Assessment Of Urban Landscape Structure And Dynamics Using Spatial Metrics : A Case Of Adama Town

Abstract

Landscape Structure and Its Dynamics Is Essential For the Monitoring and Assessment Of Ecological And Environmental Consequences Of Urbanization And Associated Urban Sprawl. Unplanned Urbanization And Its Impacts On Natural Resources Including Basic Needs Has Necessitated The Investigations Of Landscape Dynamics, Urban Sprawl And Spatial Patterns Of Urbanization. Adama Town Is Undergoing Rapid Changes In The Last 3 Decades Especially In The Last Decade And Needs Assessing The Urban Landscape Dynamics To Lessen The Impacts Of Unplanned Urbanization. So, The Current Study Focusses On Achieving The Status And Dynamics Of Land Use Land Cover, Landscape Pattern, Spatial Pattern Of Urbanization And Urban Sprawl. The Temporal And Spatial Dynamic Pattern Of Urbanization And Landscape Pattern Of The Study Area Considering The Spatio Temporal Data For The Three Decades Within 2 Km Buffer From The Town Boundary Using Frag stats Software Environment. The Time Series Of Zonal Analysis With Spatial Metrics Were Used For Describing, Quantifying And Monitoring The Spatial Configuration Of Urbanization At Landscape And Class Level. This Study Indicated A Significant Increase Of Urban Built-Up Area During The Last Three Decades. Landscape Metrics Indicates The Coalescence Of Urban Areas That Occurred During The Rapid Urban Growth From 2010 To 2019 Indicating The Clumped Growth At The Center With Simple Shapes And Dispersed Growth In The Periphery (2km Buffer With Convoluted Shapes). The Results With Landscape-Level Metrics Showed That Urbanization In Adama Town Has Resulted In The Increment Of The Number Of Patches, Patch Density (PD) And Landscape Shape Complexity And Landscape Connectivity. The General Pattern Of The Increasingly Urbanized Landscape Was Found To Be Compositionally More Diverse, Geometrically More Complex, And Ecologically More Fragmented. In Addition, The Current Study Confirmed That The Increasing Urbanization In The Study Area Resulted In A Patch Density Increment And Shape Complexity And Landscape Connectivity Decrement. An Integrated Approach of Remote Sensing, GIS And Spatial Metrics with Gradient and Zonal Analysis Was Applied To Identify the Trends of Lulc Changes, Landscape Dynamics, Urban Sprawl and Spatial Pattern of Urbanization That Occur As Human Invasions Transform