Geography

Land change dynamics: insights from Intensity Analysis applied to an African emerging city

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Land change in Kigali, Rwanda, is examined using Intensity Analysis, which measures the temporal stationarity of changes among categories. Maps for 1981, 2002 and 2014 were produced that show the land categories Built, Vegetated and Other, which is composed mainly of croplands and bare surfaces. Land change accelerated from the first time interval (1981–2002) to the second time interval (2002–2014), as increased human and economic activities drove land transformation. During the first interval, Vegetated showed net loss whereas Built showed net gain, in spite of a small transition directly from Vegetated to Built. During the second interval, Vegetated showed net gain whereas Built showed nearly equal amounts of gross loss and gross gain. The gain of Built targeted Other during both time intervals. A substantial portion of overall change during both time intervals consisted of simultaneous transitions from Vegetated to Other in some locations and from Other to Vegetated in other locations.

Publication Title

Journal of Spatial Science

Publication Date

2017

Volume

62

Issue

1

First Page

69

Last Page

83

ISSN

1449-8596

DOI

10.1080/14498596.2016.1196624

Keywords

category, Intensity Analysis, land change, stationary, transition, urbanization

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