Derya Maktav

Analysis of urban growth using multi‐temporal satellite data in Istanbul, Turkey

Uncontrolled population growth, especially in developing countries, causes serious problems, such as scarcity of food, informal settlements, environmental pollution, destruction of ecological structure, unemployment, etc. This phenomenon will require advanced methodologies, such as space technologies, to enable city planners, economists, environmentalists, ecologists and resource managers to solve these problems. In Turkey, as a result of the undesired population growth, new settlements are continuously appearing and adverse developments and changes are occurring in the presently populated areas. In Turkeys major cities, such as in Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara, Adana, Bursa and Antalya, which have seen mass migrations of people, considerable urban developments and changes have occurred. Consequently, the mostly negative impacts of uncontrolled population growth on the urban environment must be monitored continuously. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of urban growth on land‐use changes, especially the agricultural land in the district of Büyükçekmece in suburban Istanbul. The study is based on the 1984–1997 population database, multi‐temporal satellite data and remote sensing methods. The study revealed significant loss of agricultural and natural land areas to urban developments throughout the period 1984–1998.

Change detection of land cover and land use using remote sensing and GIS: a case study in Kemer, Turkey

Suitable climate conditions as well as rare natural and cultural resources in the Mediterranean region of Turkey have made it a centre of attraction for two conflicting interests: agricultural production and tourism activity. In recent years, the natural appeal of the area and economic interests have dominated tourism over agriculture, forestry and wildlife and led to significant urban sprawl. The objective of this study was to investigate the dimensions of the land cover/use conversion of a quiet, small village (Kemer) into an internationally popular touristic destination. In the scope of this study, land cover and land use changes were analysed over approximately 30 years using Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS) data (1975), and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data (1987, 1995 and 2003) by image classification techniques. In the land use hierarchy, the Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) methodology was used as a base. Data organization and collection stages were achieved in a geographical information system (GIS) environment. Finally, the results indicate that, from 1975 to 2003, permanent crops decreased by 75% and most of these areas were structured. Throughout the same years a 55% decrease was determined to arise in heterogeneous agricultural areas. From 1975 to 2003, there had been no serious change in forests. The main reason for this is the accommodation of the Olympos‐Bey Mountains national park in the region.

Foreword to the Special Issue on “Human Settlements: A Global Remote Sensing Challenge”

This special issue follows the one in June 2008 and is related to the very successful series of the Joint Urban Remote Sensing Events, held every two years since 2005. Remote sensing of urban areas is at the moment facing a rapid development, due to the increasing amount of High Resolution (UR) and Very High Resolution VHR (VHR) data in both the optical/IR and microwave regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. On a global scale, human settlements have always been the focus of interest, but only in these days there starts to be an interest in mapping and monitoring even small and informal ones by satellites. Coherently, urban area mapping is moving from basic land cover to more complex land use maps, and human settlement environmental monitoring is committed to a more and more integrated use of remote sensing and in situ data. By presenting excellent papers on these subjects, this special issue tries and provides an overview of the state-of-the-art in this interesting field of applied earth observation and remote sensing.

Information content of optical satellite images for topographic mapping

Geometric high‐resolution satellite imagery (HRSI) is being used increasingly for generating large‐scale topographic maps. The detection of object shapes has become easier and more accurate with improved geometric resolution. The grey value range and spectral resolution are also important for the identification and classification of objects. The nominal ground sampling distance (GSD) must not be the same as the effective GSD corresponding to the information content. In addition, the topographic conditions, object contrast, sun elevation and azimuth and atmospheric conditions influence the object identification. The information content of panchromatic and multispectral satellite images (Landsat 7 ETM+, ASTER, TK‐350, KVR‐1000, SPOT‐5, IRS‐1C, IKONOS, QuickBird and OrbView‐3) available for the Zonguldak test field were investigated with respect to the generation of large‐scale topographic maps. The rule of thumb for topographic mapping of at least 0.1 mm GSD in the map scale with the limit of a maximum of 5 m GSD also for smaller map scales has been confirmed.

Monitoring coastal erosion at the Black Sea coasts in Turkey using satellite data: a case study at the Lake Terkos, north-west Istanbul

There is justifiable cause for concern over the adequacy of our water supplies. To control and protect aquatic ecosystems and drinking water supplies, continuous monitoring is essential. An example related to the careless attitudes towards the Lake Terkos, Istanbul, which create the danger of waterlessness for citizens was given in this study. The width of the natural land barrier between the Black Sea and the Lake Terkos has decreased over the years due to illegal sand excavation along the coastline of the sea very close to the northern part of the lake. As a result of this process the offshore bar formation along the coastline has been destroyed and even removed at different parts, which caused morphological changes of the coastline along some parts of the northern coasts of the sea. In this paper, the coastal erosion during a 14-year period was monitored by using multitemporal satellite sensor data and some suggestions for precautions were made.

Monitoring changes in land cover/use by CORINE methodology using aerial photographs and IKONOS satellite images: a case study for Kemer, Antalya, Turkey

Remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) are effective tools for acquiring fast and accurate information about the Earths resources and for providing a medium for the efficient flow of information. Moreover, these systems are particularly suitable for determining land use types and monitoring their variation through time. In this study, changes in land cover and land use types in the last 23 years were determined for the town of Kemer (in the province of Antalya) by means of remote sensing and GIS. Kemer is located within the western Mediterranean region of Turkey and is of national and international importance due to its natural, cultural, historical and tourism significance. Stereoscopic interpretation of aerial photographs and visual interpretation of high resolution IKONOS images were conducted and land cover type changes over 23 years were determined using the Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) methodology. In this context, eight different land cover types were examined: and their changes were analysed using data from 1981, 1992 and 2004. Results indicate that urban land use increased approximately 10 times, from 86.3 ha to 931.0 ha, and tourism and secondary residence land use increased nearly 140 times, from 5.3 ha to 715.8 ha. In contrast, decreases of 65.8% in complex cultivation patterns, 37.2% in coastal dunes and beaches, and 2.1% in permanent crops were observed. This land use change reflects the large scale net loss of natural resources in the area and this trend does not suggest sustainable natural resource management. Over the last quarter of a century, the most significant reason for changes in land use in the Kemer area appears to be caused by the pressure from the tourism and secondary residence sectors.

The role of the integration of remote sensing and GIS in land use/land cover analysis after an earthquake

In this study, the adverse effects of the Marmara earthquake of 17 August 1999 on the land use/land cover (LULC) of Kocaeli province in Turkey were analysed by integration of ERS‐2, LANDSAT TM, SPOT‐4 and IRS‐1C data of varying spectral and spatial resolutions with ground data such as geological maps, soil maps and elevation data. The study was carried out in three main stages. The first stage consisted of studies on the deformation of the Earths crust, damage in the urban texture and changes to the coastline through analysis of satellite data before and after the earthquake. Earth crust deformations resulting after the earthquake were mapped by synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data using a SAR interferometer. Damage in urban centres and coastline changes were assessed by analysis of SPOT and LANDSAT imageries. IRS data after the earthquake were used for the current LULC map of the entire province. The second stage involved settlement suitability analysis by multicriteria evaluation (MCE) methodology taking into account the geological formations, land cover, soil classes, slope, main transportation network, and urbanization status of Kocaeli province. In the third stage, the results obtained through the settlement suitability analysis were interpreted by the information generated through satellite imageries.

The use of satellite image maps for urban planning in Turkey

In several countries the lack of reliable mapping is a serious constraint to development in many sectors, particularly within the fields of rural and urban development and for the planning, management, extraction and balanced use of natural resources and the environment. Since Landsat satellite sensor data became available in 1972, valuable information on three decades of the Earths resources has also been made available. Today, satellite image maps (SIM) are used in a variety of applications in many disciplines, such as in agriculture, forestry, municipal or regional overview planning, infrastructure planning, or other activities, where up‐to‐date facts about landscape status and change are important. SIMs are satellite imagery in a map sheet format representing two major types of geographical information—raster imagery itself and supporting vector data with important features for the application. Especially in areas where traditional maps are old or non‐existent, the SIM has proved to be an invaluable source of information.  In this study, map production and map updating in Turkey will be summarized and the importance of the use of SIM for urban planning and for detection of changes in ground features and integration with existing maps into Geographic Information Systems (GIS) will be explained, with application examples.

Multi-criteria spatial decision support system for valuation of open spaces for urban planning

One of the major accompaniments of the globalization is the rapid growing of urban areas. At the end of the 1970th only 38% of world lived in cities, this number increased to more than 50% by 2008. In 2030 two third of all people worldwide are expected to live in cities, many of them in megacities. Urban sprawl is a major environmental concern affecting cities and urban. Urban sprawl depends on the socio-economic situation in the cities. Thus, reducing migration, sustainable handling of the limited resources and “smart growth” are acknowledged as key tasks for urban planning. Coping with these tasks requires precise and adaptive planning instruments. The presented study is part of the research project GAUS (Gaining Additional Urban Space) aiming at inventorying the open space available in urban environments and, moreover, providing flexible multi-criteria spatial decision support system for its development. The method is based on VHR (Very high resolution) optical satellite data (QuickBird (QB) and IKONOS (IK)) which is applied on three study areas: Berlin, Istanbul, and Ruhr Area. Object-based image analysis is applied to map land cover and land use and derive metrics describing urban form and inner-urban structure on multiple scales. The workflow has been standardized and leads to comparable results across different test sites and datasets. In intersection with available GIS (Geographical Information System) and local ancillary data, the outputs of image analysis serve as input for a multi-criteria spatial decision support system. Flexible multi-criteria spatial decision support (MC-SDSS) tool has been created by using MATLAB (Matrix Laboratory) software and its tools (Mapping toolbox etc.). Users can change their weights and parameters with this tool for their different study areas. Urban planners can use final suitability maps of this tool. Thus complex decisions are supported by numerical calculation and spatial visualization in order to come to objective solutions. This work contribute to close the gap between remote sensing methods and applied urban planning.

Integration of remote sensing and GIS for archaeological investigations

The western hinterland of the modern city of Istanbul contains some of the most remarkable monuments of ancient and medieval hydraulic engineering. Until recently fieldwork has been limited and only within the last two decades have there been serious attempts to map the complexity of the monuments and water lines. A GPS‐based archaeological survey has been undertaken by the authors and has been integrated with high resolution (IKONOS) and multi‐spectral spatial data giving the opportunity to view the system in its wider setting and also to identify major urban and landscape changes impacting on the long‐term conservation and management of the ancient remains.