Indication of Urban expansion of Gujranwala city (Pakistan) by Remote sensing and GIS

Land-cover by land-use shows the influence of human on earth surface by different phenomena’s, ecological processes and human activities, its indication is a parameter of measurement how and with which extent the human influenced the natural surface with temporal variations. The change detection technique is used based upon the temporal observations from 2000 to 2015. Study area is one of the most populated city of Pakistan where industrial revolution is at its peak. The whole study area is categorized into four classes (i.e. Agricultural, Barren, Built-up and semi natural surfaces). The observational intervals were divided into three main classes i.e. 2000 to 2005, 2005 to 2010 and 2010 to 2015. Remarkable changes were occurred in built up area from 2000 to 2015 which is 38.6 % of total area, while the total change/decreased in barren land is -332 9(ha), similarly the Parks and grasses are also in decreasing extent and affect the local biodiversity and natural environment. The land cover is directly proportional to population expansion of urban city. For making the prediction of future urban expansion, previously occurred changes were aggregated to come up with a single value and then adding it to the recent land-use values. The mapping and analysis was undertaken through techniques of remote sensing and GIS, which proved to be very effective to measure the changes, and trend of changes with time, this mapping not only tells us the scale of change but, also tells us the patterns and the forces which causes these changes.