Monitoring of urban sprawl using remote sensing technology in the rapid urbanized region, China

Analyzing spatio-temporal characteristics of land use is essential for understanding ecological consequences of urbanization. More importantly, such analyses can provide basic information for sustainable management of land resources. The East Pearl River Delta (EPRD) in southern China, which has experienced a rapid urbanization process from 1979 to 2005, was taken as a study region to analyze the spatio-temporal dynamics of urban land use. Land use map with all of its land uses classified into 4 types which was generated based on Landsat images, together with local basic land-use information layers, were used to study the region's urban land use pattern and intensity. This analysis showed that the urban land area and intensity within the region increased dramatically during the study period.