ANALYZING LAND USE/LAND COVER CHANGE USING REMOTE SENSING DATA AND LANDSCAPE STRUCTURE METRICS: A CASE STUDY OF ERZURUM, TURKEY

This study investigates land use/cover changes and urban expansion in Erzurum, the largest city in the eastern part of Turkey, between 1987 and 2007 using satellite images. Spatial and temporal dynamics of land use/cover changes were quantified using two Landsat images with a supervised classification algorithm, spatial metrics and the post-classification change detection technique in GIS. We also simulated the future land use/land cover changes up to 2027 using Cellular Automata (CA)-Markov model based on the assumption that current trends would continue in the future. The accuracy assessment results of the land use/cover maps, derived from Landsat images, ranged from 88 to 91%. Specific set of landscape structure metrics were computed and analyzed using the public domain software FRAGSTATS version 3.3 for the two satellite-derived land use/cover maps to investigate the landscape dynamics. The results revealed that the study area witnessed an increase in cultivated land and woodland areas along with built-up areas from 1987 to 2007.