Assessing Land Use Land Cover Dynamics And Urban Sprawl Using Remote Sensing And Machine Learning In Adama City, Ethiopia

Abstract

Urban Sprawl Is One Of The Foremost Problems Of Rapidly Expanding Cities Of Developing Nations Like Adama City In Ethiopia. A Sign Of Unmanaged, Low-Density Development, Sprawl Diminishes Sustainable Urbanization By Appropriating Agricultural Lands, Fragmenting Natural Habitat, And Taxing Infrastructure. The Objective Of This Study Was To Analyze The Last Three Decades (1995???2025) Lulc Dynamics, Identify The Intensity And Spatial Distribution Of Sprawl, Simulate And Project The Future Trend Of The Sprawl, And Identify The Cause Of Sprawl In Adama City. Multi-Date Landsat 5, 7, And 8 Satellite Images For The Years 1995, 2005, 2014, And 2025 Were Acquired. Training Datasets And Base GPS Observations Were Gathered To Allow For Proper Classification. Pre-Processing Was Conducted Through Atmospheric And Geometric Correction, Cloud Removal, And Band Selection For Optimal Feature Extraction. Google Earth Engine Random Forest Classifiers Were Employed To Carry Out Land Use Classification. Change Detection Techniques And Spatial Indices (E.G., Landscape Proportion, Edge Density, Shannon's Entropy) Were Employed To Quantify Urban Sprawl And Fragmentation. Future Growth Was Predicted Based On A Hybrid Cellular Automata-Artificial Neural Network (Ca-Ann) Model. The Results Show That Urban Area Is Expanding Leaps And Bounds From 452.25 Ha In 1995 To As Much As 3,302.28 Ha In 2025 And Forest And Shrubland Respectively Decreased. The Greatest Sprawl Was In Periphery Zones, Primarily Zones 7 And 8, And Edge Density Of 74.51 M/Ha. Unplanned Urban Growth Is, According To The Ca-Ann Model, Projected To Persist, Particularly Along Transport Routes. Industrialization, Population Growth, And Land Use Mismanagement Were The Primary Factors For Sprawl. It Finds That Adama Is Experiencing Unsustainable Growth And In Need Of Multi-Disciplinary Planning And Evidence-Informed Decision Making. The Suggestions Are To Use Urban Growth Boundaries, Promote Compact Development, And Deploy Green Infrastructure With The Aim Of Facilitating Future Growth.