Thesis Abstract and Dissertation Abstracts
Monitoring Urbanization in Malta via Satellite Remote Sensing
Abstract Category: Science
Course / Degree: B.Sc. (Hons.) Bio & Chem
Institution / University: University of Malta, Malta
Published in: 2000
In a densely populated island like Malta, urban sprawl leads to significant impacts on environmental quality and on biodiversity through habitat loss. The objective of the present work was to investigate the urban patterns using satellite data and identify any urban change over a period of five years (January 1995 till March 2000). Landsat satellite imagery was utilised to monitor this change.
Various classification methods were investigated to find the best classifier. A range of urban areas could be detected and classified using supervised classification. Maximum likelihood classifier proved to be the best methodology to detect urban areas.
A number of different cases of false positives and false negatives were identified and documented. The main cause of these wrongly-classified pixels was the limited spatial resolution of the Landsat satellite.
The results of the image overlay did not yield any useful results due to the false positives and edge effects. Sections from the satellite images were compared by ground truth data and field observation and specific cases of increase in urban coverage were documented.
The results obtained during this work show that satellite imagery is a fast and cost effective way of monitoring the urban areas, although several disadvantages and problems were encountered. In the near future, with the improvement of the spatial resolution of the new satellites, monitoring of urban sprawling for environmental purposes, in Malta and Gozo will be much more effective and efficient.
Thesis Keywords/Search Tags:
remote sensing, GIS, urban sprawl, environmental management
This Thesis Abstract may be cited as follows:
Micallef, N. (2000), Monitoring Urbanization in Malta via Satellite Remote Sensing, Unpublished B.Sc. (Hons.) Dissertation, May 2000, Department of Biology, University of Malta
Submission Details: Thesis Abstract submitted by Neville Micallef from Malta on 18-Sep-2003 08:45.
Abstract has been viewed 3288 times (since 7 Mar 2010).
Neville Micallef Contact Details: Email: info@nmgroup.biz
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