Satellite Monitoring of Urban Spatial Growth in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area

Abstract

Monitoring growth and change along the metropolitan periphery is of critical concern both to those who study metropolitan dynamics and those who must manage resources and provide services in these rapidly changing environments. This research has been directed to assess urban spatial growth and land change along the outskirts of Atlanta, one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States in the past three decades. A time series of satellite images was used to trace the development of urban land uses for the period of 1973 to the present. An image processing and GIS-based method was developed to achieve the research goal. Results reveal that every week, more than one-hundred acres of forest, green space, and farmland in the Atlanta region were converted into urban uses. Between 1973 and 1999, the urban territorial extent has expanded by 247 percent for 13 metro counties while the population increased by 96 percent. The rate of urban growth was much higher in outer suburban counties. Concomitant with this high rate of urban growth was a farreaching evolution in Atlanta's urban spatial form. The growth of high->ensity urban use (mainly com&ercial, transportation, industrial. and high-rise residential) is found to exwerience a

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