TITLE:
Land Use and Land Cover Change Detection in the Saudi Arabian Desert Cities of Makkah and Al-Taif Using Satellite Data
AUTHORS:
Abdullah F. Alqurashi, Lalit Kumar
KEYWORDS:
Land Use/Cover Patterns, Landsat Imagery, Makkah, Al-Taif, Urban Growth, Image Classification, Change Detection
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Remote Sensing,
Vol.3 No.3,
September
17,
2014
ABSTRACT: Land use/land cover (LULC)
changes have become a central issue in current global change and sustainability
research. Saudi Arabia has undergone significant change in land use and land
cover since the government embarked on a course of intense national development
30 years ago, as a result of huge national oil revenues. This study evaluates
LULC change in Makkah and Al-Taif, Saudi Arabia from 1986 to 2013 using Landsat
images. Maximum likelihood and object-oriented classification were used to
develop LULC maps. The change detection was executed using post-classification
comparison and GIS. The results indicated that urban areas have increased over
the period by approximately 174% in Makkah and 113% in Al-Taif. Analysis of
vegetation cover over the study area showed a variable distribution from year
to year due to changing average precipitation in this environment. Object-based
classification provided slightly greater accuracy than maximum likelihood
classification. Information provided by satellite remote sensing can play an
important role in quantifying and understanding the relationship between
population growth and LULC changes, which can assist future planning and
potential environmental impacts of expanding urban areas.