The SPATIO-TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF URBAN EXPANSION AND IMPACTS ON LAND USE LAND COVER DYNAMICS: THE CASE OF GELAN TOWN ADMINISTRATION.

Abstract

Gelan town has experienced extensive conversion of non-impervious land categories, especially the agricultural area, into built-up land due to the suitability of the area to attract investors and workers. This study's purpose is to investigate the dynamics of built-up that were seen in the Gelan town administration between 2003 and 2023, as well as the effects on the other non-impervious LULC categories. Three images, one from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper and two from Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager, were used to extract the built-up and general land cover maps. Results indicated that the study area has undergone a tremendous change in built-up expansion and pattern during the study period. Built-up area expanded from 369.8 ha (4.46%) in 2003 to 2269.12 ha in 2023, while agricultural areas decreased from 5,367.28 to 4,486.44 ha during the same period. In the last two decades, the direction of the built-up expansion has been mainly in the directions E, ESE, SE, and SSE. The analysis result shows that a large amount of agricultural land has decreased and been mostly converted to build-up throughout the study period. While, built up area increased by sextuple mainly at the expense of other land uses. Within the last two decades, Gelan town experienced a rapid built-up expansion intensity rate with an approximate UEII value of 1.145. Due to the geographic proximity of the town, where most investors seek sites for constructing factories and housing, and workers are also attracted to this area, which has caused to expand of the town. So as to alleviate the rapid built-up expansion of the town, it is better to introduce the use of remote sensing for developers in order to reduce unplanned urban sprawls and the associated loss of non-impervious land categories, especially agricultural lands.