Satellite data is available
for most places on the globe
and its boundaries can be
adjusted to the size of the region.
GEOGRAPHICALLY
Assessments of Urban Growth of the Tampa Bay Watershed
Using Remote Sensing Data
For areas that are not defined by political boundaries,
remotely sensed data offers the ability to customize the region of study.
In an attempt to understand urban growth in the Tampa Bay Watershed, (an area defined by topography and water flow), authors George Xian and Mike Crane analyzed data from the Landsat MultiSpectral Scanner and Landsat Thematic Mapper to identify anthropogenic impervious surfaces such as roof tops, roads and parking lots.
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The process involved developing a set of training data of six broad land cover classes from high-resolution digital orthophotos, selecting predictive variables & initial regression tree modeling and assessment, final spatial modeling and mapping with Landsat imagery, and imperviousness change detection and interpolation.
The results determined that by quantifying subpixel percent imperviousness,
one can derive a good estimate of urban land use/land cover change.
The estimates can then be used in predictive models to plan for future growth.
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Below is an image from this report that shows
the percent change in impervious surfaces from 1991 through 2002.