of u...

In this article a method based on data fusion approach and using multitemporal ASAR-ENVISAT / PRI-ERS SAR images to analyze different behaviours (urban growth, urban decrease and urban constance) of the urban dynamics phenomenon in rain forest context is proposed. The method computes first two attributes : NDVI index used as urban / non-urban index and as prior information to improve locally th...

Foresight Studies analyze emerging issues and trends with the objective of quantifying the research challenge and the potential impact for agricultural research. The past century has entailed a relatively speaking rapid redistribution as well as growth of urban populations, with the urban population surpassing the rural one for the first time in 2008. Processes of urban growth and their implica...

Rapid urban growth induces global environmental change, particularly when it comes to production, consumption, and the generation of waste. According to the United Nations, most of the world's population will be living in cities by the year 2030. In developing countries, urban agglomerations are growing at twice the rate of overall population growth. Each day, approximately 160,000 people migra...