Investigation of land use/cover change in the city of Alfujairah using multi-temporal and multi-source geospatial datasets

This study aimed to highlight the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) techniques in studying land cover and land use in the city of Dibba-Al Fujairah during the years (1995, 2006, and 2010). The importance of this study was in determining the changes that have occurred in land cover and land use in the city generally, and in the areas of high population density particularly. The methodology used in this study relies on detecting the direction and extent of urbanization in the city during the period from 1995 to 2010, through studying and determining changes in land cover in the study area using remote sensing techniques as well as analyzing and monitoring the trend of land use changes in the studied intervals and especially in areas that have high population density and basic services availability. Data used in this study covered the three periods of time, and included Maps of land use categories obtained from Dibba-Al Fujairah municipality, orthophotos for (1995), (IKONOS) satellite imagery for the two years (2006, 2010), and statistical data. A geodatabase was built for the three periods of time, and GIS was used to integrate, analyze and evaluate results. Land cover maps were produced with an accuracy of about (95%), and a statistical inventory of land use and land cover was obtained to describe the changes which have occurred over the (15) years period. The results showed that during the study period, the scope of urban areas has increased by about (5.51 Km²), agricultural lands reached about (5.79 Km²) at the expense of plain areas which has shrunk to about (100 Km²) in (2010). It was also concluded that Dibba-Al Fujairah City is under anthropogenic pressure which led to the expansion of urban areas and the deterioration of parts of the agricultural land in the West sector. During the study period, the increase in the population density was accompanied by an increase in urban areas which reached - 30.7 Km²) in (2010).