Improving the SLEUTH urban growth model via temporal consistency in urban input data

Changes in an urban growth model were investigated after processing temporal consistency evaluation of classified urban images. A consistency evaluation involving both temporal filtering and heuristic reasoning was then applied to sequence classification of urban maps for further improvement. The SLEUTH urban growth model was tested in regions of uncontrolled urban expansion. The SLEUTH was calibrated using data collected from the major urban area of Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand in 1989, 1994, 1999 and 2005. The best value of Optimal SLEUTH Metric (OSM) was calculated for urban inputs with and without temporal consistency checking. OSM value higher than without, presenting a better explanation of urban growth in the study area.