2013 Volume 29 Issue 2 Pages 29-39
In Asia's emerging countries, urbanization occurs along with the fast population growth that follows the phenomenon of rapid economic development and centralization of industries and population into mega-cities. A typical example of this type of centralization can be seen in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region, Thailand. In this study, the latest high resolution satellite remote sensing images, as well as the existing GIS data, were integrated to generate temporal (1994, 2000, and 2009) land use/cover maps that could be used to understand the recent expansion process of urban areas and the spatial variations of rural agricultural landscapes in the suburbs. These maps showed that the proportion of urban/built-up area has been increasing, from 16.5 % in 1994, to 28.2 % in 2000, and 35.4 % in 2009. This rate of change was 171 % between 1994 and 2000, and 126 % between 2000 and 2009. In contrast, the agriculture/vegetation area continuously decreased from 71.4 % in 1994, to 56.1 % in 2000, and 43.3 % in 2009, for a rate of change of 79 % between 1994 and 2000, and 77 % between 2000 and 2009. Central Bangkok was completely built up by 2000, and the urbanized areas have largely spread to the 5 adjoining provinces, causing a sprawling phenomenon into the suburban rural landscapes. The landscape changes were mainly due to the conversion of agriculture areas into artificial built-up areas. Consequently, urban and rural land uses were extremely mixed in the suburbs, and different land uses became competitive. The landscape metrics analysis also showed that agriculture/vegetation area consisted of a number of small sized patches, indicating the fragmentation of landscapes. The most of recent urbanization has spread beyond the existing land use planning control and has invaded into the urban fringes closest to central Bangkok, even though where the landscapes were principally protected as agricultural and/or conservation zones. The fragmentation and shape complexity of the rural landscape therefore appear to have arisen due to the uncontrolled urbanization that has occurred more recently in the urban fringes. In order to avoid any further fragmentation of landscapes in these areas, it is highly recommended to incorporate landscape analysis into the urban planning process.
