Human settlement analysis based on multi-temporal remote sensing data-a case study of Xuzhou, China

To evaluate the natural livability of human settlement in Xuzhou, choosing vegetation coverage, land surface temperature, impervious surface, slope, wet and water condition as the evaluation factors, we propose a Human Settlement Environment Development Index (HSEDI) model based on Landsat data from 1998 to 2010 and 30mDEM data. The value of HSEDI in Xuzhou is about between 2.24 and 8.10. It was divided five types of HSEDI such as uninhabitable, moderately uninhabitable, general inhabitable, moderately inhabitable, inhabitable etc.. The best HSEDI is in 2007. The general inhabitable region was about 100.98 km², covering 30.87% of the total area in 2007; the moderately inhabitable region was about 170.58 km² covering 52.15% of the total area in 2007; the inhabitable region was about 32.03 km² covering 9.79% of the total area in 2007; the uninhabitable region and moderately uninhabitable region were almost non-existent.