Land use change analysis in the Zhujiang Delta of China using satellite remote sensing, GIS and stochastic modelling

Rapid land use change has taken place in many coastal regions of China such as the Zhujiang Delta over the past two decades due to accelerated industrialization and urbanization. In this paper, land use change dynamics were investigated by the combined use of satellite remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and stochastic modelling technologies. The results indicated that there has been a notable and uneven urban growth and a tremendous loss in cropland between 1989 and 1997. The land use change process has shown no sign of becoming stable. The study demonstrates that the integration of satellite remote sensing and GIS was an effective approach for analyzing the direction, rate, and spatial pattern of land use change. The further integration of these two technologies with Markov modelling was found to be beneficial in describing and analyzing land use change process.
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A remote sensing?GIS evaluation of urban expansion and its impact on surface temperature in the Zhujiang Delta, China

The Zhujiang Delta of South China has experienced a rapid urban expansion over the past two decades due to accelerated economic growth. This paper reports an investigation into the application of the integration of remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) for detecting urban growth and assessing its impact on surface temperature in the region. Remotesensing techniques were used to carry out land use/cover change detection by using multitemporal Landsat Thematic Mapper data. Urban growth patterns were analysed by using aGIS-based modelling approach. The integration of remote sensing and GIS was further applied to examine the impact of urban growth on surface temperatures. The results revealed a notable and uneven urban growth in the study area. This urban development had raised surface radiant temperature by 13.01 K in the urbanized area. The integration of remote sensing and GIS was found to be effective in monitoring and analysing urban growth patterns, and in evaluating urbanization impact on surface temperature.

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