Use of the potential of satellite images in the detection of farmland mutation by urbanization

Planning and management of urban areas have become one of the highest priorities in both developed and developing countries. Due to inappropriate planning and management, accelerated urban growth and tremendous loss in land, especially farmland, have become a great challenge for sustainable urban development in Algeria. Therefore, there is an urgent need to effectively detect and monitor the land use changes and provide accurate and timely information for planning and management. Remote sensing has proved to be a powerful tool for monitoring rapid land use changes. The goal of this paper is to investigate the potential of satellite imagery in the detection of the dynamics of land use changes in the city of Sidi Bel Abbes. For this purpose, a methodology based on the vegetation index was proposed for the identification of farmland mutation. Multispectral and multitemporal images from Landsat were used to realize a map of farmland mutation by the phenomenon of urbanization. The results indicate that there was a considerable land use conversion from farmland into built-up land in the study area from 1987 to 2002.