Abstract

This study evaluates land use /land cover changes (LULCC) in Wuhan city, China, between 1987-2006 using satellite imagery data. Spatial and temporal dynamics of LULCC were quantified using three landsat TM images (1987, 1994 and 2006). The maximum likelihood supervised classification algorithm and post classification Change detection technique in GIS were also used. The analysis revealed that forest and urban growth over the study period changed by 15.57% and 8.66% respectively, resulting in a significant decrease in the area of cultivated land (16.88%) and water (7.35%). For the three main towns that make up Wuhan city, Wuchang increased in water, urban and cultivated land, and a decrease in forest cover; Hanyang increased in urban area and decreases in cultivated land, water and forest, while in Hankou, cultivated land and forest increased, urban and water covers decreased. The overall accuracy of the derived LULCC maps ranged from 88% to 92%. The outcomes of this research will benefit society through the creation of reliable land cover information for better decision making. However, to identify how information diffusion and spatial externalities could affect the spatial pattern and composition of land cover over time, agent-based techniques could be more helpful.

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