Abstract
This paper analyses the spatial characterization of urban expansion by using spatial fractal analysis applied to multidate Multispectral Scanner (MSS), Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) satellite imagery. The investigation was focused on four small towns in southern Italy, for which the border was extracted from NASA Landsat images acquired in 1976 (MSS), in 1991 (TM) and 1999 (ETM). The border was analyzed using the box counting method, which is a well-know technique to estimate the spatial fractal dimension, that quantifies the shape irregularity of an object. The obtained results show that the fractal dimension of the border of the investigated towns is a good indicator of the dynamics of the regular/irregular urban expansion.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Batty, M., Longley, P.: Fractal cities, a Geometry of Form and Function. Academic Press, London (1994)
Batty, M.: Cities and complexity: Understanding cities with Cellular Automata, Agent-Based models, and Fractals. MIT Press, Cambridge (2005)
Benguigui, B., Chamanski, D., Marinov, M.: When and where is a city fractal? Environ. Planning B 27, 507–519 (2000)
Carr, J.R., Benzer, W.B.: On the practice of estimating fractal dimension. Math. Geol. 23, 945–958 (1991)
Feder, J.: Fractals. Plenum, New York (1988)
Frankhauser, P.: The Fractal Approach, a new tool for the spatial analysis of urban agglomerations, Population: An English Selection. N. Methodol. Approaches in the Soc. Sci. 10(1), 205–240 (1998)
Korvin, G.: Fractal models in the Earth Sciences. Elsevier, Amsterdam (1992)
Longley, P., Batty, M.: On the Fractal Measurement of Geographical Boundaries. Geogr. Anal. 23, 47–67 (1989)
Maldelbrot, B.B.: The fractal geometry of Nature. Freeman and Company, New York (1983)
Masek, J.G., Lindsay, F.E., Goward, S.N.: Dynamics of urban growth in the Washington DC metropolitan area, 1973-1996, from Landsat observations. Int. J. Remote Sens. 21, 3473–3486 (2000)
Peitgen, H.O., Jurgens, H., Saupe, D.: Fractals for the classroom. Part one: Introd to fractals and chaos. Springer, New York (1992)
Shen, G.: Fractal dimension and fractal growth of urbanized areas. Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci. 16, 419–437 (2002)
Turcotte, D.L.: Fractals and chaos in Geology and Gephysics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1997)
Wilson, T.H.: Some distinctions between self-similar and self-affine estimates of fractal dimension with case history. Math. Geol. 32, 319–335 (2000)
Yang, X., Lo, C.P.: Using a time series of satellite imagery to detect land use and land cover changes in the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area. Int. J. Remote Sens. 23, 1775–1798 (2002)
Yuan, F., Sawaya, K., Loeffelholz, B.C., Bauer, M.E.: Land cover classification and change analysis of the Twin Cities (Minnesota) Metropolitan Area by multitemporal Landsat remote sensing. Remote Sens. Environ. 98, 317–328 (2005)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Telesca, L., Coluzzi, R., Lasaponara, R. (2009). Urban Pattern Morphology Time Variation in Southern Italy by Using Landsat Imagery. In: Murgante, B., Borruso, G., Lapucci, A. (eds) Geocomputation and Urban Planning. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 176. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-89930-3_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-89930-3_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-89929-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-89930-3
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)