Land Cover Classification and Change Analysis of the City Area and its Vicinity

Abstract

Land cover/use change detection is an important component for better understanding the interactions of the human activities with the environment and necessary to simulate environmental changes. This study investigates land cover changes in the surrounding Magway city by using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System, during the years 2000-2015. Six reflective bands of two Landsat images are carried out by using Maximum Likelihood Algorithm with the aid of ground truth data. The images of the study area are categorized into three major classes: agricultural land, built-up and others. Change detection analysis performed to compare the quantities of land cover class conversions between time intervals. The result of this study indicates that during the 15 years, built-up has increased by 7%, agriculture and others have decreased by 4.6 and 2.5% respectively. As a result, suggestions for the appropriate land use in the Magway city and surrounding will made for the future.