Detection, Mapping and Assessment Change in Urban and Croplands Area in Al-Hassa Oasis, Eastern Region in Saudi Arabia Using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System

Abstract

Croplands are decreasing due to the expansion of urban areas into rural communities and to some extent due to sand accumulations. Increases in population numbers, new development, in addition to the accumulation of sand and soil salinity are the major driving force leading to abandonment and shrinking of cropland. The aim of this study was to investigate and assess to what extent agricultural lands are affected by urban development in the Al Hassa oasis, Eastern region in Saudi Arabia by employing Landsat time series data of years 1988, 2000 and 2017 as the main source of information. A set of ground truth, control points (GCPs) was also used besides population census data. Unsupervised classifications approach, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and change detection methods were used here. Urban area during 2000-2017 exhibits much higher increase compared to 1988-2000, while the arable lands declined to −3.4% in 1988-2000 and increased to 22% during 2000-2017. The data analysis results provided new accurate numerical information supported by a graphical representation in regard to the decrease and increase in urban and agricultural lands. Therefore the findings of this study should be considered by decision maker for improving and development the agriculture activities in rural and urban communities.

Sustainable Management of the Red Palm Weevil: The Nexus between Farmers’ Adoption of Integrated Pest Management and Their Knowledge of Symptoms

“…Al-Umran District (25.2524 • N, 49.4313 • E) is one of the most important cities in Al-Ahsa Governorate due to its geographical and economic importance and its high social and agricultural status among the governorate's regions and cities. The district is located in the eastern part of the Al-Ahsa Oasis and consists of 16 villages, with over 70,000 people occupying a total area of 2000 ha [34]. The annual mean temperature ranges between 20 and 38 • C and the annual mean rainfall ranges between 90 and 180 mm [35].…”

Depicting changes in land surface cover at Al-Hassa oasis of Saudi Arabia using remote sensing and GIS techniques

“…A major part of this sprawl has occurred in the new oasis, as was verified from Figs 2 and 3. This increase reflects the continuous increase in population and their endeavor to settle within the green spots, alongside some other social and economic considerations [12, 14, 42].…”

Comparison of Urban Growth Modeling Using Deep Belief and Neural Network Based Cellular Automata Model—A Case Study of Chennai Metropolitan Area, Tamil Nadu, India

“…Thus, urban growth models (UGMs) become mandatory so that the future urban growth pattern of a city can be predicted based on the markov chain principle which is based on the past and current scenarios [1] [2] [3]. Recently, due to the availability of high resolution temporal satellite data along with the advancements in the GIS based spatial data modeling techniques, the urban growth predictions have become more realistic [4].…”