Landscape has dramatically changed due to development of urbanization and population growth. Increasing urbanization worldwide has created concerns about environmental degradation. The landscape patterns resulting from urbanization influence processes at local, regional, and global scales. Quantifying the spatio-temporal pattern of urbanization is important for understanding its ecological impacts and can provide basic information for appropriate decision-making. Understanding the dynamic process of urban growth is a prerequisite to the prediction of land-cover change and the support of urban development planning and sustainable growth management. Spatial modeling of urban growth provides a basis for the preparation and evaluation of urban policies. The main objective of the present study is to quantify the changes of landscape patterns in center of Isfahan Province, Iran, from 1990 to 2010, and to simulate and predict urban growth of Isfahan city by 2050 using SLEUTH urban growth model. To achieve these aims, land use and land-cover maps of the area were prepared using supervised maximum likelihood justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; DIRECTION: ltr" >

Key Words:

Spatial pattern, Landscape metrics, Gradient analysis, Urban Growth Model, SLEUTH