Assessment of Lahijan Urban Spatial Structure Dynamics using Landscape Ecological Concepts and Metrics

Landscape is continuously changing due to natural and human impacts. These changes in cities are faster than other landscapes due to human interference. Urban expansion or sprawl is taking place spatially and makes environmental changes more quickly. The main purpose of this study is to determine the spatio-temporal changes of Lahijan urban landscape. To this end, we used satellite imagery to detect the changes and trends of dynamics monitoring of the changes and trends have been occurred using the remote sensing methods and also the landscape ecological approaches and metrics. The concepts of it are applies to measure time-space variability of land quantitatively supporting pace toward sustainability. The metrics are such as Class area, Number of Patches, Total Edge,… They were calculated in two levels of the class and landscape. The matrix of this region was agricultural area, but the urban built-up is increasing and Largest Patch Index of region is urban built-up patch. Urban built-up patch area, Number of urban built-up Patches and Total Edge is increasing. The complexity and fractal dimension of green cover is decreasing, the complexity of built-up and agricultural land area are increasing. Metrics in landscape level are showing that total landscape area is becoming more and more banal and simple, and the diversity of the city patches is decreasing. The results are showing that these modifications reflect the movement of land towards urbanization, which suggest we need strategic planning for sustainability using mechanisms that utilize ecosystems and landscapes based on suitability and carrying capacity