URBANIZATION AND ITS INFLUENCES ON THE SUBURBAN LAND USE CHANGES IN BANGKOK METROPOLITAN REGION, THAILAND

摘要

The recent urbanization process in emerging countries is entirely different from the process seen in developed countries. In Asia's emerging countries, urbanization occurs along with fast population growth that follows rapid economic development, and industries and population are centralized into large cities. One typical example of this centralization is seen in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. In this study, the latest high resolution satellite remote sensing images, as well as the existing GIS data, were integrated to generate temporal (1994, 2000, and 2009) land use/cover maps which could be used to understand the recent expansion of urban areas and the spatial changes in land use of the suburbs (suburban farmlands). Those are also used to analyze land use with a landscape ecological patch analysis, and to explain land use changes from traditional agricultural farmlands to urban areas due to the sprawling phenomenon, which indicates chaotic urban expansion. The result shows that the urban built-up area has been increasing between 1994, 2000, and 2009 at 16.5%, 28.2%, and 35.4%, respectively. On the contrary, the proportion of agricultural land use continuously decreased from 71.4%, to 56.1%, and 43.3%, respectively. Its spatial distribution is typical sprawl into the suburban traditional farmlands, and the extremely mixed urban and agricultural landscapes are created in the urban fringe areas.