Abstrait

Monitoring and analysis of Land use/cover Change Detection and Urban Expansionfrom 1988 to 2014 in the South Seattle, Washington, USA

Eric M. Baer, Mushtak T Jabbar

In this study we integrate multiple pre-processing, land use/cover classification, and change analysis detection techniques to develop a methodology and assess urban expansion change between 1988 and 2014 in the southern part of King County in Washington, USA using a 1:150 000 mapping scale. The results reveal an overall2.38 % growth in theurban area.Output land use/cover maps show that urban expansion has been associated with loss of agricultural land. Urban expansion was mainly attributed to the high growth in population, including a large number of immigrants from neighboring countries and other socio-economic changes. These results can provide city planners and decision makers with information about the past and current spatial dynamics of land use/ cover change and strictly urban expansion towards successful management for better planning and environmental monitoring.