Spatial and temporal analysis of urban land use conversion in Chengdu, 1992–2008

Rapid land use change has taken place in many urban regions of China such as Chengdu city, many problems in society and environment have appeared. Assessment on urban land use change is essential for land sustainable development. The objective of this study is to analyze the spatio-temporal dynamic change of urban land use from 1992 to 2008 in Chengdu city, the provincial capital of Sichuan, has undergone rapid transformation during China´s reform period since 1978, using Landsat TM/ETM+data in 1992, 2000 and 2008. The result shows that significant transformation in urban land use was occurred. Decrease of crop land mainly due to land use conversion to built-up land resulting in large scale urban sprawl. The converted area of cultivated land is 1.137×10⁴hm², decrease area of crop land is 12.025×10⁴hm², increase area of built-up land is 6.1 945×10⁴hm² over the study period. The study demonstrates that the integration of RS and GIS was an effective approach for monitoring land use change. This electronic document is a “live” template. The various components of your paper [title, text, heads, etc.] are already defined on the style sheet, as illustrated by the portions given in this document.