Impact of Urbanization on Land Use/Land Cover — Case Study: The Western Part of Khartoum State, Sudan

Abstract

LANDSAT images of the Western parts of Khartoum State were taken from 1987 to 2014 to assess the impacts of urbanization on Land use/cover using ENVI Imaging 4.5. Unsupervised IsoData method was adopted for land cover classification. Change detection statistics of the years from 1987 to 2000 show that the sand and urban areas gained 5.62 Km (38%) and 4.35 Km (9%) respectively. Whereas the bare land and water loss 1.02 Km (9%) and 9.03 (17%) respectively. From 2000 to 2014 there was a loss of sand by 11.23 Km (56%) whereas the bare land, the vegetation and urban areas gained 7.03 Km (16%), 1.62 Km (11%) and 2.87 Km (6%) respectively. The results also show a decrease of sand, bare land and water by 5.72 Km (40%), 1.97 Km (4%) and 1.15 Km (13%) respectively, while the residential areas and the vegetation gained 6.8 Km (16%) and 2.04 Km (14%) respectively from 1987 to 2014. The study concludes that urban expansion could expose the area to wind and water erosion and without sustainable management of natural resources, the whole ecosystem will be in danger.