Seasonal variations in the relationship between landscape pattern and land surface temperature in Indianapolis, USA

This paper intended to examine the seasonal variations in the relationship between landscape pattern and land surface temperature based on a case study of Indianapolis, United States. The integration of remote sensing, GIS, and landscape ecology methods was used in this study. Four Terra's ASTER images were used to derive the landscape patterns and land surface temperatures (LST) in four seasons in the study area. The spatial and ecological characteristics of landscape patterns and LSTs were examined by the use of landscape metrics. The impact of each land use and land cover type on LST was analyzed based on the measurements of landscape metrics. The results show that the landscape and LST patterns in the winter were unique. The rest of three seasons apparently had more agreeable landscape and LST patterns. The spatial configuration of each LST zone conformed to that of each land use and land cover type with more than 50% of overlap in area for all seasons. This paper may provide useful information for urban planers and environmental managers for assessing and monitoring urban thermal environments as result of urbanization.     

基于TM影像的县级土地利用动态监测

以1988、2000、2008年TM遥感影像为数据源,利用GIS技术,获得高淳县土地利用动态变化。结果表明,20年间耕地面积明显减少,水域和建设用地大幅增加,而面积的增加主要是通过占用耕地来实现平衡的。城镇人口和经济的快速增长,产业结构的调整优化和城镇规划变革促进了高淳县土地利用变化。     

基于遥感和Markov模型的新疆生产建设兵团土地利用变化

通过对兵团土地利用空间格局变化分析,选择合适的土地利用政策保护生态环境。运用RS和GIS技术对兵团近10年土地利用/覆被变化及景观格局空间变化进行分析,并在此基础上运用Markov模型对未来30年土地利用变化进行预测。2000—2010年,新疆生产建设兵团景观多样性升高,连通性增强,形状愈来愈简单,景观格局整体变化不大;草地、灌丛、湿地、荒漠和冰川/永久积雪面积减少,耕地和城镇面积增加,森林保持稳定;人为干扰对土地利用结构的变化具有重要作用,土地利用强度受人为活动影响的同时受土地利用政策影响;在未来30年间耕地和城镇面积继续增加,除森林基本保持不变外其他土地利用类型均减小。兵团城镇用地与草地和耕地之间的矛盾逐渐显现,势必引起兵团生态格局的变化。因此,必须实行合适的土地利用政策保护环境。     

Land-cover changes in an urban lake watershed in a mega-city, Central China

Urbanization can exert a profound influence on land covers and landscape characteristics. In this study, we characterize the impact of urbanization on land cover and lacustrine landscape and their consequences in a large urban lake watershed, Donghu Lake watershed (the largest urban lake in China), Central China, by using Landsat TM satellite images of three periods of 1987, 1993 and 1999 and ground-based information. We grouped the land covers into six categories: water body, vegetable land, forested land, shrub-grass land, open area and urban land, and calculated patch-related landscape indices to analyze the effects of urbanization on landscape features. We overlaid the land cover maps of the three periods to track the land cover change processes. The results indicated that urban land continuously expanded from 9.1% of the total watershed area in 1987, to 19.4% in 1993, and to 29.6% in 1999. The vegetable land increased from 7.0% in 1987, 11.9% in 1993, to 13.9% in 1999 to sustain the demands of vegetable for increased urban population. Concurrently, continuous reduction of other land cover types occurred between 1987 and 1999: water body decreased from 30.4% to 23.8%, and forested land from 33.6% to 24.3%. We found that the expansion of urban land has at least in part caused a decrease in relatively wild habitats, such as urban forest and lake water area. These alterations had resulted in significant negative environmental consequences, including decline of lakes, deterioration of water and air quality, and loss of biodiversity.     

平顶山地区景观格局动态特征及驱动力分析

以平顶山地区为研究对象,利用平顶山地区1992年Landsat-TM影像和2006年中巴资源卫星遥感影像,运用景观生态学原理,借助遥感和GIS技术,选取景观多样性、景观优势度、景观均匀度、景观破碎度等指标指数进行分析,揭示平顶山地区近14 a来城市景观格局演变及其驱动力。研究结果表明:交通用地、工矿及居民点和耕地用地显著增加,林地、水域显著减少;除工矿及居民点外,该地区各类型斑块数量均有增加,其中林地增加最为显著;交通用地、工矿及居民点的破碎度降低,水域、林地、耕地的景观类型破碎度增高;耕地的分维数、形状指数呈下降趋势,而林地的分维数和形状指数呈上升趋势;平顶山地区景观多样性和均匀度都呈下降趋势,而优势度和破碎度增加;景观格局变化受人为因素影响较大,人口增加、经济发展、城镇化和工业发展是平顶山地区景观格局演变的主要驱动力。     

Spatial based compromise programming for multiple criteria decision making in land use planning

Today, competing land use is continuing to occur in many developed regions. In the Agricultural Development Zone of Western Sydney Region, which is characterised by complex landscape patterns, land use competition is widespread. From a land use planning perspective, identification of suitable locations for a given type of land use is necessary for decision makers to formulate land use alternatives in different locations, based on existing land potential and constraints. For such a region, use of a simple method that implements a categorical system and considers only inherent land characteristics in the analysis is often inadequate to arrive at an optimal spatial decision. The primary aim of this paper is to develop spatial modelling procedures for agricultural land suitability analysis using compromise programming (CoPr) and fuzzy set approach within a geographical information systems (GIS) environment. Five main sets of spatial data for use as decision criteria were developed by using fuzzy set methodology: a land suitability index (LSI) for maximising the land productivity objective; an erosion tolerance index (ETI) for minimising the erosion risk objective; a runoff curve number (CN) for maximising the water discharge regulation objective; an accessibility (RP) measure for maximising the land accessibility objective; and the proximity to water body (WP) for minimising the water pollution objective. An L _p -metric was used in the analysis utilising different strategies with representative indices ranging from a situation where full tradeoff among criteria occurs to a noncompensatory condition. Different weighting combinations were also applied, and decision analysis was carried out by using values ranging from 0 to 1.0, where 1.0 is considered as an ideal point. The CoPr model demonstrated in this paper yielded a promising result, as several different techniques of sensitivity analysis show reasonably good results. Likewise, an overlay of that result with the present land use/land cover indicates a good corresponding spatial matching between existing land use (orchard and cultivated land), and the cells (land parcels) classified as the best in CoPr. The results are amenable to various map display techniques, either using continuous values or by defining different cut off points in the data space within a raster GIS environment.     

Simulation of Wind Circulation and Pollutant Diffusion Over the Pearl River Delta Region

Changes in urban surface areas and population growth have significantly affected the weather and environment. Emissions of nitrogen oxides are increasing in the Pearl River Delta region. Nitrogen compounds emitted by factories and motor vehicles are the major sources of nitric pollution. To study the impacts of urbanization and the relationship between pollutant diffusion and the atmospheric environment, the nonhydrostatic mesoscale forecast model MM5 (v3.73), which was developed by Penn State University and the National Center of Atmospheric Research, and a mass continuity equation for air pollutants, were used in this study. Two experiments were designed. One experiment (BE) applied horizontal grid resolutions of 27, 9, 3, and 1?km in four nested domains. The other experiment adopted new land-use data (in domain 4) directly retrieved from Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery to replace the 1980s data of the United States Geological Survey in BE. A 48-h simulation (from 0000?UTC on 21 October to 0000?UTC on 23 October 2008) was conducted, with the first 12?h being the spin-up time and the remaining 36?h being the effective simulation, so as to capture the diurnal features of the thermally induced winds associated with the land–sea breeze and urban heat island circulations. The different results obtained from the two tests for wind circulation and air pollution dispersion and transportation in the Pearl River Delta region were analyzed. The simulated results show that the both experiments can well simulate land–sea breeze circulation and remarkable land–sea breeze evolution, comparing with observation data. The height of the PBL had a significant diurnal cycle. The structure of the wind field can obviously impact the dispersion of the NO _x in three dimensions. Nitrogen oxides mainly diffused along the dominant wind direction (east or southeast wind), therefore the majority of the pollutants accumulated in the northwest region of the fine domain in both simulation experiments. However, it induced the pollutants concentration in an irregular pattern due to the fine-resolution grid spaces and complicated inland wind field in the northwest area of the inner domain. Moreover, increasing the proportion of urban surface caused sensible heat flux increase, latent heat flux decrease and humility reducing relatively in the region of urban surface characteristics apparently. Urbanization will cause pollution accumulated severely over the urban surface.     

Estimation of Land Use Specific Runoff and Pollutant Concentration for Tapi River Basin in India

Non-point source (NPS) pollution is the result of various land use practices such as agriculture, sites of construction and waste disposal, urban development and so on. The control of NPS pollution is possible by regular monitoring and assessment on watershed basis to educate people for implementing well-known structural and non-structural measures. Recent trend is to use GIS based modelling tool for assessment of rainfall-runoff and non-point loading. The approach requires generation and analysis of basin wide data on various features of land and estimates of Event Mean Concentrations (EMCs) of pollutants in the runoff. In the present paper, basin wide data in different districts of Tapi basin has been analysed for land use distribution; fertilizer application; low, medium and high-density habitation; and annual rainfall. Coefficients of runoff have been estimated considering pervious and impervious area for different land use types, and compared with the reported values for Indian conditions. The estimated mean annual runoff flow indicated that two districts Jalgaon and Dhule contribute maximum runoff to the Tapi River. Estimates of EMCs for BOD and nutrients (N and P) in the runoff from various districts are useful in GIS-based modelling study for NPS pollution assessment.     

Spatial Patterns of Water Quality in the Cuiabá River Basin, Central Brazil

This study evaluates the spatial patterns of land occupation and their relationship to water quality in the Cuiabá River watershed, one of the main affluents of the Pantanal floodplain. The impact of farming and other land occupation forms were studied using a three year time series. Monitoring included 15 parameters at 21 stations with a total of 1266 different samples. Ten stations along the Cuiabá River were ordinated by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). For an exploratory analysis in the spatial domain, sub-basins of the Cuiabá watershed were classified according to mean concentrations of selected water quality parameters. Supervised classification of digital Landsat ETM imagery and standard GIS techniques were applied to parameterize land use and occupation according to a watershed scale. Redundancy Analysis (RDA) was then used to evaluate impacts of environmental and socio-economic factors on water quality.A Cuiabá headwater station only shows slightly elevated total coliform counts and concentrations of nutrients in the river after it passes regions of extensive cattle farming. After the confluence with the Manso River, nutrient and COD concentrations increase significantly, receiving loads from sub-basins under intensive agricultural land use, with mean annual concentrations up to 1.74 mg/L of total nitrogen (Kjedahl). Sub-watersheds with intensive fishing culture activities were shown to have significant impact on nitrogen concentrations, reaching mean concentrations of 2.66 mg/L of total nitrogen in the affluents. Most serious biological and chemical water pollution can be observed at stream outlets in the urban agglomeration of Cuiabá/Várzea Grande. Affluent pollution is reflected in the water quality of the Cuiabá River: subsequent monitoring stations in the urban area are ordinated on a gradient of increasing degradation of chemical and biological water quality. The auto-depuration capacity of the Cuiabá River is intact, but elevated concentrations of Phosphorous and Chemical Oxygen Demand can be observed as far away as the Pantanal floodplain, about 120 km downstream from the urban agglomeration.     

Detecting the spatial differentiation in settlement change rates during rapid urbanization in the Nanjing metropolitan region, China

Urbanization produced significant landscape changes throughout the world. China has been experiencing accelerated urbanization during the past decades. Rapid land use/land over conversion occurred nationwide in urbanization, manifesting noteworthy characteristics of landscape dynamics. In this study, we investigated the spatial differentiation in settlement change rates among 1-km² land units in the Nanjing metropolitan region, a representative rapidly urbanizing region in China. Remotely sensed detection using Landsat TM data of 1988–2006 showed that settlement increase, termed as positive growth (PG), was predominant in the study area; while settlement decrease, termed as negative growth (NG), also had a considerable proportion, which was mainly attributed to the increase of green lands and the shrink of rural settlements. Along the urban-rural gradient, PG and NG showed similar mono-peaked patterns. The urban fringe zone with a consistent width of about 4 km was identified as the hot zone of both PG and NG over the three unequal periods. For both PG and NG, high-rated changes tended to exhibit more aggregative patterns along the gradient in the urban fringe zone. Settlement changes showed apparent anisotropy across directions. The directional distribution of PG was significantly negatively correlated to the topographic variables, suggesting that the mountains constrained urban expansion in an “area-weighted inverse-distance power” form. Significant correlation between PG and NG in a time-lagged manner showed the “increase–decrease” fluctuation occurred in settlement changes, reflecting the “urban expansion–land reconfiguration” process in rapid urbanization in Nanjing.     

Land surface temperature estimating in urbanized landscapes using artificial neural networks

Scenario-based land surface temperature (LST) modeling is a powerful tool for adopting proper urban land use planning policies. In this study, using greater Isfahan as a case study, the artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm was utilized to explore the non-linear relationships between urban LST and green cover spatial patterns derived from Landsat 8 OLI imagery. The model was calibrated using two sets of variables: Normalized Difference Built Index (NDBI) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Furthermore, Compact Development Scenario (CDS) and Green Development Scenario (GDS) were defined. The results showed that GDS is more successful in mitigating urban LST (mean LST?=?40.93) compared to CDS (mean LST?=?44.88). In addition, urban LST retrieved from the CDS was more accurate in terms of ANOVA significance (sig?=?0.043) than the GDS (sig?=?0.010). The findings of this study suggest that developing green spaces is a key strategy to combat against the risk of LST concerns in urban areas.     

Linking Land Cover and Water Quality in New York City’S Water Supply Watersheds

The Catskill/Delaware reservoirs supply 90% of New York City’s drinking water. The City has implemented a series of watershed protection measures, including land acquisition, aimed at preserving water quality in the Catskill/Delaware watersheds. The objective of this study was to examine how relationships between landscape and surface water measurements change between years. Thirty-two drainage areas delineated from surface water sample points (total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and fecal coliform bacteria concentrations) were used in step-wise regression analyses to test landscape and surface-water quality relationships. Two measurements of land use, percent agriculture and percent urban development, were positively related to water quality and consistently present in all regression models. Together these two land uses explained 25 to 75% of the regression model variation. However, the contribution of agriculture to water quality condition showed a decreasing trend with time as overall agricultural land cover decreased. Results from this study demonstrate that relationships between land cover and surface water concentrations of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and fecal coliform bacteria counts over a large area can be evaluated using a relatively simple geographic information system method. Land managers may find this method useful for targeting resources in relation to a particular water quality concern, focusing best management efforts, and maximizing benefits to water quality with minimal costs.The United States Environmental Protection Agency through its Office of Research and Development funded and managed the research described here. It has been subjected to Agency’s administrative review and approved for publication as an EPA document.     

Monitoring the impacts of urbanization and industrialization on the agricultural land and environment of the Torbali, Izmir region, Turkey

The aim of this research is to determine agricultural land loss and environmental pollution caused by industrialization and urban sprawl using the Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing technique (RS). Remotely sensed data is the most powerful tool for monitoring land use changes and GIS is the best way to store and reproduce various kinds of integrated data. Considering the rapid increase of population the loss of fertile agricultural soils is a very dangerous situation for the future of the country. Thus, people are living in the cities in (with adverse) conditions of insufficient drinking water, infrastructure problems, inadequate landscape and many unsolved (extreme) environmental problems. During the last 36 years, unplanned urbanization and industrialization have led to the use of agricultural areas for non-agricultural purposes in the Torbali (Izmir) region, which has the most fertile soils of the Aegean Region. Within this study, a database was created on the parameters of land loss and environmental pollution by means of field observation, interpretation of satellite images (ASTER), aerial photos(1/25.000 scale), topographic map ,soil map, and 1/5.000 scale cadastral map. Results of previous researches and the archives of Torbali municipality were used as ancillary data. In the research, urbanization and industrialization of the town was studied by (using) GIS and RS between 1965 and 2001. Since 1965, 4.742.357 m² agricultural land, mostly of first and second land use capability classes, has been lost due to unplanned urban and industrial developments. Urbanization and industrialization involved an area of which 58% was being used as irrigated lands, 25 % rain feed (rain fed lands)and 17 % for olive growing.     

A GIS-based approach for the long-term prediction of human health risks at contaminated sites

A Health Index/Risk Evaluation Tool (HIRET) has been developed for the integration of risk assessment and spatial planning using GIS capabilities. The method is meant to assist decision makers and site owners in the evaluation of potential human health risk with respect to land use. Human health risk defined as the potential adverse effects on human life or health is generally accepted as the most important aspect for site assessment and planning of remediation strategies. It concerns polluted sites that endanger human health on one hand and derelict land that does not cause the immediate risk on the other hand. In current state-of-the-art risk-assessment, long-term spatial and temporal changes of risks, in relation to changes in contamination patterns and land use functions, are not taken into account. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the methodology developed for human health risk assessment in aspect of spatial and temporal domain. HIRET was developed as an extension for ESRI software ArcView 3.2 and allows performing dynamic human health risk assessment in long-term period, which is relevant for land use planning. The paper illustrates how such methodology can assist in environmental decision-making to enhance the efficiency of contaminated land management. A case study of contaminated site is given showing how data can be used within a GIS framework to produce maps indicating areas of potential human health risk.     

The Impact of Urbanization and Protection of Water Resources in Owerri and Environs SE, Nigeria

Untreated sewage and agriculture are the most important sources of contamination. The study was carried out by conducting a short-term surface water and groundwater pollution survey of the Owerri Urban area and its environs, in order to establish the current levels of pollution. An attempt has been made to show the relationships between pollution levels, population density, industrial and agricultural activities. The spatial distribution of pollutants due to a poor land use system and to human activities was investigated. This emphasises integrated planned development as a preventive measure for arresting pollution levels in fast growing urban centres. The total groundwater stored in the area amounts to 7.87 × 10⁹ m³. Twenty five percent of this is released as base flow into the adjacent rivers (Otamiri and Nworie). The annual groundwater recharge is 3.4 × 10⁹ m³. The enormous volume of groundwater stored and the comparatively low cost of development makes groundwater an excellent alternative supply source for the area (Uma et al., 1984).     

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Evaluation for sustainable land use in mountain areas of Northwestern Yunnan Province, China

As an important component of sustainable development in mountain areas, evaluation for sustainable land use is always one of the hotpots of researches on sustainable development. Traditional evaluation for sustainable land use mainly focuses on the sustainability of land use model and biological production on temporal scale, and overlooks the effects of land use patterns on the sustainability, while landscape ecology can be a good help to realize the spatial analysis of sustainable land use. In this study, a synthetic evaluation indexes system for sustainable land use was constructed through the application of landscape metrics. Taking Yongsheng County of Yunnan Province, China as a case study, a series of quantitative evaluation were conducted in 1996, 1999 and 2001, to monitor the temporal dynamics of regional land use sustainability. Two indicators, contributing amount of indexes, and obstacle amount of indexes, were also set up to ascertain the significance of all the evaluation indexes to the evaluation results. The results showed that, in the study phases, the land use sustainability of the whole county had been low with a stable but great spatial difference, and great changes took place in regional land use system in 1999 with the deviation from the aim of sustainable land use. It also showed that, the most important indexes contributing for the land use sustainability in the study period, were the indexes of population density and land use degree, followed by the index of landscape diversity and cropping index. And the most important indexes counteracting the land use sustainability were the indexes of per unit area total production value of industry and agriculture, per unit area yield of cereal crops, landscape fragmentation, followed by the indexes of per unit area yield of economic crops and fertilizer consume per unit area.     

Spatial and temporal dynamics of land use pattern in Eastern Turkey: a case study in Gümüşhane

Recognition and understanding of landscape dynamics as a historical legacy of disturbances are necessary for sustainable management of forest ecosystems. This study analyzed spatial and temporal changes in land use and land cover patterns in a typical mountain watershed in the Gumushane district along the Northeastern part of Turkey. The area is investigated by comparing LANDSAT images from 1987 to 2000 and evaluated the temporal changes of spatial structure of forest conditions through spatial analysis of forest cover type maps from 1971 and 1987 using GIS and FRAGSTATS™. The results show a general decreasing trend in area of natural land cover types including broadleaf and conifer forests as well as coppice between 1971 and 1987 (0.54%, respectively). In contrast, between 1987 and 2000 this natural land cover types show increasing trend (1.6%). In parallel with forest dynamics, the area of managed land including lowland and upland agricultural areas, rangelands and grasslands increased during the first period and decreased during second period. In terms of spatial configuration, Gümüşhane forests aren’t generally fragmented by intensive forest utilization in the latter periods. This is partially due to out-migration of rural population in Gümüşhane. Nevertheless, land use pattern significantly changed over time depending on a few factors such as unregulated management actions, social pressure and demographic movements. The study revealed that demographic movements have a major effect on landscape dynamics.     

Spatial analysis and land use regression of VOCs and NO2 in Dallas, Texas during two seasons

Passive air sampling for nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) and select volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was conducted at 24 fire stations and a compliance monitoring site in Dallas, Texas, USA during summer 2006 and winter 2008. This ambient air monitoring network was established to assess intra-urban gradients of air pollutants to evaluate the impact of traffic and urban emissions on air quality. Ambient air monitoring and GIS data from spatially representative fire station sites were collected to assess spatial variability. Pairwise comparisons were conducted on the ambient data from the selected sites based on city section. These weeklong samples yielded NO(2) and benzene levels that were generally higher during the winter than the summer. With respect to the location within the city, the central section of Dallas was generally higher for NO(2) and benzene than north and south. Land use regression (LUR) results revealed spatial gradients in NO(2) and selected VOCs in the central and some northern areas. The process used to select spatially representative sites for air sampling and the results of analyses of coarse- and fine-scale spatial variability of air pollutants on a seasonal basis provide insights to guide future ambient air exposure studies in assessing intra-urban gradients and traffic impacts.     

An examination of the effect of landscape pattern, land surface temperature, and socioeconomic conditions on WNV dissemination in Chicago

This paper developed an approach by the synthesis of remote sensing, landscape metrics, and statistical methods to examine the effects of landscape pattern, land surface temperature, and socioeconomic conditions on the spread of West Nile virus (WNV) caused by mosquitoes and animal hosts in Chicago, USA. Land use/land cover and land surface temperature images were derived from Terra’s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer imagery. An analytical procedure using landscape metrics was developed, applying configuration analysis of landscape patterns in the study area. The positive reports of mosquitoes and animal hosts for WNV in fall, 2001–2006, were collected from the Cook County Public Health Department. Forty-nine municipalities were found to have WNV-positive records in mosquitoes and animal hosts in fall 2004. Socioeconomic data were obtained from the 2000 US Census. Statistical analysis was applied to WNV data in fall 2004 to identify the relationship between potential predictors and WNV spread. As a result, landscape factors, such as landscape aggregation index and the urban areas and areas of grass and water, showed strong correlations with the WNV-positive records. Socioeconomic conditions, such as the population over 65 years old, also showed a strong correlation with WNV-positive records. Thermal conditions of water showed a less but still considerable correlation to WNV-positive records. This research offers an opportunity to explore the effects of landscape pattern, land surface temperature, and socioeconomic conditions on the spread of WNV caused by mosquitoes and animal hosts. Results can contribute to public health and environmental management in the study area.     

Environmental change monitoring in the arid and semi-arid regions: a case study Al-Basrah Province, Iraq

In recent years, land use/cover dynamic change has become a key subject urgently to be dealt with in the study of global environmental change. This research utilizes the integrated remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) in the southern part of Iraq (Basrah Province was taken as a case) to monitor, map, and quantify the environmental change using a 1:250,000 mapping scale. Remote sensing and GIS software were used to classify Landsat TM in 1990 and Landsat ETM+ in 2003 imagery into five land use and land cover (LULC) classes: vegetation land, sand land, urban area, unused land, and water bodies. Supervised classification and normalized difference buildup index, normalized difference vegetation index, normalized difference bare land index, the normalized differential water index, crust index (CI) algorithms, and change detection techniques were adopted in this research and used, respectively, to retrieve its class boundary. An accuracy assessment was performed on the 2003 LULC map to determine the reliability of the map. Finally, GIS software was used to quantify and illustrate the various LULC conversions that took place over the 13-year span of time. The results showed that the urban area, sand lands, and bare lands had increased by the rate of 1.2%, 0.8%, and 0.4% per year, with area expansion from 3,299.1, 4,119.1 km², and 3,201.9 km² in 1990 to 3,794.9, 4,557.7, and 3,351.7 km² in 2003, respectively. While the vegetation cover and water body classes were about 43.5% in 1990, the percentage decreased to about 39.6% in 2003. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the remote sensing and GIS technologies in detecting, assessing, mapping, and monitoring the environmental changes.