Spatial Pattern Analysis of Urban Sprawl: Case Study of Jiangning, Nanjing, China

Over the past 30 years, land development and consumption have been out of control and have kept expanding blindly, especially to marginal areas of some metropolises in China. The conflict caused by urban sprawl among socioeconomic development, resources, ecology, and the environment is becoming more and more severe. This study's primary objective is to recognize the spatial patterns of urban sprawl. Taking Jiangning District as a research area, the built-up areas of four different years (1979, 1988, 1997, and 2003) were extracted from classified images using Landsat MSS/TM images. These, together with landscape metrics such as contagion index, fractal-dimension index, and shape index where used to recognize the spatial patterns of sprawl in Jiangning. From classified images, rapid urban expansion with low density towards the urban fringe has been observed. The sprawling area in the north part is more severe, and sprawling areas also include the marginal area of the nearby suburbs. These findings were tested through landscape metrics, which was necessary to quantify the spatial patterns of urban sprawl. This study demonstrates that timely and accurate monitoring is very important for understanding the relationships and interactions between human and natural phenomena, and that it can promote efficiency. Additionally, combining remote sensing with landscape metrics is an effective way to determine the spatial patterns of urban sprawl. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000119. (C) 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.