Monitoring Urban Expansion Using Remote-Sensing Data Aided by Google Earth Engine

Abstract

Urbanizationis accompanied by rapid social and economic development, while the process of urbanization causes the degradation of the natural ecology. Direct loss in vegetation biomass from areas with a high probability of urban expansion can contribute to the total emissions from tropical deforestation and land-use change. Monitoring of urban expansion is essential for more efficient urban planning, protecting the ecosystem and the environment. In this paper, we use remote sensing data aided by Google Earth Engine (GEE) to evaluate the urban expansion of the city of Isfahan in the last thirty years. Thus, in this paper we use Landsat satellite images from 1986 and 2019, integrated into GEE, implementing Support vector machine (SVM) classification method. The accuracy assessment for the classified images showed high accuracy (95-96%), while the results showed a significant increase in the urban area of the city of Isfahan, occupying more than 70% of the study area. For future studies, we recommend a more detailed investigation about the city expansion and the negative impacts that may occur due to urban expansion.