Evaluation of change detection techniques for monitoring land-cover changes: A case study in new Burg El-Arab area

Accurate information about nature and extent of land cover changes especially in rapidly growing and new industrial cites is essential. New Burg El-Arab city, located to the west of Alexandria, Egypt has developed a new industrial community with a corresponding increase in urbanization and population. The objective of this research is to assess, evaluate and monitor the nature and extent of land cover changes in New Burg El-Arab city through the period from 1990 to 2000 using remotely sensed Landsat multispectral images. Four change detection techniques namely; post-classification, image differencing, image rationing and principal component analysis were applied. The objective is extended to examine the effectiveness of each change detection technique regarding not only the ability to differentiate changed from unchanged areas, but also the ability to classify the changed areas according to the ‘‘from-to’’ identifiers. The results indicated that the post classification change detection technique provided the highest accuracy while the principal component analysis technique gave the least accuracy. It is also found that the soil area has decreased by 37.02% while the urban and vegetation areas have increased by 16.55% and 20.50% respectively through the study period.