A Study of Urban Expansion in the Urban Administrative Districts of Wuhan City, 1987-2005: A Remote Sensing and GIS Perspective

摘要

This study estimates the spatiotemporal characteristics of urban expansion in the urban districts of Wuhan city using remote sensing and GIS techniques. Three Landsat TM images for 1987, 1994 and 2005, are interpreted to get vector land use datasets. To conceive urban land dynamics over the period under review, the urban land area dynamics are calculated for each of the 9 urban administrative districts of Wuhan city (Dongxihu, Qiaokou, Wuchang, Hanyang, Hongshan, Qingshan, Jiangan, Jianghan and Caidian). Results indicate that urban development was achieving momentum at the urban fringe, expanding more noticeably during the 1994-2005 period than in the previous 7 years. Large scale new (Greenfield) investments in development zones and in urban infrastructure development, rather than local land users, are the primary drivers of urban land expansion in Wuhan city.