Monitoring urban expansion of the Greater Toronto area from 1985 to 2013 using Landsat images

This study aims to detect the urban expansion in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in the period of 29 years lasting from 1985 to 2013 using the optical remote sensing data. A time series study is carried out and the change of the urban area and non-urban area is analyzed bi-temporally and multi-temporally by using the post-classification comparison method. Landsat images can been used to examine the land use and land cover changes of GTA in a long time period. The extent and spatial patterns of urban expansion are both analyzed quantitatively in the study, and it is effective to integrate GIS technology into remote sensing applications like this paper.