Necessity of a multifaceted approach in analyzing growth of impervious surfaces

Abstract

While substantial efforts have been devoted to the remote sensing of impervious surfaces, few studies have developed frameworks to connect impervious surfaces' growth with spatial planning decisions. To this end, this paper develops a multifaceted approach with three components: Visualization, numerical analysis, and simulation at the sub-pixel level. First, the growth of impervious surfaces was visualized through write function memory (WFM) insertion for the period of 1974-2009 of Cixi County in Zhejiang Province, China. Second, anomaly detection, statistical analysis, and landscape metrics were used to quantify changes in impervious surfaces over time. Finally, a slope, land use, exclusion, urban extent, transportation, and hill shade (SLEUTH) cellular automata model was employed to simulate the impervious surface growth until 2015 under four specific spatial decision scenarios: Current trends, environmental protection growth, business growth, and Chinese policy for protecting rural regions. The results show that Cixi County experienced compact growth due to expansion and internal intensification. Interestingly, the SLEUTH reveals that the projected space of impervious surfaces' growth was consistent with reality in 2015. The framework established in this study holds considerable potential for improving our understanding of the interaction between impervious surfaces' growth and planning aspects.