Estimating Advance of Built-Up Area in Desert-Oasis Ecotone of Cholistan Desert Using Landsat

Abstract

There have been few attempts to estimate the effects of land use and land cover (LULC) on ecosystem services in desert-oasis ecotones, which are recognized as critical ecological barriers and buffers that prevent deserts from expanding into oases. This research investigated how remote sensing and geographic information technology may be used to monitor changes in LULC in the Cholistan desert and the Bahawalpur region of Pakistan between the years 2015 and 2022. The objective of this research was to identify thematic and statistical shifts in LULC in the study area due to various human interventions in the area. Landsat-8 images were processed using the maximum likelihood supervised classification technique using 500 training samples to categorize the study area into four LULC classes, i.e., desert/barren land, waterbodies, vegetation, and built-up areas, with an overall accuracy of 93% and 98% for 2015 and 2022, respectively. Results indicate a significant expansion in built-up area in 2022, which is up to 43%, agriculture and vegetation area declined by 8%, waterbodies decreased by 41%, and desert area decreased by 2% when compared with 2015. The change detection approach revealed that agricultural land was directly encroached on by rapidly increasing built-up area and urbanization as the area had an overall 19% rise in population growth within eight years with an annual growth rate of more than 3%. This study will be helpful to assess the quantity of spatial and temporal changes in the desert ecosystem, which is usually ignored by policymakers and governments due to less economic activity, although it plays a huge role in biodiversity conservation and balancing the regional ecosystem.

Integration of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Remote Sensing to Assess Threats to Preservation of the Oases: Case of Al Ain, UAE

“…Therefore, this study contributes to the body of knowledge by integrating remote sensing-derived information with expert opinions for the efficient and sustainable preservation of Al Ain oases as a case study. Moreover, in the majority of previous studies, the oases were located in rural areas [20][21][22], whereas the oases in this study are located in urban areas, and this represents a challenge for preservation. Previous studies [22,23] have demonstrated that urban and built-up areas have expanded at the expense of cultivated and bare land.…”

“…Moreover, in the majority of previous studies, the oases were located in rural areas [20][21][22], whereas the oases in this study are located in urban areas, and this represents a challenge for preservation. Previous studies [22,23] have demonstrated that urban and built-up areas have expanded at the expense of cultivated and bare land. A study conducted by Ullah et al [22] in Desert-Oasis (Cholistan-Pakistan) showed that significant expansion (43%) in the built-up area occurred between 2015 and 2022, but there was a decline in agriculture and vegetation area by 8%.…”

“…Previous studies [22,23] have demonstrated that urban and built-up areas have expanded at the expense of cultivated and bare land. A study conducted by Ullah et al [22] in Desert-Oasis (Cholistan-Pakistan) showed that significant expansion (43%) in the built-up area occurred between 2015 and 2022, but there was a decline in agriculture and vegetation area by 8%. Similarly, another study conducted in Northwest China found that cultivated and built-up areas expanded between 1972 and 2014, whereas forest and grassland areas declined [23].…”