Land change analysis
Land change analysis conducted herewas mainly based on postclassification
change detection through the use of several GISbased
operations and landscape metrics measured from the land
use/cover maps produced by remote sensing. Among many possible
trajectories of land changes, we focused on the growth of the three
urban land classes during the period of 2000 and 2010. And we
adopted several qualitative and quantitative techniques to examine
the spatial patterns and the nature of land changes. In addition, we
also compared the observed patterns of residential and commercial
land use with past findings documented by Yang (2002). Specifically,
we firstly visualized the net growth of urban area between
2000 and 2010 for the three urban land use classes, which is shown
in Fig. 4. This visual approach can help reveal the spatial patterns
(e.g., location, size, shape, fragmentation) of urban growth in the
study area.